How Symmetrical Is Your Running Form? Understanding Left / Right Balance | Strength Running

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Running asymmetry can lead to injuries and poor performances, especially as you get older and your economy and running form deteriorates.
Thankfully, we can use technology to get deeper insights into our running form so that we can isolate problems and begin addressing them.
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Jason Fitzgerald is a USATF running coach, 2:39 marathoner, and the host of the award-winning Strength Running Podcast. He's the 2017 Men's Running Magazine's Influencer of the Year and his work has appeared in Runner's World, Health Magazine, The Washington Post, Lifehacker, and other major media.
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[@CharlesLately]

Interesting take on symmetry. I worked a lot this topic over the past few years as a masters runner and clearly my balance improved (down to 1% - 0.5% difference today). However I can share some food for thought. 1) Imbalance is very personal, so you'd better figure out over the years what are you "averages". Injury risk increases when you start diverging from that average. 2) When you run faster you'll see imbalance especially during acceleration phase: this is very frequent because your dominant leg will always take over 3) In my experience imbalance worsens when I'm under heavy training and largely improves when legs get some rest 4) Imbalance should be monitored but shouldn't be an obsession.. yes strong imbalance can be a proxy for injury but 2%-4% imbalance is not necessarily a problem, especially if a runner had that kind of imbalance for years and didn't get injured. 5) Imbalance can be due also to the terrain (uneven) or whether you run on a track clockwise or counterclockwise. Cheers

[@JasonFitzgerald]

Excellent advice, Charles. Thank you!

[@transformational_runners]

Whats you're take on seeing great imbalances when I run 'easy' please? When I do speed sessions, whether shorter reps or longer, my body is more symmetrical

[@CharlesLately]

@@transformational_runners I do have the same pattern (not always but sometimes). You can have a look in a clinic about differences in leg length (if this is consistent) or difference in footstrike at lower paces (I'm forefoot both sides but at slower paces I can be midfoot to forefoot on the slower leg). Also some one-side tightness (hip / hamstring / calf) can play a role (when you run faster hopefully you did a warmup that helped smooth these differences). Hope this helps (waiting for Jason's answer :))

[@JasonFitzgerald]

@@transformational_runners Not much different from what I said in the video! Are you addressing it? If it's more than 52% on each leg, you should!

[@jordi8189]

I was totally expecting you to start talking about Stryd and Stryd duo which is built for exactly this in mind, when you raised your hand with an Coros Pod I almost spilled my coffee 😂😂😂.

[@NickAtkins]

Stryd is a horrible company

[@michealGRuns]

I absolutely love this channel! And the podcast 😁😁😁😁

[@StrengthRunning]

You're the best, thank you!

[@joedannaoui9802]

Thanks Jason for helping us unpack that data. I was unsure what was safe variance between left and right. I would love to see more of these videos, if possible. Keep up the great work.

[@JasonFitzgerald]

New videos are added every week! Is there a specific topic you'd like me to cover?

[@joedannaoui9802]

Jason, have you talked about stride height and what changes are required to dampen our leaps a little?

[@therapygrind]

Not as precise but an effective work-around to observing running symmetry, I'm a 5am runner, still dark and wear a chest strap light as many wear a hrm. the light produces a 'cone' of light & vision ahead. As you run you can see how smooth/steady, how much left right movement you're producing in your running from the beam of light & L and R 'lines' in the cone field of light. It's a self-monitoring solution that allows you to adjust accordingly real time. Also after before and after every run I do take a cursory glance at my soles and assess my striking patterns & symmetry based on the wear.

[@bartb217]

Great video with great tips. I have a 1,5% imbalance to the left at easy pace, but at marathonpace or faster it is 50-50 and no imbalance. My back and hips feel terrible after a slow longrun, but fine after a race or fast training. My left leg is clearly a lot weaker and slower when doing (single leg) strength exercises, so I am doing exercises like you showed in this video to fix this.

[@michaelc.b.ashley16]

A Stryd Duo will give you 2D visualisations (from the back, side, and top; so essentially 3D) of the path that each foot takes. I've found that the Stryd Duo gives exactly the same left-right imbalance results - within 0.1% - as a Garmin HRM Pro chest strap, which is impressive for both devices. Stryd Duo tracks many more parameters, e.g., leg spring stiffness imbalance. From my reading, a 1% imbalance (49.5% : 50.5%) will result in an almost 4% decrease in running efficiency, which is a big effect. I had a 48.2% - 51.8% imbalance, and after doing some single-leg strength exercises it became obvious that my left leg was weaker; a month of exercises has halved the imbalance. I think the imbalance originated from when I get up from sitting on the floor, or step up by more than 0.5m or so, I always used my right leg to push off. I'm hopeful that a conscious effort to change this (plus strength exercises) will help. Thanks for your content, from this 65 year old runner, hoping for another decade or so...

[@RunnerdJK]

52/48 is a 4% imbalance. Per Garmin, 90% of runners have less than a 3% imbalance (51.5/48.5%)

[@JasonFitzgerald]

"2% off symmetrical"

[@gggibson3058]

Aweaome infor!!!

[@gggibson3058]

I have the pod 2. Does it matter which foot to wear it on...because I get different readings depending which foot i wear it on.

[@StrengthRunning]

According to COROS, it doesn't matter. Is it appropriately installed on your shoe?

[@gggibson3058]

Thank you. I probably was more conscious wearing when I changed foot. 😊

[@StrengthRunning]

@@gggibson3058 Also make sure it's in the right "container." The silicone one is for your waistband, the harder plastic option is for your shoe I believe.

[@Geoff_B]

Isn’t Stryd Duo much better?

[@StrengthRunning]

@@Geoff_B I don't think so. Plus, I'm not interested in having another brand of product to deal with. The integrative nature of all of my COROS gear is amazing and makes things simple. Simpler training increases adherence.

[@davewilsontelevisiondemo9381]

Jason, 40 is young.

[@NickAtkins]

So, you completely lost me when you said you would consciously try to run more balanced. With a GCT under 300ms, trying to change the balance 1-2% is only 30-60ms-well under the reaction time of ANY human. Why even say something ridiculous like that?