Examining the effects of combined gait retraining and video self‐modeling on habitual runners experiencing knee pain: A pilot study

Abstract

This multidisciplinary study aimed to reduce stride length (SL) by 2‐4% for two runners (P1, P2) experiencing chronic knee pain using a biomechanical gait retraining and video self‐modeling intervention. The pre – post‐test design examined the acute changes in biomechanical and psychological factors following a four‐week intervention, which involved four gait retraining sessions and four gait consolidation sessions. Participants watched self‐modeling videos twice daily in between sessions. P1 met the required SL reduction (2.61%), resulting in a 9% decrease in peak vertical ground reaction force combined with a 72% reduction in peak knee abduction moment. P1 demonstrated large positive effects for four performance‐ and two injury‐based psychological variables (ES = 0.85‐4.30) and a large negative effect for one injury‐based psychological variable (ES = 1.50). P2 did not meet the required reduction in SL (1.3%), the response was an increase in vertical ground reaction forces (0.90%). P2 demonstrated large positive effects for three performance‐ and two injury‐based psychological variables (ES = 3.00‐4.28) and a large negative for one performance‐based psychological variable (ES = 3.65). The consideration for individualised responses to interventions targeting a change in gait are warranted, as applying a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach may be detrimental to reducing injury pain.