A llong post about running form.

[OakLeaf]

Nice. Thanks Wahine.

[Melalvai]

I about fell over when I tried the one legged mini squats.

[OakLeaf]

I've been working a lot on foot and ankle strength and flexibility. I still do my one-legged barefoot heel raises with the option of support (behind a couch or chair, by the kitchen island), but after three months I'm just getting to where I can sometimes do all 15 without hanging on. I never used more than fingertips, but that makes a huge difference...

[jessmarimba]

The guy I'm trying to work with now demands a heel strike, but with the foot directly under the body. Oh my goodness my feet do not want to do that. I can't pick my toes up enough to not slap my feet and thud along. I'm trying to decide if this is worth it.

(He's certainly knowledgeable - about how he runs - but I'm not sure it's going to work for me. Or whether it's worth it to retrain myself).

[Wahine]

Did he give a reason for the heel strike? The issue with heel striking is when the heel strikes first out in front. If your landing on a mid/flatter foot under your body, it's not bad for you the way heel striking out in front is. In fact, even if you land mid to forefoot first, your heel should still come down and touch the ground through the mid part of the weight bearing portion of the stride.

[jessmarimba]

The way you're describing is how I run, he wants the heel to hit first and roll through. I'm working to help some tendonitis issues so I see why he's doing what he's doing, but I don't have the muscles built up to keep my heel hitting first without just thudding the whole foot down at one time (which my back HATES). My other fear is that this won't really help the tendonitis. He keeps reaffirming that I'm not suffering with it now (I'm not) - but I'm also not able to run even a fraction of the distance where it usually starts to nag.

(His rationale seems to be based on "that's how all of the really fast guys run" - and it might be true, but I'll never be Ryan Hall anyway!)

[OakLeaf]

I can't pick my toes up enough to not slap my feet

Just speaking from my own experience and no knowledge whatsoever ...

I've had big issues with ankle flexibility in dorsiflexion and lesser, but persistent, issues with my Achilles tendons.

My PT this summer did a whole lot of mobilization work on the bones in my feet and ankles. I'm sure that's the #1 thing that helped.

The three exercises she left me with (for my ankles - there are others I'm doing for my low back and SI joint) are the one-legged heel raises I mentioned; a one-legged thing where I go from standing, then to ardha chandrasana to parivrtta ardha chandrasana and rotate three times before standing back up; and standing forward-leaning calf stretches where I take my opposite knee from inside to outside 15 times to get all aspects of the calf muscles.

It's made an enormous difference. I'm ramping up my mileage for an April marathon and my Achilles aren't bothering me at all (touch wood)...

[tangentgirl]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to post this!