Over stride in runners occurs when the foot (usually heel) strikes the ground a reasonable distance away from the body’s centre of gravity, increasing leverage between ground force and the centre of the body. 

Common observations made when a runner is over striding are heel strike away from the body with increased upward flexion of the ankle and landing with a straighter knee. These positions if repeated can cause anterior shin or knee and foot pain and increased strain on the hamstring tendon attachments at hip or knee. 

 

Over the last few years there has been quite a lot of debate about running styles or whether we should run with a shoe that provides maximal or minimal support to prevent running injury. Although characteristic of running style or running shoe may have some influence on injury the majority of non-traumatic running injuries that I see in clinic are predominantly due to excessive increases of running load (run distance/time) or a lack of consistency of running load. 

Examples of these presentations could be a client who is training for a marathon and has got behind with their training programme, then suddenly increases their weekly mileage; or a regular 3-4 day a week runner not training for 2-3 weeks and then returning to their previous running schedule. 

When stride width is narrow the foot lands more centrally to the hip joint which increases the forces required for the hip muscles to control movement of the pelvis and lower leg. Increasing stretching forces of tissue on the outside of the leg and compressive forces on the inside of a leg. Some of the common problems we see in clinic if the soft tissue of the body is unable to cope with the forces associated with narrow stride width are lateral thigh/knee pain, ITB syndrome or medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints).