was 'neutral' now an overpronator!

I had a gait analysis in 2010, never saw a video but was told I was a Neutral runner. A few days ago I had a video gait analysis and to say I was n overpronator is an understatement, it looked like a 30-40 degree agngle and was actually painfull to watch!

I now own a bright orange pair of Adidas Supernover Riot 4's but after a 4k jog I have the same shin/calf pains as when I started running again in July. I'm guessing this is  because my Gait has been corrected? will it take long to ease? and (maybe more importantly) was I miss sold the first time or can your Gait change over time?

Thanks,
Andi

I personally don't believe in all this 'gait analysis stuff'.  I think it's mostly a con promulgated by training shoe manufacturers who try to get money out of us.

There was a good panorama program which covered training shoes recently and the full program can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rul7XbM844

My own experience of joining the army in 1986 and running in plimsols and boots kinda shows that over engineered training shoes are not as important as having a good running form.

Others will no doubt disagree.

As to your specific questions about your gait changing, I don't know, sorry.  It's interesting to note that your shin pain happens with both the different training shoes.  Normally, for me, I experienced shin pain when I tried to do too much too quickly and just resting and training more sensibly sorted out my problem.

I got my gait analysed in about 2008 to be told I was neutral and never had any problems with neutral shoes. Then earlier this year, got my gait analysed again and I'm now a slight over-pronator. Again, no problems with the shoes I bought at the second shop.

I totally agree with Easy, the Gait Analysis test only look at a single angle, whereas there is so much more going on with the body.

One reason for the change is that you may have lost a bit of flexibility....but again, the body is complex so you'd really need a Physio to give you the answer to that.

Of course the shops answer will be a nice new pair of shoes!

Hi Andi,I to am now an overpronator having been told I was a neutral.

I have had loads of calf problems in right leg to the point i saw a podratrist two weeks ago his findings were eye opening.

In stance all was fine various muscle lengths were fine,gait was "as good as it can be barefoot" my problems arose when i put my nike air pegasus 28s on both ankles collapsed more so on the right to eye watering proportions.I also had a pair of adidas tempo 4s that i have worn which gave a better finding the difference being the torsion control in the adidas making them more rigid in the midsole,he told me to run in these to see how i fared, not good calf pull third time out.Have been looking now at minimal shoes to get closer to natural gait but long way to go.Have a look at runblogger .com some in depth articles on there you may find helpful.

Thanks for all your replies folks and plenty to think about.

Easy.Does.It - Thanks for the link and I agree with much of the documentary about drinks but don't think I'd return uninjured from a 10 mile run in a pair of my old 'comfy' trainers. I see what your saying about shoe manufacturers 'hype' but after seeing the angle my ankle was at whilst overpronating I took a personal decision to get running shoes with support to correct the overpronation and guess my new pains are because I'm running using different (correct) muscles and like you mention maybe doing too much in the new position to start with?

Nykie, guess this means we should get reasonably frequesnt gait checks done then if we change our running gait over time.

Paul, yup, am 53 and getting older every day! my first gait analysis was about 3 years ago and didn't run for 18 months so it may be a mixture of the 2?  

Thanks jogon, I've looked at barefoot running and have a friend in month 3 of training and it does seem a long process to do it correctly - I take it people run in shoes as well during the initial short distances done barefoot, wouldn't this confuse your body with 2 totally different running styles?

I've taken almost a week off as I've been away but hope to try the new shoes out again during the week. As above, would wearing the new and neutral shoes on alternate days 'confuse' my muscle groups and make things worse?

Easy.doesit I watched that documentary very interesting I thought! Plenty arguments for both sides of the stories 

I took up running 11 years ago (I'm 48 now)
I 've never had my gait "analysed", but it's hardly rocket science and I could tell I had high stiff arches so I ran in neutral shoes for years without problems
a couple of years ago, I started to feel as though my arches were dropping a bit, then 1 year ago I developed a knee problem
I've switched to mildly supportive shoes and I'm back to being fine again