“That is, once the runners were tired, their form got sloppier, theoretically raising their risk for a tibial stress fracture.” – Runner’s World
Running while fatigued increases stress fracture risk.
I’ve discussed several times (here, here and here) the idea that if we train too hard, we’re courting injury. An article in Runner’s World gives more evidence to support this idea. The article cites recent research from Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. As the test subjects ran, researchers monitored several movement patterns that were indicative of tibial stress fractures. As the subjects ran and became more fatigued, these movement patterns became exacerbated.
To me, the messages are first pay attention to your running form. Running is a skill. That’s why I don’t wear headphones anymore when running. Pay attention to how you run! Second, finish your run when you still feel good. Don’t kill yourself (except during a race) when you’re training. Don’t be afraid to quit early or skip a day if you’re very fatigued.
“Liking to run, it seems, may have helped to make humans what they are.” -NY Times Phys Ed
Running & evolution
Running for enjoyment is sort of a strange thing. Non-runners will agree with me. From an evolutionary perspective, doing something that uses up energy and exposes us to injury really doesn’t make sense. Yet many of us love it. Why? It’s this question that’s discussed in a recent New York Times Phys Ed section. Recent research in the Journal of Experimental Biology examines the matter. Turns out humans and dogs show increased circulating endocannabinoids post run. Walking however does not induce the same reaction. Nor, in this experiment did running have the same effect on ferrets. Seems that dogs and humans may have a deeply wired reward system that’s tied to running.
The question is then asked why don’t more of us run? Dr. David A. Raichlen, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, who led the study answered, “That’s the million dollar question. It appears from our study that we have the evolutionary drive” to exercise. But modern man has learned to ignore it.
I absolutely believe we were meant to run. And running with a dog? There’s nothing like it in life.
In the previous post I discussed my difficulty in solving my running-related pain issues. Analyzing and changing one’s running technique is a challenging thing, but I’m going to attempt it. I’m mainly going to discuss running here but these concepts apply to walking as well. (Don’t think that poor walking mechanics don’t matter. We spend a lot of time walking. If we’re doing it wrong then we’re really hammering the body into a mangled mess.)
Really important thing #1: Let the foot drop right below you. Don’t reach out with your heel.
It’s vital to get the foot strike correct when running. I now realize that for years I was reaching forward with my leg, putting my heel out in front of me, and hitting the ground with my heel. This is bad. It promotes overuse of the hamstring muscles and de-emphasizes the glutes.
I then spent the past year to year-and-a-half trying a forefoot strike. I thought this was an effective correction of my heel strike but I was still doing several things wrong. First, I was still reaching out ahead of me. As a result I was still using my hamstrings too much and I wasn’t using my glutes enough. And though I was hitting with my forefoot and avoiding a heel strike, I wasn’t allowing my heel to settle to the ground.
Now I’m doing things a lot better. First, I drop my foot directly below me. In fact, it feels like my foot is dropping behind me. Let me emphasize the word “drop.” I passively let the leg unfold underneath me and let gravity pull my foot to the ground. I don’t actively try to do much of anything with my foot. I often pay attention to how things feel down there but I don’t try to pull my foot off the ground or push off in any particular way. Steve Magness discusses this process in is superb post How to run with proper biomechanics. I’ve bolded the key points:
Once the knee has cycled through, the lower leg should drop to the ground so that it hits close to under your center of gravity. When foot contact is made, it should be made where the lower leg is 90 degrees to the ground. This puts it in optimal position for force production. The leg does not extend outwards like is seen in most joggers and there is no reaching for the ground. Reaching out with the lower leg results in over striding and creates a braking action. Another common mistake is people extending the lower leg out slightly and then pulling it back in a paw like action before ground contact. They are trying to get quick with the foot and create a negative acceleration. This is incorrect and does not lead to shorter ground contact times or better positioning for force production. Instead the paw back motion simply engages the hamstrings and other muscles to a greater degree than necessary, thus wasting energy. The leg should simply unfold and drop underneath the runner.
I know I’m running well when it actually feels like the foot is dropping behind me. (It’s not actually behind me, it’s just dropping quite a bit further back than it used to.) I now focus on hip extension when I run, or using my glutes to drive my leg back. With this proper foot placement I can feel my glutes turn on and propel me forward. It helps to have a slight forward lean through this process.
Really important thing #2: Lengthen through the hip
This concept of what I call “lengthening through the hip” has had a massive impact on my walking and running technique and thus my pain issues as well. Denver-area physical therapist Rick Olderman helped me solve a strange little bodily riddle I’d had for years, and this hip lengthening process was right at the core of it.
For a long time I noticed that standing on my right leg was a lot different from standing on my left. When I would stand on my right leg I always sort of tipped or shifted to the right. It didn’t feel right. My balance would shift in a sort of exaggerated way. This was happening every step. Standing incorrectly on my right leg when walking and running also meant I would land badly on my left leg. Lengthening up and pressing my weight through my hip into my foot solved this issue.
This concept is a little tough to effectively describe in words but here goes: As my foot hits the ground below me, I think of lifting my trunk away from hip. In my mind the hip and the rib cage of the stance leg are separating–moving away from each other, and I’m sort of getting taller in the process. I don’t think of bounding or hopping though. I’m trying to make my leg longer below me and behind me as I move forward. A slight lean forward from the ankles helps me do this all correctly.
This movement is sort of a subtle kind of thing to grasp. Describing this process is sort of like describing chocolate to someone who’s never tasted it. It’s not like simply flexing your elbow or bending your knee. It’ll probably take a bit of practice to get a feel for this. The goal should be to take this strange-feeling novel movement and turn it into a habit. The video below should help explain this.
However, just like throwing a baseball or shooting a basketball, running is a skill that must be learned. – Steve Magness, running coach
For almost 10 years now I’ve confronted various chronic aches and pains. I love to run but often my running efforts have been derailed by some extremely frustrating issues. My most recent battle has been with Achilles pain/heel pain/plantar fascitis/somesuch in my left foot. I’ve been dealing with these issues for about two years–and it’s driven me insane.
Of course the idea of quitting is nonsense. Humans should be able to run. I want to run and so I’ve searched for a solution. I can very happily report that it seems I have indeed found the key and I’ve spent the past eight weeks or so running almost daily. Seems up until recently I was walking and running incorrectly. Now I know what I’m doing!
Thanks to Rick Olderman
First I must thank Denver-area physical therapist Rick Olderman for helping me with this process. He’s by far the best physical therapist I’ve ever worked with–and I’ve worked with quite a few. Rick truly understands movement, not just muscles and joints. He’s helped me see and feel what I’ve been doing wrong and how to change my ways. If you’re battling with chronic pain and you’re in the Denver area, I highly recommend a visit to Rick.
Tough concepts to discuss
The idea of learning (or re-learning) how to walk and run is sort of a strange thing to consider. Most of us are able to use our legs to ambulate across the earth at various speeds. We typically don’t need to spend much time thinking about how to do this stuff, we just do it. But how well do we run or walk? In my case, I developed poor movement habits–but I didn’t know it. I never actually lost the ability to walk/run, I just lost the ability to do these things efficiently and properly. We know that habits are very hard to break, especially if we can’t identify them.
Identifying and dissecting poor walking/running habits is pretty tough. We’re talking about fairly complex processes that we do without thinking. It’s like blinking or breathing. Analyzing this stuff is challenging and then teaching someone a new method of walking or running is even tougher. As a strength coach and personal trainer, I can say that we rarely consider how to teach someone proper gait mechanics. At the Science of Running, big-time running coach Steve Magness discusses this issue in his excellent blog post titled How to run with proper biomechanics (This post is absolutely essential reading for any runner or running coach.):
“Distance runners and coaches seem to hate the topic of running form. Most subscribe to the idea that a runner will naturally find his best stride and that stride should not be changed. However, just like throwing a baseball or shooting a basketball, running is a skill that must be learned. The problem with learning how to run is that there are so many wrong ideas out there. This is partly due to the complexity of the process and partly due to a lack of understanding of biomechanics. It’s my belief that the wide range of “correct” ways to run has led to this apathetic attitude towards running form changes by most athletes and coaches.”
Over the next several posts I’m going to discuss my understanding of gait mechanics and how you can analyze and improve your gait.
