Thursday, June 23, 2011

Beginners Running Mistakes you Could Easily Avoid

When you start out running, you're probably quite passionate about it. And that's a great way to involve yourself in any kind of exercise. As passionate as you are though about running, there are quite a few beginners running mistakes that it could be possible for you to fall prey to. Unless you have a coach with the camcorder recording your every move (as they do for serious athletes), it can be impossible for you to actually find out what exactly you are doing wrong with your posture. You could have a dull cramp around your hamstrings, the backs of your knees could feel sensitive, you could have an unexplained kind of back pain - all of these and more could come from a poor running posture and gait. And even if you don't suffer from any of these kinds of injury, the wrong gait and posture can easily route the of performance that could be yours if you could only find out how to correct that.

One way that we have of catching a beginners running mistake or two would be t osign up for a session at a running clinic. This is where experts in running formThey, give you a musculoskeletal exam to see if there is anything about your muscle or bone structure that could throw you off balance. They then put you on a treadmill to study you from every possible angle. Physiotherapists these days actually recommend that every runner sign up for one of these sessions for a little advice on what they could be doing wrong. So what are the kinds of things that these runners do wrong in general?

To begin with, most people have, what is known is an asymmetrical gait. What this means is, that they tend to work one side of the body harder than the other - launching harder off one foot and landing harder on one. The way these clinics evaluate  this kind of asymmetry is usually to listen to the runners footfalls. Once they discover this, explain to the runner how this can eventually lead to pain. And they try to help him concentrate and correct the unevenness.

Most people have their own ideas to do with what part of your foot you're supposed to launch or land on. Some people just happen to be forefoot runners; others happen to be rear-foot runners. Being told to do something that isn't natural to you can throw you completely off balance. It happens a lot to children in in school when some know-all athlete or instructor tells them that they're doing it all wrong. One does use the gait that is natural to one, Forefoot or the rear foot, it is possible to make a few mistakes in the angle one uses. A physical therapist can help one regain the right kind of gait.

A classic beginners running mistake happens to center on the kind of shoes one uses. Lots of people for instance have arches that don't rise as much as they should. It can be quite difficult to find shoes that exactly match the kind of arches you have. If you actually have any pain, getting custom fitted shoes may be the only option you have.

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