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The foot rotation is a little-known running parameter because of its difficult assessment when there are small degrees of rotation, and because it is considered of minor importance to running performance or injury-related running parameters.
Neither of these two reasons is true enough to diminish the importance of foot rotation to both running technique improvement and running injury prevention.
We can identify two types of abnormal running foot rotation:
Excessive external foot rotation means outwards rotation of the foot respecting the direction of running.
External foot rotation with an angle degree superior to 5 is considered excessive or abnormal.
Excessive internal foot rotation means inwards rotation of the foot respecting the direction of running.
Any angles of internal foot rotation are considered abnormal or excessive.
The two images above show a 3D foot scan where the peak of forces acting on the foot and the gait line (red and green line) show the foot rotation with respect to the direction of running (white median line).
the image above shows the report of our high-tech running analysis with some of the most important running parameters including the external foot rotation expressed in angle degrees with respect to the direction of running.
In this particular runner, there is an external foot rotation between 17 and 18 degrees!
There are two main causes of excessive internal or external foot rotation such as:
Another less common cause of excessive foot rotation is linked with the body’s postural issues related to foot or ankle deformation, but it is a rare cause of it.
In our sports clinic, during our running analysis or gait analysis, most of our patients or runners were affected by excessive foot rotation due to muscle imbalances or poor neuromuscular activation.
Excessive external foot rotation is due to an imbalance between the internal and external rotator muscles of the leg.
With excessive external foot rotation, the external rotator muscles of the leg are stronger than the internal ones.
The data collected in our running lab in London showed that runners affected by excessive external foot rotation are affected by running supination too.
We had the opposite situation when there was an excessive internal foot rotation with the internal rotator muscles stronger than the external ones.
In our gait lab in London, thanks to our high-tech gait analysis for children, our physiotherapists have been gathering a lot of analytical data about children’s gait issues, and the most common are:
Here we will show you some physiotherapy video exercises to reduce the excessive external foot rotation.
Our sports physiotherapists have designed this series of physio-strengthening exercises to improve the running technique and/or gait parameters.
They are exercises to strengthen the internal rotator muscles of the leg to compensate for the excessive external rotation of the foot during running or walking.
These exercises are very helpful for walking rehabilitation after a foot or ankle surgery too.
Excessive running foot rotation can be caused by wrong neuromuscular activation.
It can be improved with neuromuscular running technique training through a high-tech gait analysis system.
To improve by yourself the excessive running foot rotation you can check our blog post about how you can make a homemade running analysis system.
With this system, you can check and fix approximately your excessive external or internal running foot rotation.
If you need an online running consultation we are here to help you wherever you are in the world!
Book your consultation in this box after you have recorded your running video as suggested in our blog post “How you can make a homemade running analysis system“.
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