After observing 70 high school runners try to run through the heat the day after a 3 mile race, I began to develop a theory about why some runners may rock back and forth when they run. This is all early on in the theorizing process, but I think it may have some validity, or none at all. Either way, let's explore it.
First, what is this "rocking" I'm talking about? It's a lateral (side-to-side) bouncing back and forth with each step. i.e. when a runner strikes her left foot, she leans left then seems to hop to the right when her right foot strikes. It looks a bit like a metronome when you observe the runner from behind or in front.
Why is this bad? It's a very inefficient way to run. The goal of running is to move forward, quickly. Adding side-to-side movement is throwing your weight in the wrong direction. To simplify it, if you throw your weight to the right when you're running, you have to activate core muscles on the left side to maintain balance. Over time this is just more muscular activation that is using energy that could be used for any number of processes taking place in your body while you run.
So, here's my thought. Side-to-side swaying during running can come from a couple different causes, possibly.
My first reaction is weak/fatigued core musculature. If you have a weakness in your oblique or transverse muscles in your core, you may have a tendency to sway, because you are not able to control your body as your momentum takes you to one side or the other. It's like your spine is not being supported and is swaying back and forth as rotational forces pull it from one side to the other.
Then I started thinking about why I was observing it after a race, especially in the younger runners. One reason, is likely to be a result of core fatigue, but I don't think that is the main culprit. Post-race, runners will often be fatigued in the deep hip flexor muscles, and could even be suffering from some lingering inflammation from the assault on their body that occured during the race. Often, inflammation occurs during races because the mind is pushing the body further than it usually goes, resulting in some mechanical compromises toward the end of the race. In younger runners, this makes a lot of sense because they are not used to running in that state of fatigue.
So if the musculature around the ball-and-socket joint of the hip is inflamed, the range of motion may be severely limited. It may even come from muscle soreness and the inability to properly lift the leg. Anyhow, if this is the case, the hip flexors are not going to lift the leg in the usual motor pattern. Because of this new motor pattern, the need to run (because the coaches said you must), and the lack of experience to see that this can have negative effects, a new motor pattern is occuring. This new motor pattern allows the hip flexors to rest a little by activating the rectus abdominus, and the obliques in an effort to lift the pelvis and tilt it from side-to-side to get the foot high enough to avoid scraping the ground, and to put it in a place to then activate the transverse abdominus to create a rotational force to throw the foot forward to the next step. All of this would limit the motion of the hip flexors, allowing them to rest, while still accomplishing the necessary task of running.
Naturally, this is something we don't want to see happen, as this motor pattern can result in injury fairly quickly. So over the next 2-3 days we'll discuss what injuries can occur from this motor patterning and how you can keep from needing to use alternative methods of movement when running fatigued, and lastly, we'll weigh the pros and cons of running fatigued.
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