INJURY FREE RUNNING - Continued

So what do we have to do to get our running injury free? If we understand that neither "special" shoes nor any "helpful" equipment can help us in this endeavor, what can? I have only a trivial answer, well known for a long time. It is your own skill and lots of work.

Hard work is well accepted in the running community, but that's not what I mean. We need a special work to develop and perfect our running skill, where technique is just a part. Running technique is our material base for developing our skill of running, but without this base everything else will be just hanging in the air. Running technique is our material channel through which we manifest all our abilities and apply them. It is our way to interact with our environment and whether we do it well and just seem to flow out there or poor and seem to stumble on every step, depends a lot on our understanding of it, first.

We have to disillusion ourselves that we and our muscle power are the main sources of propulsion in any smooth and efficient running. Our muscles should just assist gravity to move us forward, they are just transmitters of the power of gravity. This is a big part of our skill - a proper mind set, which would allow us to build an efficient relationship with our environment and gravity. Just this alone will help us to avoid some troubles in the future. Certainly, after that we have to know how it works, or what is the practical part of using gravity in running. But if we do not accept this part, we obviously start working against gravity. Fortunately, we have no choice and can't ignore gravity completely. The problem is very straightforward - either we work with or against gravity, everything else is just about the exact proportions.

Working against gravity is practically the cause of all injuries in running. We can start from simple blisters, where friction is the cause at the first glance. But then, where is this friction coming from? We get it when the foot is sliding inside the shoe. But why is the foot sliding? -Because it lands ahead of the body, or, may be, inside or outside of the vertical projection of the body instead of being directly under it. This all means that in one way or another it deteriorates our relationship with gravity. When the body weight is not directly above the point of support, then it moves to the foot position in order to find this support. If the foot is not fixed inside the shoe, then it starts moving to the place where it could stop and become a support for the body weight. By the end of this "journey" the foot slid inside the shoe and got friction with it. I can describe any "running" injury in this way and the logic would be always the same - work against gravity*.

There are very simple steps providing our skill development in running. First one is understanding of the major concepts of running technique: Pose, Fall, and Pull. Second is getting to know how these concepts apply to running through the specific drills performance. Third is developing a new perception (understanding, feelings, senses) of running and the elements of it. Fourth is learning to keep mental focus on the elements of running technique. And after all implementing these into any kind of running in connection with physiological, energy, power production functions of the body. These things are not something you are doing temporarily, by the way, at the beginning of your endeavor of running. It is something, that you'll be performing constantly, as long as you wish to keep your running injury free. As you see, there is no any compromise or substitute to hard work in your running skill, but it is the only one that will give you freedom from injuries.

Once, amazing Russian ballerina, Maya Plisetskaya, said during a TV show, answering a question how she is able to keep her high dancing performance for so long (and she was 67 at that time), that it was very simple: just every morning she was going to the studio and did her exercise routine which she was doing from the age of 5.

I don't want to bring this as an example for everyone, but only for understanding what it takes to get "there" and stay there on the top. You can set up your own limits to your work, but you must know the price you have to pay for your injury free running.

Dr.Romanov


* The full description of these will be given in a book "Running Technique And Injuries". Coming Soon.