MOTION CONTROL, STABILITY, CUSHIONING AND OTHER MYSTERIES
ABOUT RUNNING SHOES
Modern time shoe industry went a long way until this state-of-the-art
running sneakers appeared on the market of starved runners
as something people call "hope". It was not a hope
about the design that could make you look good and fashionable
and make you run faster. Maybe female runners were interested
in it at some point, but only until it came to the question
of running comfortable and safe, and injury free.
It is from that point that a desire to have a nice looking
shoe changed into a desire to have a shoe, that could protect
runners from "unpredictable" injuries, pain and
loss of pleasure of running. At this point of suffering of
the body and mind they started to look for a solution from
this nightmare.
Exactly this high demand served as the base for shoe companies
to "develop" the hope, which they call motion control,
motion stability running shoes, which are supposed to solve
your problems with incurrence of injuries. Thus, these shoes
were meant to prevent and protect you from any uncontrollable
motion, instability, lack of cushioning, etc., and by doing
so get you out of all your problems.
Alleluia, almost a divine solution for everything at once!
So the moment you get your feet into these divine shoes –
presto! You are free from your problems! Do you believe in
this BS? I don´t! But look around and ask people why
they are buying this BS? Because they sincerely believe in
it, because it is written so in the ads for these shoes and
lots of people, from a simple salesperson in a shop, to the
manager, to the shoe companies representatives of all levels
to coaches and finally to scientists with respected names
and tons of research insist on the same thing that they all
together sell to you – hope.
I wish that were true, but unfortunately it is not. There
are two major thoughts behind this. The first one comes from
a simple observation of reality. If any shoes indeed give
you what they claim, then this article wouldn´t be written
and I would be running with everybody in these shoes, confirming
the truth of these claims with my own performance. But it
is not so, as you yourself know and also from the sad experience
of your teammates, friends and just fellow runners with whom
you train and compete in the same city.
The second thought comes from a theoretical point and a major
question here is: how, even the most advanced shoes, could
substitute for something that has a divine origin and went
through an incredible evolution. How could something like
modern shoes, whose history of development is incomparably
shorter than that of human body and mind, substitute for them?
Are you really serious about this and never had any doubt?
Well, then you were seriously brainwashed by shoe sellers.
I guess, they sincerely believe in it themselves, but their
belief still doesn´t help you run better and injury
free. This fact you can´t ignore.
Well, what is the solution? If we start thinking that our
body was designed with an incredible complexity of muscular
and nervous systems work, still presenting a big puzzle for
present time scientists and philosophers, then it is the best
starting point of our rethinking process of the way of our
movement (running) development, and our thoughts are coming
much closer to what nature asked from us – our skill
development.
I like Lawrence Gonzales´ quote from his book "Deep
survival": "Nature doesn´t adjust to your
level of skill". Yes, it is really so, and we have to
think about our own skill development as the basis of our
secure and injury free running.
Dr. Romanov
Pose
running website
PoseTech
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