causes people to run with bad form
Two man-made objects:
Chairs, and shoes.
Chairs cause bad form by shutting off the glutes along with causing a whole host of other problems.
I’ve got a pair of VIBRAM Five fingers ‘barefoot shoes’ - they look like smurf feet.
I’ve only walked around in them, I haven’t tried running. My feet aren’t toughened enough.
This picture is from the 1984 Olympics. The barefoot runner is named Zola Budd, from South Africa. Right after this picture was taken, she accidently stepped on the foot of the runner in front, who was Mary Decker Slaney, from the US and the favorite for the Gold Medal.
Slaney crashed into another competitor and went down with an ankle injury. And Budd ended up placing 7th.
And she was PISSED!
By spending all day in a seated and bent over position, you tighten up the hip flexors, and cause dysfunction in the entire hip and spine area-lumbar spine, thoracic spine, cervical spine, adductors, glute medius, psoas and hamstrings, among others.
Running is a complex task. There are a lot of moving parts-almost every joint in your body. The hips especially need to be strong to keep proper form-glutes and glute medius are the key. This concept gained ground when the book Born To Run came out based on mainly anecdotal evidence by McDougall without any scientific studies supporting the concept. When tested, the conclusions in the book are controversial to say the least. Here is one discussion of the issue:
The book also indicated that the Tarahumara people basically lived to an extremely advanced age without any of the modern health issues that plague people in developed societies. At about the same time an article in national Geographic in stated that the average lifespan of these people was in the upper 40’s. Other articles support this - here is one: Running Feet If people die on average in their mid-40’s they will of course escape many of the conditions which afflict older people in developed societies.
There’s no question that moderate exercise can increase lifespan. Medical studies have confirmed this but also have suggested that there is an upper limit beyond which further gains are minimal.
The point I’m making is that while Born To Run is a greatly entertaining book and very well written, the author had a narrative (basically a theory) is not necessarily backed up in all specifics by facts when the issues have been put to the test. I would point out that almost all athletes in competition wear shoes, including those where large sums of money are involved (the Boston Marathon winners get $150,000 dollars). A look at images of the winners of this race will not show many if any barefoot runners and some are clearly heel-striking.
Every runner is one bum（pun very much intended!) glute medius away from foot, ankle, shin, knee, IT band, hamstring, lower back or sports hernia problems.
They can all be caused by a weakness in your hip.
Many people don’t have the strength to hold themselves in the correct positions when not moving, let alone at pace. very interesting. I’m getting into treadmill running for general cardio and I’m battling through re-training my brain with this. Landing on my heel and rolling forward feels like it should be right and results in a smoother, lighter stride. I would notice that about 10 minutes in, my shin muscles would be extremely fatigued to the point where I’d feel like I couldn’t lift my feet anymore. I’ve been working at striking mid-foot and the results are immediately noticeable. Although it feels a bit more clunky (200lb guy on a treadmill), I can now go 20–30min without any shin muscle fatigue.
Over millions of footstrikes, this causes injury.
The best runners in the world have beautiful form. There is some variability, but from the mid back and down, very similar. You might think that Farah is possibly overstriding slightly, but his heel is right below his center of gravity.
Bekele and Geb are just more forefoot dominant runners, and both have had long-term ankle tendon problems because of it.
It’s their…Achilles heel.
Da dum chhhhhhh.
(I’m so sorry you had to read that)
Anyway, you must always be balanced over your foot. Thus, if your head goes forward, your hips tend to compensate by going the other way-backwards.
This causes overstriding, because your foot is still way forward.
This is encouraged by wearing shoes with a built-up, padded heel.
Try to find a picture of someone running barefoot who is landing on their heel. It's incredibly difficult to do because it just doesn’t happen. The heel isn’t made to absorb that kind of impact, and it’s painful as a result.
Listen to your pain-it’s incredibly useful.
Compare the leader to the girls behind her. Focus on the feet…they’re at different points in their stride, but you can tell it’s a big difference in movement pattern!
Once you put shoes on, suddenly your body thinks that it’s a viable movement pattern to land on the heel.
Abebe Bikila won the Olympics in world record time in Rome 1960, barefoot.
Across cobblestones.
Think your feet can’t survive that?
You’re right.
Your feet can’t.
But like any other part of the body, they can adapt.
But not if you are wearing shoes.
Picture Source Wikipedia
Thanks for Reading
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