A Passion for Running

Nancy asked me some questions in a comment she left on yesterday’s video clip post. Here are my answers. Thank Nancy, those were good questions!

I thought of a question for you this morning when I was on the treadmill. Do you employ the POSE technique while walking?

Sort of – but not quite. There are elements of the pose that I pay attention to now when I walk. Specifically, I walk with a bend in my knee now. That is, I try to avoid reaching with my legs so that the knee straightens. I also try to walk more on the middle of my feet instead – not quite on the balls of my feet – but close.

There has been considerable discussion of this topic (applying the pose to walking) on the posetech forum and I even remember Dr. Romanov fielding a question of this nature in our clinic. Basically, the pose is opposed to any kind of straight-legged, heel-striking walking or running but it doesn’t translate well in it’s entirety to walking.

From what I have been able to figure out, the major reason one cannot pose walk, relates to the concept of cadence (the regular, rhythmic reoccurrence of footfall), how cadence relates to muscle elasticity (springiness), and how both relate to the time (in hundredths of seconds) the foot spends contacting the ground. In order to do the pose well, a runner must have a cadence of at least 180 steps (90 steps for each leg) per minute. Developing endurance for this high cadence is one of the challenges for a beginner pose runner. That said, the question usually arises “how can you have such a high cadence on “slow” runs?”. The answer to this is that the slower one runs, the less lean and range of motion should be employed while running. In other words, the slower you run, the shorter steps are taken and the less of a heel lift is required. The slowest running will only require the foot to barely clear the ground so the heel-pull that you saw in my video becomes less and less apparent. However, it is there and is still triggered by pulling of the heel off the ground using the hamstring muscles.

Would you recommend it for racewalkers? Why or why not?

Well, my understanding of racewalkers is their feet never entirely leave the ground and that pretty much all their biomechanics are different from running and even “regular” walking. Marshall would be better able to answer if I got that right! For now, my answer is a wishy-washy “I don’t think so”.

If you are talking about power walkers, Dr. Romanov is opposed to the style of walking employed where arms are pumping, legs are reaching out ahead with a straightening of the knee and a clear heel-plant.

I hope this helped!