Trendelenburg Gait and Running Injuries

I run and my knees hurt, and I read to find solutions.

Whilst reading I found the (hyperlinked) article below from September 2018 which puts (almost all) the blame for a lot of running injuries on an abnormal running gait called Trendelenburg Gait.

“Is There a Pathological Gait Associated With Common Soft Tissue Running Injuries?” [Am J Sports Med. 2018 Oct;46(12):3023-3031 - Bramah C, Preece SJ, Gill N, Herrington L.]

The authors of the aforesaid article studied the gait of 72 inured runners, (i) 18 of whom had patellofemoral pain, (ii) 18 of whom had iliotibial band syndrome, (iii) 18 of whom had medial tibial stress syndrome, and (iv) 18 of whom had Achilles tendinopathy.

The injured runners’ gaits were compared with 36 healthy runners. It was found that contralateral pelvic drop (CPD) during running is strongly associated with common running-related injuries. 

CPD in simple terms is the see-sawing of the pelvis while running i.e. the pelvis is not horizontal, and the reason appears to be weak gluteal function and weak core. The weak glutes and weak core are unable to maintain a horizontal pelvis and hence the drop happens on alternate sides whilst running.

Weak Ass + Weak Core = Pelvic Drop Whilst Running = Likelihood of Injury

The researchers found that for every one (1) degree increase in pelvic drop, there was an eighty percent (80%) increase in the odds of being classified as injured.

Time to exercise that ass and core.

- - Aman Yadav