Why All Runners Need to Deadlift:
Ever been told you need to use your glutes more when you run? Ever wanted to drive your run from your hips instead of overloading your knees and ankles? The best way to accomplish this is to develop a “hip hinge”, which means learning how to initiate movement with your hips while maintaining a neutral spine to unlock your posterior chain (muscles behind the body: glutes, hamstrings, calves). Think of the hip hinge as the universal athletic position. If we think outside of running, what is the most stable position to defend against a point guard? How would offensive football players keep defenders away from the player with the ball? Observe with a close eye, and the hip hinge becomes more apparent. Running is no exception, you need to be in a stable athletic position when all of your body weight is on one leg to absorb impact forces efficiently.
The deadlift is the best exercise to adopt a hip hinge. Hinging from the hips causes the hip joint to generate the MOST torque or rotational force, which results in offloading the knees. In the photo below, the vertical line represents the center of mass. If we draw a line from your hip and knee joint to the center of mass, the longer line reflects the joint that produces the most force. This hip hinge position forces the big glute muscles to produce the most power. When we teach runners how to hinge at the hips during exercise, they can actually feel their glutes engaged.
How and when is this hip hinge reflected in running? Midstance is a critical phase during running where 2.5x your bodyweight is loaded on to a single limb. Without good movement control during midstance, it is quite easy to have a running overuse injury. During midstance, your trunk needs to lean forward by 8-10 degrees. It’s impossible to lean your trunk forward without learning to sit your hips back and so the two movements are coupled together, such as in the deadlift. Hip hinge during midstance means instant ability to fire up glutes, resulting in better hip drive when you push off during running, better neutral pelvic position, and less impact forces to be absorbed by smaller joints (knee and ankle).