POSE IN PRESS A collection of articles about Pose Method and Dr.Romanov in various publications.
RUNNING NETWORK (US)
June, 2003
The Pose Method, Running Like Never Before
by Jim Gebhardt
Here's an exercise to check out the racing form of runners.
Locate a local running event. A 5K or 10K will do. Don't sign up, but walk out about a half-mile from the start and wait for the runners to come by. By that time, the people running over their heads will have dropped back and the true runners will have taken the lead.
Observe the front-runners as a group, noting the economy of movement and the relative ease at which they are executing their motion. As they approach, shift your focus to the sound they make as they pass by.
No doubt you will hear the effort of heavy breathing, but conspicuously absent in the lead pack is much sound coming from running shoes impacting the pavement. Keep listening as athletes go by, and you will begin to realize that the slower and less economical runners hit the pavement much harder.
This exercise shows there's a clear TECHNIQUE DIFFERENCE that allows more efficient motion. Through the Pose method, this difference is the most easily changeable variable that pays back in faster and injury-free running, something we all want.
Dr. Nicholas Romanov, Pose's developer, believes running requires skill rather than individual and natural ability. According to Romanov, although we have all been told to relax and run naturally, this is not effective if the fundamentals are poorly practiced.
So what is the Pose method?
According to the official Web site, www.posetech.com, the Running Pose is a whole body pose, which vertically aligns shoulders, hips and ankles with the support leg, while standing on the ball of the foot. This creates an S-like shape of the body. The runner then changes the pose from one leg to the other by falling forward and allowing gravity to do the work. The support foot is pulled from the ground to allow the body to fall forward, while the other foot drops freely in a change of support.
There always have been coaches and books that offer "pointers," but until Pose, there has not been a comprehensive methodology that teaches the best way to execute a running stride. Far beyond a gait analysis, Pose has established and broken down the motions and segments of the stride. It goes where few have gone by verbalizing and demonstrating a proper stride through video-analysis.
Over the years, runners have been told: keep your arms lower, pick up your knees higher or stop bobbing up and down. Pose is a very different approach, and to a point, is somewhat radical, borrowing from the form of animals that have no heels at all.
Pose challenges conventional thinking that you land on your heel and roll to push off. It is just the opposite. The Pose method prescribes that you land on the ball of your foot, followed by a rapid pull of the foot off the ground. The result is that the body is subject to less impact while being propelled forward more efficiently.
Skeptical at first, I noticed that the higher cadence was not hard to maintain. Pulling off the ground was actually easier than the big effort that went into pushing off. Athletes who have implemented the Pose method report it takes a lower heart rate to maintain the same pace as before. Though landing on the balls of your feet sounds impossible to maintain, it is surprisingly easy after a few weeks of conditioning the calf muscles.
This could well be the future of running. At the very least, Pose's impact on your running could be to keep you on the road for life without the accumulation of pounding that puts many of us out of action.
Jim Gebhardt is a local runner/triathlete and POSE method certified coach who offers clinics and coaching through CZI Training Systems, Palatine, IL. Contact him at jg22@attbi.com or call 847-705-3983. For more information on this method, check out www.posetech.com.
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