BACKWARD RUNNING

This topic popped up on our website seemingly from nowhere, with an attempt to give an explanation for its use as a facilitator of the Pose Method. Some description of backward running came from an article on our website and gave an idea of using its biomechanical similarities as the base of positive implementation of backward running into teaching Pose.

Certainly I am familiar with this article, but I never paid any attention to this similarity and never saw backward running as a facilitator of the Pose Method technique, even though I occasionally used it myself in teaching and training of my students. So I never gave any "deep" thoughts to this matter, but now I have to do it due to its sudden appearance on our website and some special interest in it.

Yes, the existence of some biomechanical similarities is quite a good reason to see if this exercise could be used for our needs, which consist of perfecting the running technique among other things. There are several positive characteristics in backward running, which could be potentially beneficial to us in this respect, such as "an initial contact with midfoot" (even though I do not accept the term "midfoot" as a proper name for this type of landing), "the knee is more flexed in terminal swing, initial contact, and stance", "the peak ground reaction force is only 25-33% of that measured during forward running", "the peak patellofemoral compressive force is also reduced with backward running (3.0 ± 0.6 body weight (BW) compared with 5.6 ± 1.3 BW for forward running)". Consequently this lead to speculations that "these biomechanical characteristics of backward running could make it more beneficial in the treatment of running injuries" than any other method with no real scientific data backing up this conclusion.

On the opposite, that same article admitted that "backward running is an impractical method for the treatment or prevention of running injuries". Indeed how long can we run backward to get any positive effect?

So, the question is: do we need to use backward running in our "arsenal" of treatment and teaching tools, and if yes, then where are the limitations of its use?

As a treatment tool it is very unlikely to become anything of importance because of unknown effects of backward running and absence of more profound studies on this matter.

As a teaching exercise it is a possible venue for sharpening our perception of support on the ball of the foot and pulling the foot from the ground. Using these aspects should be accompanied by a proper understanding of certain anatomical and physiological restrains such as falling capacity, elasticity and neutral foot positioning on landing.

So my conclusion would be as follows: please use all positive sides of this exercise, but do not forget about its limitations.

Dr.Romanov