The 6 Most Common Running Form Issues We See During a Gait Analysis

Last year at running camp, we (my colleague Elizabeth and I) spent hours watching videos, writing out gait analysis and explaining what we saw to hundreds of middle school and high school runners. By the end of the week, we realized something, not only were we completely exhausted, but we were saying the same things over and over again.

"Lean from your ankle, not your hips"

"Keep your arms from crossing your body. Your elbows should go back"

"Don't reach so far out in front of you."

"You need to work on hip strength."

That's exactly why this year we decided to give one of our lectures on running gait. Rather than repeating the same coaching cues to every athlete, I wanted to explain why these movement patterns occur and what runners can do to improve them.

Although the athletes at camp are younger, many of the same movement patterns show up in the adult runners we evaluate every week at my running clinic, Precision Performance & Physical Therapy. While every runner is different, there are six movement patterns we see more than any others.

1. Arm Swing Crossing the Body:

Excessive crossover often goes hand-in-hand with rounded shoulders, limited thoracic mobility, and poor posture. Improving thoracic spine mobility, stretching the chest muscles, practicing diaphragmatic breathing, and learning to swing the arms forward and backward, not across the body can decreae pinching in the groin, improve forward momentum and help you become more efficent.

2. Knee Valgus (Knees Falling Inward)

When the knee collapses inward during running, it often reflects poor single-leg strength and dynamic control rather than a knee problem. Strengthening the hips, improving foot stability, increasing ankle mobility, and adding single-leg strength exercises and plyometrics are often part of the solution.

3. Hip Drop

Running is essentially controlled single-leg hopping. Excessive hip drop usually points to weakness or poor control of the lateral hip and trunk. Building single-leg strength, improving core stability, and adding running-specific strength exercises can improve both efficiency and injury resilience.

4. Limited Hip Extension

This is one of the most common issues we see. When the hip doesn't extend well behind the body, runners often compensate through their low back, hamstrings, or calves. Improving hip flexor mobility, strengthening the glutes with exercises like hip thrusts, activating the posterior chain, and working on diaphragmatic breathing can all help restore efficient hip extension.

5. Decreased Knee Flexion Upon Landing (AKA Straight knee)

Some runners land with a very straight or stiff knee. Instead of absorbing force through the hip, knee, and ankle, the leg acts more like a rigid pole. This can increase impact forces and place more stress on the knee, hip, shin, or foot.

We often see this when runners lack eccentric strength, plyometric control, or confidence absorbing load. Strength training, single-leg landing drills, calf strengthening, step-downs, and plyometrics can help teach the body how to absorb force and then use that energy efficiently for the next stride.

6. Landing Too Far in Front of the Center of Mass

Often called overstriding, this creates braking forces with every step and can increase stress on the knees. Improving hip extension, slightly increasing cadence when appropriate, and developing more power through strength and plyometric training often help runners naturally land closer beneath their body.

Running Form Is a Reflection of Your Body

You can't simply "fix" your gait by thinking differently. Yes, thinking about what you are doing helps, but it is the repetitive drills, the strength training and mobility that change how your body responds to the load you put on it.

That's why, during a running gait analysis, we look at what your body is doing and try to determine why it's happening. Once we understand the cause, we can create a plan using strength training, mobility, plyometrics, and running-specific exercises to help you run more efficiently and stay healthy.

Here is something I put together for our RUNsource app about the running form basics!

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