Women’s Health offers guidance on proper running form according to experts including Yukiko Matsuzaki PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, physical therapist at HSS.

According to Matsuzaki, “Even if I have two runners about the same age, same running styles, and they both have knee pain, I might not give them the same kind of feedback [on their form].”

On proper form, Matsuzaki cited that running is a very repetitive activity, given the constant movement forward and not side-to-side or backwards like other sports. “If you don't have good form or biomechanics, that can eventually lead to overuse injuries like knee pain, or runner's knee, hip pain, or stress fractures,” she added.

Matsuzaki underscored the importance of seeing a professional for an injury or repeated injuries to get feedback. “With a running analysis, we don't do it to fix every little thing—again, there's no one perfect running form—but it does expose a lot of faults and things that could be fixed. I try to correlate the findings with what the runner's goals are and make specific recommendations based on that.”

Finally, Matsuzaki highlighted other aspects of running performance. “Biomechanics is an important element to running success, but aerobic capacity plays a huge part here, mental attitude plays a big part here as well,” she noted.

Read the full article at Womenshealthmag.com.