Exercise & Sports Podiatry Adelaide

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Exercise & Sports Podiatry Adelaide

SPARC Exercise & Sports Podiatry is a branch within Adelaide's renown Sports & Arthritis Clinic.

20/05/2026

🌿 The Adelaide Hills: one of Australia’s most underrated running and adventure playgrounds.

The Mount Lofty Ranges offer an incredible mix of:
🏔️ Rolling climbs
🌲 Dense pine forests
🍃 Native bushland trails
🌄 Ridgeline views
🏃 Quiet gravel roads
☕ Country towns perfect for post-run coffee/bakery stops

After years of exploring these trails, roads, forests and fire tracks, I put together a personal “Top 10” list of some of the best running locations across the Adelaide Hills region — places that showcase just how diverse and beautiful the ranges really are.

From flowing forest trails in Kuitpo, to rugged climbs around Mt Bold, scenic gravel roads through Jupiter Creek, technical bushland near Cleland, and hidden gems scattered through the hills, there’s genuinely something for every type of runner or outdoor explorer.

Whether you enjoy:
✔️ Easy aerobic long runs
✔️ Technical trail running
✔️ Hill sessions
✔️ Scenic adventure runs
✔️ Group long runs
✔️ Photography & nature exploration

…the Adelaide Hills delivers year-round.

One of the best parts about the Mount Lofty Ranges is how quickly the environment changes. In a single run you can move between towering pine forests, open farmland, native scrub, creek crossings and panoramic ridge views. Winter brings mist, flowing creeks and deep green trails, while summer mornings offer incredible light filtering through the forest.

And the post-run café culture is a huge bonus too. Many of these locations sit close to fantastic Adelaide Hills bakeries, cafés and country towns — making the long-run coffee, bakery stop or recovery brunch part of the experience itself. ☕🥐

This Top 10 guide was designed to help people explore more of the Adelaide Hills and discover just how many world-class running locations are sitting less than an hour from Adelaide CBD.

📍 If you’ve been looking for new places to run, hike or adventure — this is a great place to start.

Read the full Substack article here:
https://nittaz.substack.com/p/the-adelaide-hills

18/05/2026

RUNNING MECHANICS IN ENDURANCE ATHLETES 🏃‍♂️

“Should runners change their technique?”

Few topics in running create more disagreement than this.

Some argue:
👉 “The body self-organises naturally.”

Others argue:
👉 “Technique must be optimised.”

Reality?

It’s probably far more nuanced than either extreme.

One of the biggest misconceptions in endurance running is assuming mechanics either:
• don’t matter at all
OR
• can be consciously “fixed” through cues alone.

But movement appears heavily shaped by:
⚡ training exposure
⚡ speed demands
⚡ strength
⚡ fatigue
⚡ coordination
⚡ terrain & footwear
⚡ the environments athletes repeatedly experience

Sprint research shows something important:

👉 Sprinting is a TRAINED skill.

Elite sprinters don’t all move identically — but they often operate within a bandwidth of effective movement solutions.

This raises an interesting question:

If sprinting develops force application, coordination, stiffness, and timing…

…should endurance runners still expose themselves to speed?

Potentially yes.

Not to “run like sprinters” —
but to improve:
• movement capacity
• coordination
• force application
• contact times
• mechanical adaptability

Especially when races become tactical and athletes need access to higher force outputs late in competition.

One of the key takeaways from the article:

❌ Don’t obsess over consciously “fixing form”
✅ Create environments that allow better movement to emerge

This may include:
• strides
• hill running
• sprint exposure
• accelerations
• plyometrics
• wicket drills
• short fast repetitions

Movement may change indirectly through intelligent exposure — not necessarily require rigid technical overcoaching.

Another important point:

Young athletes may benefit from developing:
⚡ speed
⚡ coordination
⚡ elastic qualities
⚡ movement variability

BEFORE heavy endurance specialisation.

Perhaps movement is less about finding a perfect model…

…and more about expanding the range of effective solutions an athlete can express.

📖 Full article here:
https://substack.com//note/p-195832304?r=1vw3vd&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-acti

14/05/2026

Step Width Matters… sometimes 🏃‍♂️📏

A 2024 systematic review of 23 studies (399 participants) found that changing step width meaningfully alters running & walking biomechanics.

Key Takeaways:

• Narrow step widths may:
→ Increase hip adduction & knee rotation
→ Increase tibial / ITB loading
→ Reduce balance stability
→ Potentially increase injury risk & reduce sprint performance

• Wider step widths may:
→ Improve balance & stability
→ Reduce knee adduction loads
→ Reduce ITB strain & tibial stress
→ Help in rehabilitation for:

- ITBS
- Patellofemoral pain
- Tibial bone stress injuries

⚠️ But there’s a trade-off:
Research suggests humans naturally self-select a relatively narrow stride because it may help minimise energetic cost while maintaining balance. Running with step widths either narrower or wider than preferred increases metabolic demand.

This may help explain why many runners naturally settle into a relatively narrow, but preferred, “efficient” stride pattern (it may be earned through exposure through training - especially within high performing running cohorts) — even if slightly wider steps can sometimes be useful clinically, during rehabilitation, or for improving force production during sprint acceleration.

# # Practical Message:

Your preferred stride width likely reflects a balance between:
✔️ Efficiency
✔️ Stability
✔️ Load distribution
✔️ Sprint acceleration demands

Small adjustments may help in specific injury or performance contexts — but forcing dramatic changes in either direction could create new biomechanical trade-offs or reduce efficiency amongst endurance runners.

📚 Wang et al. Sports Medicine - Open (2024)
📚 Arellano & Kram. Journal of Biomechanics

28/04/2026

Training Monotony - A key load management consideration

High training loads are an important component of performance development in endurance sport. However, the key challenge is not simply accumulating load, but appropriately balancing training stress with adequate recovery.

This microcycle snapshot highlights a common principle: variation in daily training stress. The inclusion of lower-stress days (circled) is not incidental—they are essential for facilitating physiological adaptation (especially when training stress is high).

Without this variation, similar daily training stresses (especially if high) may contribute to excessive fatigue, increased injury risk, and symptoms associated with overtraining, or perhaps the training signal doesn’t lead to the desired adaptation.

Research supports this approach (in both horses and humans):

* Bruin et al. (1994) demonstrated that reduced variation in training load was associated with increased negative outcomes in racehorses
* Foster (1998) introduced the concept of training monotony, showing that low day-to-day variability in training load is linked to higher rates of illness and overtraining in endurance athletes

Key takeaway:
Incorporating lower-intensity or reduced-load days within a high-load training microcycle may help optimise adaptation while reducing the risk of adverse outcomes.

Effective training is not defined by training stress alone, but by how that stress is distributed and how the adaptation occurs.

23/04/2026

🏃‍♂️ Running injury can be complex, and is often multi factorial.

Our sports podiatrists don’t just treat pain… we look at the whole picture.

Think of running injury risk mitigation a bit like a pyramid 👇

🔴 Training Characteristics
Your training frequency, volume, intensity and the way you make training decisions all shape your load. Well organised training and good decision making = fewer setbacks.

🔵 Recovery / Rest
Sleep, nutrition, and downtime to reduce stress aren’t optional — they’re where adaptation actually happens.

🟠 Tissue Tolerance
Your body gets stronger if load is progressed well. Strength training may be a game changer here.

🟡 Biomechanics
No “perfect” running style — just what works best for you - however an individuated have a certain bandwidth they operate best within. Movement evolves with exposure to the training process, but sometimes the train eye can make changes to mitigate pain or redistribute loads.

🟢 Equipment & Surface
Shoes and terrain matter… but they’re just the tip of the iceberg…. However shoes in 2026 are extremely diverse (and fun), and knowing where to start for each runner can be overwhelming!

💡 The takeaway?
Instead of chasing quick fixes, we build resilient runners from the ground up.

If you’re stuck in the injury cycle, it might be time to look deeper than just the symptoms.

📩 Get in touch — let’s keep you running strong.

22/01/2025

Wearing an orthotic to offload an injured structure in the foot, ankle or knee whilst is adapts to load is a common treatment tool that mitigates risks associated with CAM walkers such as deep vein thrombosis and calf muscle atrophy (Mason et al., 2024). This often allows athletes to limit more serious health risks and reduce globalised foot/ankle deconditioning whilst rehabbing an injured site.

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90 Henley Beach Road, Mile End
Adelaide, SA
5031

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+61882349707

Website

http://www.sparc.com.au/

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