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Do we know how to run ?



Dr. Nicholas Romanov for Triathlon Training Log

Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Scientist, Coach and Author
UNITED STATES


Running Pose in Motion, Dr. Romanov
Running Pose in motion, Dr.Romanov
Photo by
posetech.com

Does the above question make any sense to anyone who is involved in running? Isn’t running a natural, simple and accessible for most people exercise for health, pleasure and competition? Is there anything wrong with this picture? By the latest statistical data, there are about 33.6 million people only in the US, including people running in some exercise program, which makes running the most popular and also most dangerous kind of sport, because by the same statistical analysis, 2 out of 3 runners are injured every year. This statistics was first shown in the 70’s, when the running boom started, and it still remains the same at present in the beginning of the new century.

So, two “simple” questions could be raised on this matter: Does this number of runners show that we know how to run, and I mean, actually run correctly? And, if, the answer to this question is yes, and we run correctly, why the number of injuries received in running, still remains so high, despite a much better medical service, more sophisticated running shoes, more educated coaches and athletes? The irony of this situation lies in the fact that everybody talks about different causes of injuries, about volume and intensity of training, running surface, shoe design, body alignment, but not about how we run.

So, no matter how you run, it’s ok. If you try to apply this “logic” to any other human activity such as swimming, tennis, dancing, driving a car and so on, it would sound totally strange, but not so for running…

This paradox has a long history, which could be summarized as follows. Despite more than 100 years of scientific study in running, with tons of articles and books, and practical experience of best coaches, we still didn’t come to some commonly accepted model of running technique. As it was expressed by A. Nitro(1987) that “these is no scientifically founded ideal technique, that suits everyone.”

But following this way of thinking, we should then agree that swimming technique is also completely individual, or hammer throwing technique, etc. I don’t think so. If we accept this point of view, we’ll have to admit that nature “doesn’t care” how this or that exercise is performed in relation to gravity. I can’t agree with this, because I accept the philosophy of wholeness of nature, and the existence of humans as a part of it, setting a lot of limitations on their physiological, and biomechanical functions.

We have to understand, that nature does allow some deviations, and some angles, but these are very limited – if you ignore them, nature will “punish” you, no substantial deviations from nature’s “requirements” are actually allowed unpunished. A human organism, developed and existing in the gravity field, the greatest natural force surrounding us, should stay within a certain biomechanical framework, some limits appropriate for gravity.

Cornice control avalanche, Cariboo Mts. B.C.Photos by Brad White, 3-Apr-00
Avalanche
Photo courtesy of
avalanche.org
How powerful gravity could be can be illustrated by the following two examples. As you know, snow mass sliding downhill, called avalanche, goes with the speed of more than 200 km/hr and becomes a disaster. We can compare human being force with gravity as well. For instance, the fastest sprinters in the world could reach the highest speed of 12.5 m/s in 6 sec. But a free falling body during 6 seconds could achieve the speed of 58.8 m/s (v=at, 9.8 m/sec2 x 6 = 58.8m/s), which is almost 5 times more than the fastest runner. We can make some adjustments on horizontal directions in running, but it is anyway far away from the power of gravity.

Certainly, behind gravity there exist some other forces involved in running, such as a ground reaction force (GR), muscle elasticity (ME) and muscle voluntary contraction (MVC). Speaking about movement, we have to understand that it is the resultant force or group of forces acting upon the moving body. Therefore the model of running technique is first of all a model of forces




courtesy of http://www.posetech.com


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