This post was produced in collaboration with Recover Athletics, a Boston-based running injury prevention product, and originally appeared on their blog. Learn more about the cool stuff they do here.
The capacity for human beings to create types of movement is damn-near infinite.
Not all movement is...good movement.
Similar to many different Christopher Nolan movies regarding time travel, many different motions exist as permutations of only a few rudimentary concepts. Dissimilar to many different Christopher Nolan movies regarding time travel, I’m actually able to explain THESE concepts and how they fit together as a comprehensible whole.
Real talk me and 9 other people LOVED this movie. If you’re one of the 9, let’s hang out.
In the lower body, the concepts of “squat” and “hinge” run the show, and these have obvious biomechanical correlates to the thing we all care about; locomoting as fast and far as humanly possible without pain.
Understanding the Squat
A squat “pattern” is how humans displace their centers of mass VERTICALLY, producing vertical motion/forces. A squat is up and down. As such, there are biomechanical key performance indicators (KPIs) we can observe in a good squat. Namely, the shin translates forward over the foot (shin angle) AND the pelvis exhibits a posterior rotation. If both of these things don’t happen, you ain’t squatting.
How Will This Help My Running?
To make an incredibly complex topic far too simple, let’s divide the act of running into “swing phase” and “stance phase”.
As we care far more about what the leg in contact with the ground is doing when running, let’s further subdivide “stance phase” into “early stance” and “late stance”.
In order to be cruisin’ like Nick Symmonds during a beer mile world record, we need proficiency in both early stance positions AND late stance positions. And what might those KPIs of proficiency be? You guessed it- shin angle and pelvic rotation.
In EARLY stance, we see a more vertical shin angle and a more posteriorly rotated pelvis (on that side pelvis, learn more about how each side of your pelvis operates here). In LATE stance, we see a more progressed shin angle and a forwardly rotated pelvis.
But wait, Tim, didn’t you JUST say a good squat will have a positive shin angle and a posteriorly rotated pelvis? Indeed, I did kind reader! A gold star for you!!
While proficiency in squatting does not guarantee ideal running mechanics, it’s a reasonable place to start. The number of runners I work with, both in-person and remotely, who are incapable of sending their shin bone over their foot while keeping even pressure through their heel, base of the big toe, and base of the little toe, is alarmingly high. Likewise for the amount of athletes I work with incapable of achieving a posterior pelvis rotation and reversing lumbar lordosis. Good things happen to their running when they improve these qualities.
Re-exposing your body to this fundamental pattern (the squat) may serve to “unlock” these joint positions during running. “Un-locked” joints means freer motion with increased stride length AND deceased focal tissue loading with lower likelihood of injury.
But what about a pattern that biases a vertical shin and anteriorly rotated pelvis? Enter our new friend, the hinge.
Understanding the Hinge
If you’ve ever performed a deadlift, an RDL, or a single leg RDL, you’ve performed a member of the “hinge” family. A hinge is the antithesis to the squat, in many ways. A hinge is how humans translate their COM forwards/backwards, producing horizontal motion.
Hinge KPIs include a more vertical tibia (like early stance) and a more anteriorly rotated pelvis (like late stance).
Noticing a pattern?
Squat Hinge
Vertical Shin (early) X
Angled Shin (late) X
Posteriorly Rotated Pelvis (early) X
Anteriorly Rotated Pelvis (late) X
If we get alarmingly competent at both squatting and hinging, our bodies have the potential to experience aspects of both early and late stance. Proficiency (movement quality, not raw strength) in squatting and hinging means that your body has the opportunity to exhibit low AND high shin angles as well as posterior AND anterior pelvic rotation.
For my favorite places to start in training the squat and the hinge, check out the videos below.
For more variations on the squat and the hinge, or for access to hundreds of running-specific strength exercises, check out the Recover Athletics App.