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Originally Posted by
unexpected 
why, humor me for a bit: I think the point you're getting at is that there's an optimal stride length for everybody. Something I've read about quite frequently is one way to get faster is to run at this stride length- most new runners seem to run a stride length that is shorter than their optimal length. the best way to increase your stride length to your optimal point is by stretching and opening up the hip flexors correct? The point at which you're doing too much is where you start "over-striding" - something that also happens frequently when you try to run a longer stride (as opposed to letting it happen naturally)?
No, not really. A lot of runners run with their hip flexors in some kind of marionette-esque way of lifting their legs and moving them forward as opposed to pulling the hips toward the leading planted foot. It's hard to describe in words but basically stride length will increase as power and flexibility increases. For most people it's power since their hamstrings are much weaker than their quadriceps. Here's a little drawing to explain it a bit better:
In the first picture the person is basically walking. Look at how large the angle is on the red arc. This is the degree of hip extension and all these muscles really do when running is lift the leg. The blue represents the angle of hip flexion and consequently stride length. Here's the same thing with lunges and squats just for reference and so you can see why sprinters and such do squats since running speed is basically hamstring power:
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1) how does one measure their stride length? Is it based on height?
Femur length mostly. Women and such are generally slower than men because their femurs are much longer than their tibias which causes extra load to be placed on the hamstrings. As a side note, generally it's easy to tell if an animal is fast if their
femur:tibia length ratio is low.
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2 We brought up this discussion on running and digressed from weights- can I make the assumption that being incredibly flexible won't have negative ramifications on weight-lifting performance?
Of course it will. Running is not different from weight lifting in this regard except it relies on power creating stride length and frequency instead of simply work performed (in the case of powerlifting) or pure power (which Olympic lifting relies more on). Tighter muscles are like denser rubber bands: they retract faster and harder. Keep in mind I said tight and not fibrous. Elasticity is a requirement to avoid injury and actually utilize the stretch reflex. That's why I said flexibility in re: weight lifting should generally be sufficient for the lift and not much more than that. The easiest way to keep muscles at the optimal amount of flexibility is to continually use good lifting form. If they keep getting stretched during the eccentric phase they won't overly tighten.
Are you saying that a natural contortionist type would have a hard time adding mass and/or gaining strength?
