Wearable 'RunRite System' May Help Runners Identify Muscle Imbalances Affecting Running Technique and Sports Performance

Sports Research Shows Ninety Percent of Running Related Injuries in High School Athletes and Recreational Runners May Be Preventable

SCOTTSDALE, AZ--( April 29, 2015) -The Sports Science Center has completed research and development of a new product aimed at helping runners and athletes improve performance. The RunRite System, a wearable running device which is available to athletes, coaches, and medical professionals, may be able to identify the root cause of many running related injuries in individual runners, including injuries like shin splints, stress fractures, plantar fasciitis, runners knee (patella tendonitis), iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, Achilles tendonitis and other Achilles injuries.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), participation in organized sports is on the rise. Nearly 30 million children and adolescents participate in youth sports in the United States. This increase in play has led to some other startling statistics about injuries among America's young athletes:

• High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries and 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year. Most running injuries go unreported to hospitals and are handled by school athletic trainers and sports coaches.
• According to the CDC, more than half of all sports injuries in children are preventable. According to the research results of evaluating and training athletes using the RunRite System, nine out of ten injuries to runners could be prevented.

Research shows that over sixty-six percent (66%) of recreational runners suffer from running related pain, injuries or discomfort. Experts around the globe believe those injuries occur due to a number of causes including poor footwear, over or under training, as well as poor biomechanics or running technique.

According to research done by the staff of the Sports Science Center, nine out of ten high school athletes are risk of suffering injuries to their lower body based on weaknesses which are ignored by their current strength and conditioning programs.

Officials at The Sports Science Center believe their research shows these muscle imbalances contribute to rotational instability of the lower leg (tibia) and have led to an increase in ACL tears, Achilles tendon ruptures and injuries, stress fractures of the lower legs and feet, as well as a massive increase in lower back pain among the younger population (high school athletes plus men and women age 36 and below).

To help combat the issues of increasing muscle imbalances, the Sports Science Center will release a version of its RunRite System for serious athletes on May 6, 2015 on the crowd funding website Kickstarter.com, the RunRite System is the first and only wearable system runners or any athlete can use to analyze their actual running technique. Users will also receive customized exercises based on an evaluation of their body's muscle strengths, weaknesses, and technique while walking or running.

The RunRite PC (Personal Coach for individual athletes will be available for mass market purchase in December of 2015. A limited number of RunRite Systems for Windows, iPhone, and Android devices, will go on sale at a price of $149 (Regular Retail Price $299) the morning of May 6, 2015 on Kickstarter. Two versions of the RunRite System are available: RunRite PRO for the health and fitness professional or sports coach; and the RunRite-PC (Personal Coach) for the individual athlete.

"The sports performance industry used to show concern from the slower, controlled development of adolescents when it came to strength training," said Zig Ziegler, Director of Kinesiology and Biomechanics at The Sports Science Center. "Now it's a race to who can make high school athletes lift heavy weights and run fast 40 yard dash times with little regard to technique and actual muscle development.

According to reports from research participants, strength coaches now skip crucial phases of strength training, and athletes lift heavy in many schools all year long, ignoring slower development of many weaker parts of the body in exchange.

According to the results of a ten-year research campaign, where its Sports Science Center technicians conducted running and functional movement squatting biomechanics assessments on over 1,000 high school athletes, the Sports Science Center found numerous issues. "Everything is multi-joint, multipurpose and as a result, young athletes have many underdeveloped areas of their body," said Ziegler

Over 50,000 athletes participated in additional biomechanics testing that included analysis of sport specific skills like swinging sports implements, throwing balls and other exercises. To conduct the tests, data-generating 3D motion tracking sensors were placed on various body segments from head to foot. The athletes, ages 14 to 73, were then asked to walk or run for thirty to sixty seconds at varying speeds on a treadmill. Special motion analysis software recorded and analyzed the data, evaluating leg range of motion and angular velocities, as pelvis and upper body posture and biomechanics.

 A review of a sampling of the results shows the number of high school athletes with significant bilateral joint range of motion and muscle imbalances increased from 31% of those athletes tested during the first period to over 90% of those athletes tested in 2014. From 2004-2006 the number of high school athletes tested totaled 244 in the sample pool. From September of 2009 to 2014, the number of athletes reviewed reached 927.

"It is our conclusion that these imbalances and rotational instability are the result of massive generalized training programs where athletes now go through what is often called group functional training with an emphasis on speed training, plyometrics (jumping exercises) and lifting heavy with zero to very little static stretching," Ziegler added. "Power lifting and 'functional training' is only beneficial if all of the muscles expected to be used during training have the ability to be recruited. The current training philosophy is not a sufficient program for developing the body from the ground up, especially in adolescent athletes and is expected to have long-term negative effects on growing bodies. It's time for a change!"

During our research phase, over 200 athletes who complained or running or other sports related injuries were also given corrective exercises to address imbalances identified by our research. A statistically significant number of subjects (92%) showed an improvement in bilateral deficiencies of their lower body when walking or running. In addition, all those athletes (100%) who were complaining of running related injuries saw a decrease in symptom pain or discomfort within 10 days of performing the corrective exercises. Seventy-five percent of those same athletes saw a reduction in symptoms within three days. After 30 days, 100% of those athletes who performed those exercises still showed no signs of the pain symptomatic with their injuries and saw an increase in sports performance of greater than ten percent (10%)

As the RunRite sensors communicate data to the software, complex algorithms analyze the data and look for range motion deficits potentially caused by strengths and weaknesses in the athlete based on the kinesiology and biomechanics of the athlete's body. The RunRite System is sophisticated enough to identify exactly which exercises an athlete could do to reduce injury risk and improve sports performance.

RunRite -- It's not the sensors, it what we do with them. To find out more about the RunRite System visit www.irunrite.com. Sign up for the newsletter to receive updates on the release of the RunRite System.


SOURCE: Performance 3D LLC through Marketwiredby press release ©