THE CORRECT WAY OF LANDING IN RUNNING - ON THE BALL OF THE
FOOT
 Why
is there a battle over how we are supposed to land in running?
Why has such a seemingly simple question become so complicated
and the subject of discussion? During the running boom of
the 70-ies through the 90-ies it has become a well-known and
well-established opinion that landing on the heel is the only
option to run properly, with less injuries, more economically,
etc. Any other options were rejected for no obvious reasons
or for some made up reasons such as: landing on the forefoot
is only suitable for elite runners, etc.
Well, there was no scientific proof or any existing experience
to back up this opinion, but still it stayed. Medical and
science community seriously talk about "cushioning"
by landing on the heel. And what was not even funny, they
considered the heel's pad, with a tiny fat layer there to
be meant for cushioning!! Alleluia! Where does it come from?
Are you out of your mind? Since when are bones meant to be
used as cushioning tissues? We can't really talk about fat
on the heel as cushioning. If you want to check it for yourself,
please, go out and run barefoot on the asphalt on your heels.
It'll be a good reality check and will clean up a mess in
your mind.
This, generally accepted and established opinion, was spread
out by media and coaching, through the books and magazines,
and taught at different presentations, clinics and camps.
Yes, it also became the philosophy and hard core politics:
"This is what we think is right, and there is nothing
to discuss here anymore". I would say that temporarily,
in a specific field of human activity, we lost our freedom
to speak about any other vision on this subject. So the majority
of runners accepted this, never proved opinion, as their only
reality. Numbers speaks by themselves - the heel-striking
community make up about 80-85% of running population.
There is nothing funny here at all, as the officially recognized
statistics of annually injured runners, according to ACSM
data, is about the same - 85%. Isn't it an incredible coincidence?
Unfortunately, this is no coincidence, it is the cause and
effect data. If we do believe in such things, then we have
to accept the fact that such high rate of injuries comes from
doing something wrong. It's like violating the traffic rules
would bring our car to collision and us to injuries as a consequence.
Nobody doubts such coincidence in driving of cars, but in
running our injuries are almost looked upon as an act of God.
Why didn't we question if heel striking were good for running
for so long? My guess is that it was kind of brain washing
done by running shoes manufacturing companies. They needed
to develop an easily manipulated market and they took the
easiest way to do it. Their proposed way wasn't related with
our education and skill development, but on the opposite:
with our laziness and our desire to find a quick solution
for our problems. So instead of developing the skill of movement,
they proposed "protection" through all kinds of
cushioning, stability, motion control, etc., shoes. Wow! Sounds
as something even better than the divine project - human beings
with billions of cells in our brains, incredible complexity
nervous and cardio-vascular systems, our muscles and bones
operated by our nervous system, etc.
If we take the shoe companies approach, then they have developed
something better than our Creator. Of course I can't accept
this, and who will? So the question of how to land in running
popped up again in its purest form. Why do we do it in this,
and not in that way? The answer is as simple as Nature. Everything
should be done in the way our Nature requests, or to be more
precise: nature demands. In running, as in all other movement,
it is all about gravity. To use gravity we have to fall forward
from the vertical position, because it is the only one from
which it could happen and for this matter we have no other
choice as to start from the ball of the foot.
I was running around this notion for over 30 years and didn't
find any other solution. Nature always comes back to this
point in order to produce movement in this environment. It
is like saying, "Please, do not waste your time and efforts,
if you want to use/consume gravity, get into this position
as soon as possible and be as precise as possible".
We are getting more and more proof for this matter and a
recent Ph.D. of Graham Fletcher confirms this idea, too, which
existed from time of creation. Why should we neglect it?
Dr.Romanov
Pose
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