Measure Your Run With RunEasi | Future of Fitness | Men’s Health Muscle
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00:00 I was dealing with a hamstring injury
00:02 after a lot of running last year, training for the marathon.
00:06 And I feel better now, but that's wild
00:10 that a device that has no context can pick that up
00:14 through, I think I ran for what, like five minutes?
00:18 - Five minutes, yeah.
00:18 - That's pretty cool.
00:20 (upbeat music)
00:22 Hey guys, men's health fitness editor, Brett Williams here,
00:28 and I am ready to get back into running.
00:31 I ran a marathon last year and wound up with an injury
00:34 that I had to rehab for quite a long time afterwards.
00:37 I feel like I'm back at a hundred percent,
00:39 but I'm not exactly sure if I'm ready
00:42 to ramp the mileage back up.
00:44 So I'm gonna connect with our friends at Bespoke Treatments
00:48 to see if they have any tools that can give me the data
00:51 that I need to know that I'm able to perform
00:53 at peak running performance.
00:55 Hey Dan.
00:57 - Hey man, how are you doing?
00:58 - I'm good, thanks for seeing me.
01:00 I have been starting to run after taking some time off.
01:04 I am not exactly sure how I'm feeling
01:07 when I'm out on the road.
01:09 So I just was wondering if you have anything,
01:12 any tools that we could use to get a gauge of my movement
01:17 and maybe find out if there's anything that I need to do
01:20 to improve how I'm feeling while I'm running.
01:22 - Yes, so we do.
01:23 We have something new and it's great.
01:25 It's called Run Easy AI.
01:27 It's a 3D gait analysis that literally fits
01:30 in your palm of your hand.
01:31 The really cool thing about Run Easy AI
01:33 that's different from other gait analysis
01:35 is it measures impact and how your body responds
01:38 to that shock.
01:39 It uses three different parameters,
01:40 which is dynamic stability, symmetry, and impact loading.
01:44 It's gonna put these three together
01:46 and then create a program for you
01:48 or give recommendations on what you should be working on.
01:51 We're gonna basically put this on your lower back,
01:53 on your sacrum, wrap it around, go for a run,
01:55 and then we're gonna measure how your body responds
01:58 to that impact of running.
01:59 - Am I gonna have to get on a treadmill
02:00 because I'm not a huge fan?
02:02 - You can use this on a treadmill
02:04 or you can do a remote session and we could go run outside.
02:07 - Great, I like that.
02:09 Let's go do it.
02:09 - Oh, hell yeah, man.
02:11 There's no prescribed program for Run Easy.
02:14 So just put on the belt, go for your normal run,
02:16 and let Run Easy gather the data it needs
02:19 to help you improve as a runner.
02:20 Dynamic stability measures the side-to-side wobble
02:23 of your hips and provides insight
02:25 into your ability to stabilize your hips while running.
02:28 A poor score can indicate poor hip control,
02:31 which increases the work of your stabilizing muscles.
02:34 This could reduce your running efficiency,
02:36 which is how much energy you consume with each step,
02:39 and increase your risk of overuse injuries.
02:42 Symmetry measures how much difference there is
02:44 between right and left.
02:46 Poor symmetry can be the cause of injury
02:49 and plays a role in running efficiency as well.
02:51 The third parameter is impact loading.
02:56 Impact loading refers to how much
02:58 we load our body while running.
03:00 Impact loading is strongly determined by the capacity
03:03 of the lower limb muscles and how they work together
03:05 to absorb the impact of running.
03:07 Run Easy also gives us data on running cadence,
03:11 which is your strides per minute,
03:13 and ground contact time.
03:15 Ground contact time is the time spent
03:17 while the foot is in contact with the ground,
03:19 from foot strike to stance to toe off
03:23 for each stride while running.
03:24 - All right, here we go.
03:32 Sorry, a little sweaty.
03:33 I felt like I was moving pretty well,
03:36 but you have some numbers there
03:37 that might tell you otherwise,
03:39 but I'm interested to see what Run Easy found for me.
03:43 - Let's check it out.
03:44 So let's go through it a little bit.
03:45 First off, you ran very well.
03:48 - Good.
03:48 - So your dynamic stability, symmetry,
03:50 and impact loading were all great.
03:52 Score is 77%, which is in the green,
03:54 and that's really, really well.
03:56 Okay, so your dynamic stability,
03:58 20.7 on the left, 20.6 on the right.
04:00 There's a little wobble in your hips,
04:01 but you're even side to side, which is great.
04:03 Your impact magnitude, more on your right,
04:05 about 1.6% on the right.
04:08 It's okay, so you're putting a little more
04:09 shock absorbing through that side.
04:11 Your impact duration, same thing, great.
04:14 66 milliseconds to 68 milliseconds.
04:16 That's a 1.5% difference.
04:19 So overall, you're very symmetrical side to side.
04:22 Let's look at your ground contact.
04:24 You spent a little more time on your left side,
04:26 basically four milliseconds more.
04:28 Small, but let's see what else we can find.
04:31 Your cadence was 165, so you're great.
04:33 You're in that 160 to 180.
04:35 If your cadence drops,
04:37 that could be a result of over-striding.
04:39 So the next time we test or throughout your testing,
04:41 if you ever see it drop,
04:42 it could mean you're over-striding.
04:43 Keep that in mind, but right now, great, you're doing great.
04:46 Your flight ratio is almost 40%,
04:48 so you're basically a gazelle.
04:50 So you're doing a great job, man.
04:51 - I try to run as fast as I can, you know?
04:54 - You know, you're doing a great job.
04:55 So let's look a little more at the recommendations
04:57 that Runeasy gives us.
04:59 If you look at the recommendations of Runeasy,
05:01 they detected that there's a higher impact
05:03 on your right leg.
05:04 To support your aerial running style,
05:06 we recommend working on your left versus right,
05:09 strength and balance in your calves, hamstrings, and glutes,
05:13 which are dominant shock-absorbing muscles.
05:15 This outcome can be a protective mechanism
05:18 when injured on your left leg.
05:20 - Which we knew.
05:21 I was dealing with a hamstring injury
05:24 after a lot of running last year, training for the marathon,
05:27 and I feel better now,
05:29 but that's wild that a device that has no context
05:34 can pick that up through,
05:37 I think I ran for what, like five minutes?
05:39 - Five minutes, yeah.
05:40 - That's pretty cool.
05:41 - I love it.
05:42 - So now we have to act on this information, right?
05:44 So because of your history and what this is showing us,
05:48 we should start working on shock-absorbing exercises, right?
05:52 So your body has to understand how to absorb shock better
05:54 to help improve this
05:55 and make you more efficient as a runner, right?
05:57 So you're not wasting energy on other things.
05:59 So the better your running efficiency,
06:01 the more you're using energy correctly,
06:04 and the more efficient and better of a runner you're becoming.
06:06 Let's start working with maybe three exercises
06:09 to add into your routine that are shock-absorbing exercises
06:12 to help build this up on your left side
06:14 so that the next time you test,
06:15 hopefully you're even more symmetrical side to side
06:18 and you're running better.
06:19 - This is just something I would do in the weight room?
06:21 - Yeah, these are three exercises
06:22 that I want you just to start adding into your routine,
06:25 maybe three times a week.
06:26 I want to start and then progress you up.
06:28 So the first exercise that I would recommend for you
06:32 is a squat drop.
06:33 Okay, I think you've performed these before in the past.
06:36 - Yeah.
06:37 - Okay? - Yeah.
06:38 - Squat drops would be a great exercise to start with.
06:41 And then we'll progress that to a little more.
06:44 We'll go into step-offs, like stepping off a box
06:47 and absorbing the shock as we go down.
06:49 And then we'll add one that has shock-absorbing
06:53 and a little more elasticity,
06:55 such as a rear foot elevated split squat jump.
06:57 Really focusing with the step-off as a soft, soft landing
07:02 so your body's understanding that ability
07:04 to absorb that shock as you land.
07:06 Hence, when you're running,
07:07 you're just landing over and over again on the single leg.
07:09 - Gotcha.
07:10 (upbeat music)
07:13 Okay, so we have the data, we have the plan.
07:17 All I have to do is put it into action
07:20 and get my running to as high of a level as it can be.
07:24 - Absolutely, let's execute this, man.
07:25 - Awesome.
07:26 - Absolutely, brother.
07:27 (bell dings)
07:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]