ACHILLES TENDON AND RUNNING

Let's begin with a simple fact - 99% of people (coaches, athletes, doctors, physical therapists, almost everybody...) do not have a proper understanding of the role of the achilles in running. We all know what it is and where it's at, but not how it works. We're not talking about observing achilles at work and then describing what we think we see, we're talking about knowing it's intended function and how it's supposed to work in running.

When a doctor writes: "The Achilles tendon, the largest tendon in the body, is vulnerable to injury because of its limited blood supply...", it becomes clear how runners get injuried in such large numbers, if docs don't know - what are the rest of us supposed to do?

Anatomy 101 - achilles is a tendon. The LARGEST tendon. It is an extension of calf muscles and is attached to the rear part of the heel bone. It serves as a connection, that's it (for the purpose of this article, we're simplifying the role of the tendon. There will be more information on this subject in forthcoming books by Dr.Romanov). If it is allowed to function correctly, it can handle running for a lifetime, regardless of it's "limited blood supply"...

Compared to muscles, it cannot really become bigger and stronger. It is simply there. It is there only to perform it's function of connecting muscles to bones. Being the largest tendon in the body, it does a great job but only if not abused. What is abuse? Wrong or improper use; misuse (dictionary.com). So the next logical step is to learn how to not abuse the achilles tendon.

By learning the proper running technique you will learn how to properly operate your body during running, so you're not abusing any of your extremities and their comprising parts, and not fighting anything but smoothly flowing in synergy with all forces at play.

Achilles typically gets injured when healstrikers straighten their knees and do the roll and do the push off, paw back, etc and forefoot landers land ahead of the body and keep the heel too high off the ground in rigid position at a fixed angle... all of that puts a tremendous load on the achilles tendon.

In Pose Method® of Running we skip the maddness by simply lifting the foot off the ground and striking a pose, then falling forward, lifting the foot up again and back in pose, and so on... When the foot is simply lifted (Pull)- THERE IS REDUCED LOADING ON ACHILLES THUS LESS POTENTIAL OF INJURY. The S-shape of the Pose Stance, the first ingredient in the "Pose Formula of Running" also allows for better use of achilles by helping to evenly distribute the body weight load between three major joints involved in running - hips, knees and ankles.

While the famous "Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee" study have concluded that "Pose running is characterized by shorter stride lengths, lower magnitudes of the vertical impact forces, greater knee flexion in preparation for and at initial contact, and less eccentric work at the knee and more eccentric work at the ankle compared with midfoot and heel-toe running", it didn't get the big picture where all work is evenly distributed and no body part gets overloaded. That's why the vertical impact forces are lower.