Taking into account the biomechanical features of the musculoskeletal system is important for correct foot placement when running. Following the recommendations will help reduce injury to the ankle joint, ligaments, tendons and muscles.
How to run correctly
Fulfillment of conditions running efficiently will allow you to get the maximum benefit from physical activity.
Beginners who decide to take up jogging will need to try out different techniques. You need to choose a method that is comfortable and convenient; the individual characteristics of the structure of the foot must be taken into account. A successful way of conducting classes is one that does not cause pain or muscle spasms during movements.
Running technique
- feet;
- torso;
- heads.
When choosing the method of placing the foot, the individual characteristics of the body are taken into account and are guided by the sensations that arise during the training process.
Step length
If your foot moves too far forward when running, you may lose balance and fall. This situation is especially dangerous for older people: the result is a broken limb.
A step that is too short is ineffective: such running causes rapid fatigue. The optimal length is when the center of gravity of the body completely coincides with the point of contact of the foot with the ground.
Correct positioning of the body and head
While running, it is necessary to ensure that the body does not bend in the lower back and there is no squatting. Similar mistakes occur in overweight teenagers and older people.
Keep the head straight, avoiding flexion and extension in cervical spine spine.
While running, you should not swing your body to the sides. Most often, movements are caused by incorrect positioning of the limbs. You need to ensure that your feet are parallel.
Foot placement
Those who study expert advice when choosing a running technique will need to try out all the methods and settle on the one that suits them. The guideline is the feeling of comfort.
Appearance muscle spasms, pain in the ankles and knee joints, varicose veins veins of the lower extremities indicates the use of an inappropriate method of jogging.
Standing on your toes
Landing on the forefoot provides an opportunity to develop high speed. The technology has a number of serious advantages:
- the lower leg muscles are not tense, and the leg stays in the air longer;
- when landing on your toes ankle joint is not injured, the load on it is minimal.
This technique is optimal if you need to run on short distances at a fast pace.
Professional runners use the technique to achieve high performance, but it gives results with developed calf muscles. In other cases, it will not be possible to avoid muscle-tonic disorders in the lower leg area.
For those starting to practice running loads, it is preferable to focus on other methods of placing the foot. People will turn to technology after long training sessions.
Heel-to-toe roll
This method of conducting classes is suitable for beginner runners. However, they will need to ensure that the heel-to-toe transition is smooth. It is recommended to avoid sudden jerking movements while running due to the high risk of rapid wear of the ankle and knee joints.
Heel-strike running is the most natural for humans, it resembles walking and is suitable for long distances.
Rolling from toe to heel
The technique involves placing the foot first on the toe, and then smoothly moving the foot to the heel. Using the technique makes it possible to save the runner’s energy and cover significant distances.
The runner must ensure that the front of the foot does not hit the ground. This leads to tension and spasms in the muscles of the arch of the foot. You will need to raise your hip higher than usual while running. It is physiological to place your leg under yourself, which greatly facilitates the work of the joints.
Midfoot running
When landing on this area of the foot, the load on the muscles and ligaments is evenly distributed, causing a concussion internal organs and the spine is minimal. This running method is suitable for beginners and is something between landing on your toes and landing on your heels.
Causes of possible foot pain after and during running
Appears after training or directly during running discomfort in the leg requires mandatory clarification of their cause. If measures are not taken in time, serious complications are possible. A visit to the doctor should not be postponed if the leg is swollen and red. The symptom indicates the development of:
- injuries (fracture or crack) of the tibia or fibula;
- ankle arthritis;
- exacerbation of heel spurs;
- foot sprains.
Elderly people with osteoporosis suffer traumatic injury from light loads on the musculoskeletal system while jogging.
Less serious causes of leg pain include:
- the appearance of calluses and abrasions on the foot;
- muscle soreness.
To eliminate pain, it is often enough to purchase comfortable shoes designed for running. Jogging on a hard surface (asphalt) often leads to injury to the joints and causes an exacerbation of venous diseases. It is physiological to run on a special stadium surface, grass, sand.
Jogging is contraindicated for people diagnosed with flat feet.
If no pathology is identified, but the pain continues to bother you, you will need to adjust your running technique. Ignoring an unpleasant symptom will lead to the fact that jogging, instead of the expected benefit, will cause harm and provoke illness. When placing your leg, you need to choose a method that suits your individual characteristics. anatomical structure lower limb. It is important to adjust the correct running pace and increase the load gradually.
Now that you know more about the structure of your feet and the effect of shoes on your gait, you can judge your behavior more objectively. own body. Don't worry, you're not the only one who gets goosebumps at the thought of exposing your legs! I'm going to take you step by step through the structure of the foot. Illustrations and exercises will help you assess your current position and restore health to your legs.
How the condition of the feet affects the correct gait
We often forget that appearance our feet - whether lumps or bumps, calluses or dryness, bone spurs, nerve inflammation and even fractures - are the result of our own actions. Genetics undoubtedly plays a role, as different bone lengths and certain skin qualities increase the risk of specific diseases. However, most genetic factors do not themselves cause disease. Genes are simply a quality of human tissue that, when combined with certain habits and environmental conditions, can lead to chronic pain or injury. Of course, you can't influence genetics, but that doesn't stop you from taking care of your health! And acquiring good habits is the best affordable way keep it for many years.
If you already have any problems, don't despair: the current condition of your feet is influenced by habits that are easy to identify and change. The two most noticeable contributors to foot tissue structure are poor shoe choice and gait.
Choosing the right shoes is not difficult, and even this simple action can radically change the situation. When it comes to your gait, you'll have to work hard to make permanent changes by paying a little more attention to your body and exercising regularly.
We walk a lot, but few people pay attention to how this happens. But gait has the same effect on your body as the correct structure of a wheel on a car. And your feet are the most obvious indicator of where your “wheels” have been and how many kilometers they have traveled!
Factors influencing correct gait
Your gait (or walking pattern) is an incredibly complex system that requires the coordination of your entire body, and it is unique. In this sense, it is very similar to the manner of speech: we often pronounce individual words in the same way as our parents and people from a close circle. As children, we observe and imitate other people. This is why many of us move the same way as our parents. Once your gait is established, the way you walk is influenced by the activities you engage in regularly. Those who train in ballet often stand in the "ballet position" even after they have left the dance hall. Those undergoing military training continue to stand at attention even when no one is watching. Walking with chronic pain or limping after an injury, especially while on crutches, can have a significant impact on your gait (and if you don't notice it, you won't improve it). We may also imitate the walking style of people we admire, or demonstrate our attitude or emotions on a bodily level.
All this affects the positions of our joints (including the joints of the foot!), and eventually a certain body position becomes a habit.
Your gait can be qualitatively measured using a large number of expensive and very complex biomechanical equipment. But you can simply watch how your legs move as you walk. Surprisingly, the position you learn to maintain for balance when you walk remains the same when you stand. It’s easier to analyze a standing position, because it’s quite difficult to walk and evaluate your gait at the same time!
What do your feet do when you walk?
When you take a step, your foot goes through four different positions:
- Heel support - only your heel touches the floor.
- Flat foot - the toe is lowered to the ground, and now the entire surface of the foot touches the floor.
- Heel lift - the heel is raised while the toe remains on the floor.
- Toe Lift - The forefoot and toes finally leave the floor and your foot takes another step!
In order for the foot to progress through all four stages, the lower leg, foot, and toes must have sufficient mobility. Tight calves, stiff ankles and stiff joints make this process difficult, and as a result, some phases can sometimes be skipped or missing altogether! The “senile shuffle” is a gait in which almost all intermediate phases are missed, and walking involves dragging the foot along the ground or minimally lifting it. This not only damages your feet, but also increases the risk of tripping.
Correct gait - position of the feet when walking
To begin, pay attention to the position of your feet when you stand barefoot, in a position that is normal and comfortable for you. First, check the symmetry of the position. Are both of your legs the same or is one of them turned out more than the other?
Would you drive a car with wheels positioned this way?
If some parts or components of the car are loaded more than others, they wear out differently than intended by the manufacturer. Excessive or insufficient stress on the feet can lead to calluses, problems with bones and muscles that are used less or more often than necessary. All this is the cause of diseases, although the root causes are easily corrected.
For our body to function properly, the load must be distributed symmetrically, but we often practice unilateral movements - driving, writing and even sports! We are accustomed to using one side of the body more actively than the other, and this affects muscle development. The muscles, in turn, move the bones and displace them!
Correct gait - symmetrical gait
There are other factors that influence symmetry. For example, an injury may cause us to shift our body weight to the uninjured side. Often, after recovery, a person cannot return to a symmetrical movement pattern. Or, for example, when you were learning to walk, you could imitate someone around you who moves asymmetrically. Regardless of the reasons, identifying symmetry (or lack thereof) is the first step in examining your gait.
Second, look at the direction of your feet. Are they pointing straight ahead (correctly) or pointing away from the center of your body (incorrectly)?
The reason a car's wheels are set straight is because they are supposed to propel the car forward. When the wheels are not aligned, they pull the car forward and sideways at the same time. As a driver, you try to correct the lateral thrust as it interferes with both you and the car. As you force the car to go straight, the tire will wear out prematurely. The same is true for feet that are not pointing straight ahead. When the foot is not set to move straight forward, the muscles in the lower leg that would normally contract cannot do their job, and muscles that have very different responsibilities are now forced to participate in the way you walk.
Right
Wrong
The more your foot turns out, the less correctly it moves through the normal stride cycle and the more it lands on its own. outer part, turning inward. This disrupts the normal heel-toe cycle of forward movement, replacing it with an outer-inner foot cycle. Or, to put it simply, your weight is placed on parts of the mechanism that are not designed to support it for a long time.
When we try to determine which direction our feet are pointing, we often pay attention only to our toes. It seems that if the toes point forward, then so does the rest of the foot, right? In fact, when determining the position of the foot, it is better to look at the outer side of the foot, and not at the toes or curved inner side.
Using the straight edge of a carpet or yoga mat, check how much the outer edge of the foot deviates from the edge. Try moving the outside of your foot until it is even with the edge of the carpet. How does this make you feel? Strange? Strange is normal, and most likely even good for the foot.
By the way, what should your fingers look like? You can check the symmetry of individual bones by comparing them on your left and right feet.
The fingers, although quite small parts of the mechanism, have the ability to make many interesting movements. They can move left and right. They can lift off the floor and bury themselves in the sand, twisting and turning, especially if your gait is less than ideal.
Turning the feet with the correct gait
Many experts would argue that there is a natural rotation of the foot. This data is obtained by measuring and identifying the most common foot positions in a large number of people. It is true that if you look at the data this way, everyone's feet are slightly turned out. This, however, does not prove that natural reversal exists, but simply indicates that most of us have it.
If you turn to the cultural traditions of Western European peoples, you will see two common trends - military training and ballet. For both, the “heels together, toes turned” posture is extremely important, and this is unnatural. And yet, over time, this posture began to be perceived as normal. You must remember that "normal", "common" and "ordinary" are not the same as "natural". Having studied the structure of fingers, feet, joints and internal and external muscles lower leg, you will understand that for the functioning of all tissues, the best position for the foot and ankle is symmetrically straight.
Even if the data was collected scientific methods, the conclusions drawn are not necessarily correct. Think about the statistics of today's generation - weight, level physical training, hamstring flexibility...
Physical condition, the slowly changing position of the skeleton - all this is a direct result of our habits. I, for one, would never want future textbooks to talk about obesity as a “natural” or “normal” condition!
After walking for a long time with your feet turned out, placing them straight can give you the impression that you have started to clubfoot. This is because you have turned your feet inward. Not too much (you can check the outer edge again), but probably much more than ever. And now that your feet are pointing straight, your toes may be curling toward the center of your body. This is also normal. They've been like this for a while, you just never noticed it.
If you walk with your feet turned out, your toes are positioned to remain pointing forward despite your foot turning out. If you train your finger muscles, you can improve muscle tone, and also influence the position.
Toes that lack healthy musculature become misaligned due to the way you use your foot. Without is good developed muscles, which keep them stable, the fingers can end up anywhere, creating a kind of traffic jam. When one of the fingers moves too far, it ends up literally on top of the other. Joint instability is usually blamed for this, but do not forget what is primarily responsible for it muscular system. Stop caring about internal muscles stop, and the fingers will move!
It's also a good idea to examine your feet for enlarged knuckles. Similar problems can occur in those fingers that lie on top of others and can rub against inner part shoes, creating redness, calluses and eventually corns.
Exercise for the correct gait: become a photo detective
The foundations of gait and posture were laid in childhood, when we learned to move by imitating those around us. The condition of your body is the result of how you have used it. You don't have to take my word for it - you have the photos! Find a childhood photo that clearly shows your feet. What did they look like? Use your new knowledge of foot symmetry and position to trace the history of your feet. Here's an example of my own collection:
I've been here for about a year. Look at the position of my feet - they are straight.
In all the photographs where I am three or four years old, you can see that right leg began to unfold.
I maintained this standing (and walking) position for many years.
This photo is of me and my mom, and you may notice that someone else in my family has the same habit.
Do the same investigation to find the causes of your problem.
Key Points correct gait
- Genetic factors play a role, but the real reason For many chronic pain conditions, it's how you treat your body.
- The two most easily changed habits are shoe choice and gait.
- Our gait is the result of observing other people who served as examples when we learned to walk. She is also influenced by dancing, sports, military training and style.
- There is special equipment for studying gait, but all you need to do is stand in front of the mirror to discover your problems and correct the situation completely free of charge!
From how much you have good posture and the way you move depends on the impression you make on others. The exercises described in this article will help you learn to walk correctly.
Good posture
Posture and etiquette are interconnected, since you will be judged by
The ability to present oneself in society includes the absence of a stoop, straightened shoulders, straight legs and slightly toned stomach. You don't have to be a stunning beauty to develop these skills and impress people.
You can be considered a well-mannered person without good posture - this works with people who know you well. And your fit figure with squared shoulders and a straight back is an indicator of self-confidence, relative success and your in a healthy way life.
Check your posture using these points:
- You keep your back straight and relaxed. At the same time, your appearance does not give the impression that you swallowed a stake.
- Your shoulders are straightened.
- Your head is neither pushed forward nor tilted back. It is as if it is a continuation of the straight line of the spine. You don't pull your head into your shoulders like a turtle. Your neck is straight and your chin is slightly raised.
- Your stomach is slightly tucked. But at the same time, you don’t strain him on purpose.
- You stand on straight legs, but they are not straightened excessively.
How to walk correctly and beautifully
Every girl dreams of learning to walk correctly. The same knowledge is necessary.
The usual “everyday” way of walking differs from the beautiful gait of fashion models who have been developing their skills for many years.
Just learn a few rules:
- Be mindful of your posture while walking.
- Try to keep your feet approximately hip-width apart. Having your legs too wide apart when walking will make you walk like a duck - waddling. It’s also not a good idea to place your feet too narrowly - this position is unstable, and the steps will turn out to be small, mincing, which also doesn’t look beautiful.
- Let your body sway slightly in time with your steps.
- Don't swing your arms too much. The bend in the elbows should be subtle. The arms are slightly pressed to the body. The fingers are relaxed and almost straight.
- When walking, the feet lift off the asphalt surface and do not shuffle or drag.
- When taking a step, we first step on the heel and smoothly transfer the center of gravity to the toe.
- To avoid clubfoot, try to place your feet parallel to each other while walking, or point your toes slightly outward.
- When walking, men's legs are placed in two lines - this is very noticeable in the snow in winter. A woman's gait looks beautiful if her legs walk in one line. You can practice at home - lay out or draw a straight line along which you will walk, and place a thick book on your head.
- Women are not comfortable with too wide strides. Optimal length: 60 cm.
- Women's hips should not sway when walking!
Even half of these will help you develop a beautiful gait.
Today we will tell you how to learn to walk beautifully and you will learn what a light female gait is.
Heels of women's shoes, despite all their beauty female gait, bring women's legs certain discomfort.
There are many women who already have problems, for example, transverse or longitudinal flat feet, swelling and more.
For these women, wearing heels is a difficult ordeal and torture, the consequences of which can last from several hours to several days. It is for such representatives of the fair sex that the following series of restorative procedures and exercises have been developed (the developments are based on our own trial and error).
Add a tablespoon of sea salt to a bowl of warm water and soak your feet for about twenty minutes. A contrast shower for feet works effectively when alternating warm and cool water occurs. About five minutes are enough to restore blood circulation and relieve fatigue. It will be useful to include in your diet foods that are rich in proteins, vitamin E, and calcium. It is these beneficial substances that help the body recover faster.
For swelling of the legs, ice, which is applied to the limbs for fifteen minutes, will be an excellent help. Next, you should perform an exercise, that is, raise your legs above your head, you can do this by leaning on the wall. When sleeping, try to keep your feet higher than your head. A special roller is used for this. And most importantly, on those days when you have planned large number walking, avoid wearing heels.
How to learn to walk beautifully
Take a closer look at how the people around you walk - friends, acquaintances or just ordinary passers-by on the street: they mince, shuffle their feet, clubbing, marching, waving their arms in time with their own movements, vulgarly swaying their hips. We do not have the opportunity at any time to see ourselves from the outside and realize in what form we appear to others. Especially when it comes to your own gait.
That's why most of us don't even think about it. Walking can tell a lot about a person. For example, she will tell you whether he is in love or lonely, sad, irritated or calm, happy or not, full of strength and energy or sad and tired. Our gait, like a mirror, reflects our mood, attitude towards ourselves, temperament and even social status.
Features of a woman's gait
A person in love has a light and airy gait. It’s not for nothing that they say that lovers grow wings behind their backs. If a person is in a bad mood, gloomy and anxious, he lowers his head, slouches and shuffles his feet. The relaxed gait of a cat, the gait of a panther ready to jump, does not go unnoticed. A girl with elegant grace and beautiful movements always stands out in a crowd, and a young man with an energetic, confident gait will always attract attention.
The gait can be fast, light, flying, mincing, majestic, heavy, with wide and short strides, with a straight or swaying body, with wide or short swinging of the arms. A person may have a clubfooted, galloping gait, steps on toes, knees bent in motion, moving forward without leaving the floor.
Gait also depends on clothing and shoes. Putting on sports suit paired with sneakers or an elegant evening dress with high heels, you will feel completely different. Don’t forget that your gait should change and match your outfit, image and situation.
Often, the runway step of fashion models is taken as the standard of a beautiful gait. This is a misconception. In ordinary life, such a gait will look ridiculous and pretentious. For a woman, gait is also an instrument of charm and seduction. What can attract a man’s gaze to a woman passing by if he did not have time to really see either her face or her outfit?
Beautiful woman's gait
Of course, a beautiful gait that makes you follow a random person you meet for a long time with your eyes. Beautiful gait does not depend on the slimness of the figure. Even if you look amazing, the awkward way you walk and carry yourself will ruin your overall impression. And, on the contrary, thanks to the ability to carry yourself elegantly, you will attract the attention of surrounding men, despite the existing flaws in your figure.
Physical education, aerobics, and shaping will improve your figure, but will not give you graceful movements. Rather, on the contrary, the gait may become too sporty, overly energetic, which will not beautify the woman.
Walking is the most basic thing physical exercise which we do every day. But even with such a load, the cells are saturated with oxygen, which first promotes the oxidation of fats and then their breakdown.
At brisk walking or climbing stairs, calorie burning occurs much more intensely. For example, if you walk actively for 2 hours a day, you can additionally lose up to 2000 kilocalories in a week.
However, many factors influence the burning of calories when walking: weight, age, physical fitness, metabolic features, route topography, air temperature, as well as speed, duration and regularity of walks.
〉 On a flat road at a speed of 4 km/h – 3.2 kcal
〉 On a flat road at a speed of 6 km/h – 4.5 kcal
〉 On a flat road at a speed of 8 km/h – 10 kcal
〉 Uphill at a speed of 2 km/h – 6.4 kcal
〉 Walks in nature – 6.4 kcal
〉 Race walking – 6.8 kcal
Walking and heart
Walking has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the heart, primarily because it trains the heart muscle well. It is known that during dynamic walking, working muscles require more oxygen, which leads to faster contractions of the heart muscle. Walking can be an effective therapeutic tool even for some cardiovascular diseases.
However, each person has their own threshold of tolerance to physical activity. For example, with coronary heart disease, the body's reserves are noticeably reduced. Intensive walking is contraindicated in severe angina and in those who have recently suffered a myocardial infarction.
Another contraindication for intensive walking is severe cardiac decompensation (reduced ability of the heart to provide blood supply to the body). All initial manifestations of diseases cardiovascular system are not a contraindication for measured walking.
It is advisable to monitor your load by comparing your heart rate and blood pressure before and after walking. An increase in pressure is permissible within 10-15 mmHg, while the pulse should not increase by more than 20 beats per minute. Moreover, if the indicators do not return to normal after 5 minutes, it means the load was too high.
Walking and joints
According to doctors, health walking It is much healthier for joints than aerobics, as it puts little stress on the joints. Such walking also compares favorably with running due to the almost complete absence of injuries. But despite its simplicity, healthy walking is very effective in preventing diseases such as osteoporosis. In addition, numerous studies have shown that 30 minutes of walking 3-5 times a week is enough to strengthen bone mineral density by 2%.
Nordic walking
More recently, Nordic walking has begun to gain popularity in Russia. Its main advantage lies in the poles: thanks to them, walkers, unlike runners, load almost their entire body. Moreover, walking with poles eases the load on your joints and spine. No less pleasant result regular classes Nordic walking will help relieve joint stiffness, correct posture and improved coordination of movements.Risk of injury in Nordic walking in contrast to running, it is minimal: if when running, the load on the foot is on average three times greater than the body weight, then with Nordic walking this load is reduced by approximately half Well.
