Hi there, team. Coach Alexa here.
So I thought I’d explain a couple of the key differences between walking and running in this video, and the first of all is our gait pattern.
Gait Pattern Differences
So when we run, we’re either one foot on the ground or both feet off the ground, so we’re either one foot or no feet on the ground. If you look through race photos, one of the particularly lovely ones is if a photographer catches you with the flying feet in that no feet on the ground moment.
So it is inherently, therefore, a slightly less stable gait pattern. We don’t have points in the gait pattern where we’ve got both feet on the floor, and therefore, that broader base of stability.
Propulsion and Cadence
We also have, obviously, because generally when we’re running we’re going a bit faster, we have more of a propulsion phase, so there’s more of a push-off from our foot leaving the ground behind us. There’s more energy in the legs, the turnover of the stride, so the cadence, number of times your feet hit the floor in a minute when you’re running, is generally higher.
And it’s a bit more of an energetic thing. Our arms get more involved. There’s more drive both backwards and forwards, backwards at toe-off when our foot leaves the ground, knee drive forwards when we’re running. It’s a much bigger movement pattern because it’s got that extra energy, a lot more muscular engagement to drive us forwards.
Impact on the Body
It also is a higher impact sport, so we have several times worth our body weight of load on landing when we run, and it’s roughly just our body weight’s worth of load when we footfall on walking.
So, for lots of different reasons, if people have lower limb joint problems or are recovering from a lower limb break or even if you’ve got, for example, a broken wrist, higher impact sports like running that are going to be transmitting force to other areas of the body are not such a good call.
I’ve also had some people that I work with who have chronic pain conditions report that that impact loading of running unsettles their body’s response to pain with their condition. So there are loads of different reasons why that higher impact factor of running might not be such a good idea.
Walking – Stability and Movement
So walking, generally a little bit more stable, less high intensity as well, so that movement pattern is different. We’ve not got as big a leg range of motion. It’s not as quick a leg range of motion.
Which means that we are able, generally speaking, to be a little bit more stable with our footfalls. We tend definitely to predominate much more towards heel striking walking than we do running, although obviously lots of different foot loading patterns are possible for both gaits.
Final Thoughts
So it’s just interesting to think through the differences. It’s not like one is better than the other. Walking can be fantastic for fitness, as I’ve said in previous videos. It’s just different, a different gait pattern that suits different people for different reasons at different stages in their lives, their fitness journeys, and what they’re training for at that point.
But I just thought it’d be interesting to talk through those key differences between walking and running from a gait and movement pattern point of view. Happy running.
