Introduction: Treating the Symptom vs. Fixing the Source
Here’s a pattern that plays out constantly for Calgary runners.
IT band pain. You rest, you foam roll, you stretch your hip flexors. It gets better. You start running again. Six weeks later, it’s back.
Or: Achilles tendinopathy. You see a physio, you do your calf raises, it settles down. Three months into your next training block, it flares again.
The common thread in all of these isn’t bad luck. It’s that the underlying movement pattern that caused the injury was never assessed or corrected. The tissue healed, but the biomechanical problem remained.
This is exactly what a professional running gait analysis at Vital Performance Care in Calgary is designed to address.
Stop treating the symptom. Understand the source. BOOK A RUNNING GAIT ANALYSIS
What Is Gait Analysis?
Gait analysis is the systematic observation and assessment of how you walk or run — specifically, the mechanics of your movement pattern and how those mechanics might be contributing to injury, inefficiency, or both.
In the context of running, gait analysis examines:
- Foot strike pattern (heel striker vs. midfoot vs. forefoot)
- Cadence (steps per minute)
- Vertical oscillation (how much you bounce up and down)
- Hip and knee alignment during ground contact
- Trunk lean and arm carriage
- Pelvic drop or shift during single-leg stance
- Ankle dorsiflexion — the ability to bend your ankle, which affects everything upstream
Done properly, gait analysis isn’t just watching someone run. It’s a clinical skill that combines observational assessment with strength testing, flexibility testing, and an understanding of the runner’s injury history, training load, and goals.
What a Professional Running Assessment Involves
At Vital Performance Care, a running gait analysis is part of a comprehensive assessment – not a standalone observation session or running on the treadmill alone.
- Intake and History Review
Before you run a step, your coach will review your current and past injury history, training volume and recent changes, footwear history, and your running goals. This context is essential – gait doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
- Physical Assessment Off the Treadmill
Some of the things that we might evaluate in more depth, depending on the person, could include:
- Hip strength and control – particularly hip abductors and external rotators, which govern pelvic stability
- Ankle dorsiflexion range – limited ankle mobility is one of the most underappreciated contributors to running injuries
- Single-leg squat mechanics – a reliable proxy for how your lower limb controls load
- Hamstring strength – often an overlooked but important part of runner’s injury potential
- Calf strength – an important measure since the calves take up over half of the load during slow and medium speed running
- Foot and arch assessment – looking at strength, mobility, and control
- Treadmill Running Assessment
You’ll run on a treadmill with video capture at your natural pace, and sometimes at faster and slower speeds. Your trainer will observe from multiple angles (front, side, and behind) and may use slow-motion frame-by-frame analysis and send you the report after the assessment.
- Targeted Feedback and Individualized Plan
Based on findings, your trainer will identify the 1–3 most significant biomechanical faults and give you this feedback in relation to the other metrics captured. Do you display a hip drop and also have a measured strength difference in that side’s supporting hip muscles? Well, that would be an important thing to know! The assessment concludes with a clear plan: what movement patterns need to change, what strength deficits need to be addressed, and how your training should be modified.
Common Biomechanical Faults in Calgary Runners
Contralateral Pelvic Drop (Trendelenburg Pattern)
When the hip drops on the non-stance side during every stride, it places excessive stress on the IT band, the hip, and the knee on the stance side. This is overwhelmingly the most common driver of IT band syndrome and runner’s knee in recreational runners.
What drives it: weak hip abductors (particularly gluteus medius) on the stance leg.
Excessive Heel Strike with Overstriding
Landing with your foot well ahead of your centre of mass creates a braking force with every step — increasing ground reaction forces through the knee and hip, and loading the patellar tendon excessively.
What drives it: slow cadence, trunk lean too far backward, or habitual movement pattern.
Knee Valgus During Ground Contact
Knees collapsing inward during the stance phase is a major contributor to patellofemoral pain (runner’s knee) and IT band syndrome.
What drives it: weak glutes and hip external rotators; sometimes foot overpronation.
Reduced Ankle Dorsiflexion
If the ankle can’t flex adequately during ground contact, the body compensates upstream — often with increased pronation, knee stress, or forward trunk lean. Limited dorsiflexion is connected to plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, and shin splints.
Which Running Injuries Are Linked to Gait?
|
Injury |
Primary Gait Contributor |
|
IT Band Syndrome |
Contralateral pelvic drop, knee valgus |
|
Runner’s Knee (PFPS) |
Overstriding, knee valgus, weak glutes |
|
Plantar Fasciitis |
Limited dorsiflexion, overpronation, high heel-strike load |
|
Achilles Tendinopathy |
Limited dorsiflexion, sudden cadence increase, overstriding |
|
Shin Splints |
Overstriding, overpronation, training load spike |
|
Hip Flexor Pain |
Anterior pelvic tilt, weak glutes, limited hip extension |
If you have any of these conditions and haven’t had your running mechanics assessed, you are likely treating the symptom and leaving the source untouched.
What Happens After a Gait Analysis?
Targeted Strength Work
The most common need identified through gait analysis is hip and glute strength. Specific exercises — single-leg bridges, lateral band walks, single-leg squats, Nordic curls — are prescribed based on the precise deficits found in your assessment, not a generic hip program.
Running Technique Cues
Specific, achievable technique modifications — like increasing cadence by 5–10%, improving arm carriage, or landing with a softer knee bend — can meaningfully change stress patterns during running. These are practised and reinforced over time.
Training Load Management
Many running injuries are fundamentally a load issue: too much, too soon, with insufficient recovery. Your physiotherapist will help you structure your training so that tissue adaptation happens without exceeding capacity.
Follow-Up Assessment
A repeat gait analysis at 6–8 weeks allows us to confirm that the changes are taking hold — and adjust the plan if needed.
Who Should Get a Running Gait Analysis?
- Runners with recurring injuries — the same thing keeps coming back, season after season
- New runners — building good habits and identifying risk factors before injury develops
- Runners returning from injury — confirming that mechanics are appropriate before building load
- Runners preparing for a race — optimizing economy and reducing injury risk during peak training
- Anyone who has increased their training load significantly — a common recipe for injury without proper movement assessment
You don’t need to be an elite runner to benefit from knowing how you move. You just need to care about running sustainably.
Your injury keeps coming back because the cause was never addressed. BOOK WITH OUR TEAM HERE
The Bottom Line
IT band pain, plantar fasciitis, runner’s knee, Achilles issues — these are not bad luck. They are biomechanical signals. Your body is telling you that something in the way you move is exceeding what your tissues can handle.
A professional running gait analysis gives you answers, not just treatment.
At Vital Performance Care in Calgary, our gait assessment team combines clinical movement assessment with real-world running analysis to help you understand why you keep getting injured — and build a plan that actually fixes it.
Calgary has incredible running communities, trails, and year-round runners. You shouldn’t have to be on the sidelines.
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STOP THE CYCLE. START RUNNING WELL. Book a running gait analysis with the Vital Performance Care team in Calgary. → BOOK NOW at vitalperformancecare.com Or call us: (587) 834-2001 | info@vitalperformancecare.com |
References
Dierks, T. A., et al. (2008). Proximal and distal influences on hip and knee kinematics in runners with patellofemoral pain during a prolonged run. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 38(8), 448–456.
Heiderscheit, B. C., et al. (2011). Effects of step rate manipulation on joint mechanics during running. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(2), 296–302.
Noehren, B., Davis, I., & Hamill, J. (2007). Prospective study of the biomechanical factors associated with iliotibial band syndrome. Clinical Biomechanics, 22(9), 951–956.
Powers, C. M. (2010). The influence of abnormal hip mechanics on knee injury: A biomechanical perspective. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 40(2), 42–51.
