JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Since September, nearly 300 people of all ages have stopped by the Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Health and Wellness Center to get their walking and running forms evaluated and most learned they had major flaws.
Performing the evaluations is Karl Leonard, HAWC exercise physiologist, who said 90 percent of the examined - even athletes in peak shape - are inefficient runners who are oblivious to the damage they cause to their joints and other areas every time they run.
"Young people's bodies can quickly recover from poor running, but the older they get and the longer they run incorrectly, the chances of serious injury are high," Leonard said.
While Leonard started his gait analysis lab by taking call-in appointments, it's become more clinical as half the people he sees now are medically referred due to injury or being on military profile. Since Leonard arrived last summer, the HAWC's quadrupled its business with help from the lab, he said.
During a gait assessment, Leonard breaks down an individual's running mechanics and tells them how to improve his or her form.
"My goals are for Airmen to run efficiently so they can pass the physical training test and get off of profile, and for people to improve their performance and physical abilities, so they can become injury-free and more productive," he said.
However, many HAWC clients come in with worn-down bodies.
Maj. Scott Bentley, a 59th Medical Wing pediatric cardiologist at San Antonio Military Medical Center, developed a passion for running after completing a half marathon in 2010, but during a 2012-13 deployment to Afghanistan, he experienced recurring shin splints and pain in his hamstrings and gluteal muscles.
"After I returned, I continued running, but the pain in my upper legs continually worsened and eventually impaired my ability to run as frequently as I wanted," he said. "Even walking and sitting for a long car ride became painful."
Scott lost more than 2 1/2 minutes from his 1.5-mile run time and failed his January PT test. The next week, he made an appointment with Leonard and learned his heavy heel striking caused overuse injuries.
After applying Leonard's recommended running technique and other programs like heart rate training, Scott saw "immediate" results.
Within weeks, he regained lost run time, retook the PT test and passed.
"Most of us (in the military) have never been trained how to run properly," he said. "Having the training to be able to do this required element of our physical fitness allowed me to enjoy this activity again and meet the standards expected of me."
Master Sgt. Robert Thomas, 24th Air Force Manpower, Personnel and Services manager at JBSA-Lackland, scheduled an appointment with the HAWC in February to get off profile.
While there, Thomas discovered he was a heavy heel striker, which explained why his ankles, knees and back were constantly in pain and why he felt tightness in his hamstrings and Achilles tendons.
"I was running four to five times per week and was making everything worse each time I ran," he said.
After evaluation, Thomas noticed less joint pain in one week and "tremendous relief on my knees and ankles after two weeks," he said.
Civil servants also benefit from the HAWC's gait analysis.
"I've been a runner on and off for 20 years and never knew my gait contributed to my knee pain," Gina Ramirez, 359th Medical Operations Squadron psychology technician, said. "My initial appointment was to get exercises to strengthen my knee, but I found my gait was all wrong and exacerbating the pain."
Ramirez said she felt sudden, severe knee pain after she stopped lifting weights, which in the past helped her body compensate for poor running form.
"It took about a month to learn and practice the correct form before I noticed changes in my knees and to get back the mileage I lost," she said. "On Leonard's recommendation, I began lifting weights again and before long had no knee pain."
In addition to no pain, her legs no longer ached after long runs, Ramirez said.
However, Leonard said helping a 359th Medical Group nurse discover a life-threatening condition earlier this year sticks out most.
Leonard said the nurse could hardly hold herself up because she thought she was weak.
Alarmed at her unusual plopping foot strikes, he suggested she get further evaluated. She soon learned she had advanced demyelinating polyneuropathy, which affects the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord and can cause fainting spells while standing up, burning pain in the extremities and loss of feeling in the legs and arms.
Leonard eventually wants to introduce his gait analysis program at basic military training at JBSA-Lackland, which − in theory − would correct recruits in the earliest stage of their career and prevent unnecessary long-term pain and surgery.
"That would be the next big step for exercise physiology and a huge step for the military," he said. "Basic military training is the gateway to the Air Force."
According to Leonard, proper running form entails landing on the balls of the feet with a slightly forward lean at a cadence of 180 beats per minute, which naturally shortens stride length and eliminates the tendency to strike the ground with heels first. Wearing minimalist shoes can also reinforce proper foot strike.
For more information, call 652-2300.