A step forward in running-related injuries: Risk factors, kinematics and gait retraining

Running-related injuries (RRIs) frequently occur among all types of running/runners. Identifying risk factors for RRIs is one of the most important steps toward prevention and treatment of these injuries. Known RRIs factors include previous injuries, training-related and biomechanical factors. Besides, we showed that mental aspects (obsessive passion and motivation) and sleep quality are associated factors with RRIs. Atypical rearfoot eversion is one of the important kinematic risk factors for RRIs. Prominent interventions for atypical rearfoot eversion include foot orthoses, footwear, and taping, yet a running gait retraining is lacking. Previous studies reported that gait retraining is a promising intervention for modifying biomechanical risk factors. Two running gait retraining protocols to modify rearfoot eversion were investigated in this thesis including gait retraining by changing foot progression angle and by changing mediolateral center of pressure while running. Especially, toe-in running (as much as 5°) reduces, peak rearfoot eversion as much as 2°; toe-out running induces the opposite results. Changing mediolateral center of pressure laterally (as much as 6mm) reduces, peak rearfoot eversion as much as 3° and a medial shift results in the opposite. These results might serve as a basis to help clinicians and researchers prescribe gait modifications for runners with atypical rearfoot eversion.