Inspired to Change Running Form

My recent read of The Running Revolution: How to Run Faster, Farther and Injury-Free - For Life has inspired me to abandon heel-striking, at least for now. This book's primary purpose is to teach people to adjust their running style to match "The Pose Method", which is what the book's author, Dr. Nicholas Romanov, considers to be the ideal form for running, ANY DISTANCE. It primarily consists of three parts: "the Pose", falling and pulling (which I describe in the next few paragraphs).

"The running Pose is the moment when your full body weight combined with the increased load created by the speed of your running meets the ground," writes Romanov. When you are in the Pose, which occurs immediately after initial contact (each time your foot strikes the ground), the force of impact should be on the ball of your foot, with the ankle under your hip. The other foot, which is in swing (off the ground), should be under your hip, as well.

The falling part of the Pose Method running style occurs next. It basically refers to using gravity to fall forward from the waist down, leading with the hips, "keeping your upper body vertically aligned through your hip, shoulder and head".

The pull got its name from the fact that it involves using your hamstrings to pull your support foot off the ground "at the end of the falling phase". It takes you into the flight phase of running (when both feet are off the ground), followed by your other foot landing in the Pose.

During each of the three runs I completed after finishing Romanov's book, I tired to utilize much of the advice he provides on how to follow the Pose Method.

The book's clear rationales for why adopting various aspects of the Pose Method - like forefoot striking - prevents running injuries is what drew me to the running style. Heel-striking often causes injuries, because it forces locked ankle, knee and hip joints to accept the impact; whereas a forefoot strike distributes the force of impact into the "muscular-tendon elastic system," Romanov explains, in the book.

Prior to reading this book, I often attempted to forefoot strike by simply striking the ground with the balls of my feet.  Romanov cautions against using such a method to forefoot strike, equating it with heel-striking. Instead, he calls for using gravity to help fall into a forefoot landing. I have been focusing on doing that as well as using my hamstrings to bring each of my legs into swing phase. A shorter stride and a faster cadence seem to be the results of my attempts at altering my running form.

There are, of course, many aspects of the book that I have not yet mentioned, such as its descriptions of various strengthening and stretching exercises for injury-prevention and many drills to help you master the Pose Method. The book also includes a detailed training program.

I must admit that I have failed to try any of the drills or exercises. My main excuse for not adopting Romanov's strengthening routine is that I recently ramped up my strength-training as physical therapy for my ankle injuries. The exercise program, which I have discussed in previous entries, was designed by a physical therapist. It has alleviated pain in my right ankle that I had been suffering from for more than a year.

I do intend to later try some of Romanov's stretches and drills. I may even adopt his training schedule when I am healthy enough to return to racing.

An Expert Yoga Instructor’s Advice to Runners

I love yoga, because it always gives my quads and calves a much-needed kneading. Despite the benefits of yoga, I have rarely practiced it more than once a week.  The main reasons for this were that the yoga classes and DVDs I knew tended to require at least a 60-minute time commitment and I enjoy running more than doing yoga. Fortunately, celebrity yoga and pilates instructor Kristin McGee (See photo below.) has introduced me to a fitness routine that incorporates yoga and running, which takes about as much time to complete as my typical run.

This workout begins with one of McGee’s under-6-minute online yoga routines, immediately followed by a RUN! Lastly, post-run, McGee suggests holding some of the yoga poses she demonstrates, such as the crescent lunge, quad stretches and hamstring stretches.

Recently, Health Magazine tweeted a clip of one of these routines, which McGee filmed for alignyo.com. She says she designed this sun salutation and a three-minute dynamic yoga warm-up to ready bodies for a run. Both routines are based on the Vinyasa or flow style of yoga, which involves continuous movement from one yoga pose to the next.

McGee, who has been certified at teaching yoga since 1997, says she recommends following along with one of these yoga flows before a run, because they include moves that improve posture and open up the chest.

I performed McGee’s "runner’s" sun salutation prior to a 45-minute pool run. Before practicing the series of yoga moves, I had expected to be able to run a maximum of 30 minutes, because both of my legs were sore from a 4-mile on-pavement run I had done the previous day. I credit McGee’s pre-run workout for my ability and willingness to work my legs for an additional 15 minutes.

McGee, who also runs, says yoga helps runners prevent injuries to the hip external rotators, hip flexors, quads and glutes. Performing chair pose, lunges, triangle pose, the warrior poses and standing balance poses are all great for runners because they open up and strengthen those areas, she says.

McGee adds that runners can also especially benefit from the core and upper body work that is missing from just running.

“Yoga is going to help runners round everything out,” she explains.

Lots of Squats

Yesterday, the outside of my right ankle (That's the one that I injured in late April 2013) was bothering me a little for the first time in a few weeks. In an attempt to prevent myself from undoing all of the progress I have made during the past couple of months, I did not run. Instead, I strength-trained, which primarily entailed performing a plethora of variations of the classic exercise, the squat.

Following, a 15-minute warm-up on the stationary bike, I performed some of my favorite dual crossing cables exercises at the cable column, which I learned from Arlene Patruno, an amazing personal trainer from New York Health & Racquet Club on 23rd Street in Manhattan. Such shoulder strengthening exercises all begin in a squat position.

One of them, which works your lateral deltoids, incorporates what I call a reverse squat. To do this exercise, begin in a deep squat with cables at the lowest setting on the cable column and ends of cables in hand. Cross arms with palms facing your body and knuckles facing the floor. Slowly rise from squat position as you bring your shoulders and arms up and away from your body. Hold end-position with elbows extended, shoulders abducted and knees extended for a couple of seconds (I recommend doing three sets of 10-15 reps with low weight.)

Then I moved onto exercises targeting the glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors. Jim Collins, the physical therapist I had been working with in October and November, advised me to do the following variations of the squat. Performing these and several other exercises from Collins seem to be primarily responsible for alleviating my right and left ankle pain.

1. Squats beginning with stability ball between wall and lower back, resistance band placed at knees and dumbbells in hands: Slowly lower into squat with knees at 90 degrees. As you rise to return to starting position, perform bicep curls. (I use 10-12 lb. dumbbells for the bicep curls.)

2. Lateral walks in squat position with resistance band at ankles: Begin in squat position with resistance band at ankles and feet slightly apart. Walk sideways, meaning first walk your right foot to the left, then immediately afterwards, walk your left foot to the left. Continue walking this way for about fifteen strides, maintaining approximately a foot of distance between your feet the entire time to keep tension in the resistance band. Then walk sideways in the opposite direction (to the right), leading with the left foot. (I do three sets in each direction.)

3. Skating walks in squat position with resistance bands at ankles: Begin in squat position with resistance band at ankles and feet slightly apart. Use your right hip and thigh to bring flexed knee and hip forward and to the right side of your body, in one fluid, sweeping motion, like you are ice-skating. Then immediately do the same thing with the opposite leg. Continue doing this for about 15 sweeps. (I recommend doing 6 sets.)

4. One legged squats while balancing on a Bosu: (This takes a lot of balance!) Begin by balancing on one leg on a Bosu with the other leg straight and lifted in front of your body.  Squat down on standing leg and lower leg in the air to the floor, tapping floor with heel of that leg. Then rise to return to starting position Do as many of these as you can in a row, then switch legs. (I can do about five in a row on each leg, but hope to work up to ten in a row.)

5. Walking lunges: Lunge with right foot forward and quickly rise before lunging with left foot forward. Keep lunging, alternating which leg is in front and focusing on using your glutes to squat each time you lower your body into a lunge. To ensure you are doing a proper squat, don't lean forward or backwards; just keep you spine neutral and squeeze your glutes. (I do about forty lunges and hold ten lb. dumbbells at my sides while performing this exercise.)

Happy squatting!

Pain-free At Last!

First of all, let me apologize for down-playing my enthusiasm about my first pain-free run in more than a year, in my last entry, The Heel-Strike Returns. For those of you who don't feel like reading that entry, I had alluded to the fact that I finally completed a pain-free run last weekend. It only lasted about 2.5 miles and was very slow, but I feel grateful to have done it nonetheless.

Then following a day of strength-training, I gave running another shot, making it 3.5 miles that time. Since my ankles felt good again(!) after that run, I ran the next two days, approximately the same distance. After three consecutive days of running. I did, unfortunately, feel a little soreness in my left ankle, which carried over to the following day.

Unlike my old self, I resisted my urge to run. Instead I opted to do a medley of fitness activities including a 15-minute cycling warm-up, a bunch of hip abductors and hip extensors strengthening exercises, a few back extensions, five pull-ups and 1200m of freestyle swimming. To relieve some soreness in my back and ankles, I ended the day with ten minutes in my gym's whirlpool. Ahhhh, I love those jets, almost as good as a real massage!

Yesterday, I refrained from running again, but not due to pain. I decided to test my ability at rock-climbing (indoors, at Gravity Vault in Chatham, NJ), which had also been too painful for me to do for the previous 12-months. As you may have guessed, because of the title of this entry, my ankles felt great rock-climbing too!

In fact, I felt so good after climbing that I went for another 3.5-mile run today, followed by lateral walking with a resistance-band around my ankles and some walking lunges.

In summary, my fitness achievements of this week were that I hit two major milestones.These included performing not one, but two of my favorite activities - running and rock-climbing - without pain for the first time in at least 12 months. What made my workouts this weekend particularly enjoyable are that I did them with one of my best friends and fellow runner and fitness-enthusiast, Dr.
Courtney Burgess (pictured in the pink boa next to me, taken at her "bachelorette/bootcamp" in Boulder, Colorado).

The Heel-Strike Returns

I'm sure, by now, many of you runners have read Christopher McDougall's beloved Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe,Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. For those of you who haven't, it is an exciting, informative read that follows the world's best ultra-marathoners to the hottest, most highly elevated locales in North America. McDougall's recounts of the over 26.2-mile races run by such absurdly, impressive athletes were the parts of the book that resonated most with me. For the rest of the world, however, the National Bestseller seemed to be about one thing and one thing only: running barefoot or nearly barefoot. In fact, the book sparked a manufacturing trend of lightweight running "shoes" with zero to 8 mm drops, compared to the 10-12 mm drop found in traditional running shoes. That trend then gave rise to the other trend of running with a mid and/or forefoot strike instead of a heel-strike.

 For better or worse, I too jumped on the bandwagon some time after 2011, when the book was published. While I never fully converted to running without shoes or even to running in those sock-like things called Vibram Five Fingers, I traded in my Saucony and Brooks stability shoes for a lighter shoe that was either the New Balance Women's W890v2 Neutral Running Shoe or something very similar to it. More importantly, I stopped heel-striking and began landing on my mid-foot.

My new shoes just felt so light and springy that I couldn't help letting go of the way I had been running for the previous 15 years. After a couple of years of running with this new form, in this new type of shoe, I was racing my fastest times at the 5K. Unfortunately, I was also using my new stride and shoes when I acquired my longest-lasting running injury. See earlier entries of this blog for my grumblings about right ankle pain that lasted more than a year.

I can't say for certain what caused that nagging injury.What I can tell you is that my physical therapist expressed concern about my mid-foot strike. After watching me run around his facility for a few minutes, he concluded that heel-striking would be better for me.

Since following his advice is what finally enabled me to return to running without pain, I have returned to heel-striking.