The Hullabloo Over Foot Strike

If you're a runner I'm sure by this point you've heard about the ongoing debate over what foot strike is better, a forefoot (or midfoot) landing or a heel strike.  Recently there has been a growing body of research trying to prove with one is “better,” spurred along in a great part by the minimalist shoe movement. Many people have heard of the land mark study done by Harvard's Daniel Lieberman on barefoot Kalenjin Kenyan distance runners that shows them running with a forefoot strike. Recently a second study done by George Washington University researchers recently came out that looked at the habitually barefoot Daasanach Kenyans; this one found that many of them were heel strikers. And there's been a tone of other research done trying to determine if switching from one type of heel strike to another is beneficial - none of which seem to really come to any hard and fast conclusions. If you’ve trained with us here at PTI you’ll know it’s no secret that we teach runners to land with a mid or forefoot strike, so I'll go ahead an d make my bias known. But what really bothers me about all this debate is that people don’t seem to be talking about what the rest of the body is doing – which is just as important as where your foot first touches the ground. In fact, if I had to choose only one factor to “fix” in a person’s running stride (or wright a research paper on), it wouldn’t be how their foot lands; it would be the orientation of their tibia (the shin bone) to the ground upon landing.

There’s a whole continuum of foot strikes that runners use, from the most extreme heel striker to the person who’s heel never touches the ground.  Biomechanically a lot of this will have to do with how much the person plantarflexes (points toes, like in ballet) or dorsiflexes (top of foot moves up towards the shin) their foot in the milliseconds before landing. My concern is when a person’s tibia isn’t close to a 90 degree angle with the ground when they land. When your tibia is close to perpendicular your knees and hips are both flexed, allowing your leg to act more like a spring and absorb some of the impact of landing. On the other hand, the closer your knee is to straight when you land the more that leg is “putting on the breaks,” meaning more impact is going to be transmitted directly up your knee and into your hip, pelvis, and lower back instead of being dissipated over the lower joints.

The difficulty comes when you’re trying to teach someone proper running mechanics.  It’s much easier to visualize and change where your foot lands than it is to think about your tibia, and getting a person to start landing on their mid to forefoot will almost always bring their tibia closer to perpendicular than they were before. It is possible to land on your heel with an almost vertical tibia if you have a large amount of dorsiflexion available. I imagine this is what was happening in the North African study that showed the habitually barefoot people heel striking. But for those of us who grew up wearing shoes it's very unlikely that you'll have that much dorsiflexion available to you. So when the next media headline comes up proclaiming “running on your forefoot is better” or “heel landings are better” take a good look at the study and see if they were only looking at where the foot landed or if they considering the position of the entire lower leg.

Boston Strong

For many people this past week has been an emotional roller coaster showcasing both the very best and the very worst of human nature.  I doubt there is anyone in Massachusetts that doesn't at this point know all the details from Monday's Boston Marathon's tragedies all the way to last night's apprehension of the second bombing suspect. Our heart aches for the victims of this senseless violence and we sincerely hope that healing can now begin. If you haven't already heard, a special fund called One Fund Boston has been set up by Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino to help support those families affected; you can donate directly at http://onefundboston.org/.


As a runner living in Massachusetts I have a special affinity for the Boston Marathon, and have in years past watched, cheered, and volunteered at the event alongside friends, family, and fellow runners. Runners are a tight-knit group, as are the people of Boston - needless to say an attack on both of these groups only served to further solidify that special bond. I would just like to highlight a few of the amazing acts of selflessness and community that occurred this week.

I had a few friends that were stopped a mile or two short of the finish line, and from them came touching stories of help and concern from other runners and bystanders along the course. Julie Arrison, a runner who was stopped at mile 24, posted this on her Facebook page:

"Out of this tragedy, I will remember the kindness of strangers on the course--crazy college kids who handed over Gatorade and offered us adult beverages--girls in their twenties walking around with boxes of trash bags and covering up cold runners---people offering their last bars of battery life on their cell phones so loved ones could find loved ones--sharing hugs and holding hands with other runners, complete strangers, and people I will never see again as we made our way into Boston together." 

Laura Wellington shared this story in hopes of finding the kind hearted couple that gave her some measure of comfort during this difficult time: 

"I was 1/2 mile from the finish line when the explosion went off. I had no idea what was going on until I finally stopped and asked someone. Knowing that my family was at the finish line waiting for me, I started panicking, trying to call them. Diverted away from the finish line, I started walking down Mass Ave towards Symphony Hall still not knowing where my family was. Right before the intersection of Huntington, I was able to get in touch with Bryan and found out he was with my family and they were safe. I was just so happy to hear his voice that I sat down and started crying. Just couldn't hold it back. At that moment, a couple walking by stopped. The woman took the space tent off her husband, who had finished the marathon, and wrapped it around me. She asked me if I was okay, if I knew where my family was. I reassured her I knew where they were and I would be ok. The man then asked me if I finished to which I nodded "no." He then proceeded to take the medal off from around his neck and placed it around mine. He told me "you are a finisher in my eyes." I was barely able to choke out a "thank you" between my tears.

Odds are I will never see this couple again, but I'm reaching out with the slim chance that I will be able to express to them just what this gesture meant to me. I was so in need of a familiar face at that point in time. This couple reassured me that even though such a terrible thing had happened, everything was going to be ok."

From the finish line stories of heroics came in droves, from the first responders who ran towards the bomb blasts to help the injured to runners who had just finished running 26.2 miles and immediately started running the two miles to Mass General Hospital to donate blood.

The outpouring of support continued well into the week. People gathered together to show their

Gathering at Salem Commons

support for one another and start the hard process of healing. In Salem over a thousand people gathered on the Common decked out in Boston gear. Later a group run in honor of the marathon that was slated to start from Porter Square had to be canceled because thousands of people RSVP'ed to the run within minutes of the email being sent out - the organizers hadn't planned on quite that huge of a response and there wasn't enough room on the streets to safely accommodate that many people!

Those are just a few of the amazing stories of love and caring that came out of this tragic event. I'll leave with this great poem that was shared over social media written by Bostonian Kevin Meehan:

I will run in the dark before Dawn
I will run in the noon day sun
I will run in the bitter cold
I will run in the stifling heat
I will run when the rain falls
I will run when the snow flies
I will run even if I'm tired
I will run even if I ache
But I will NOT run away
I will Not be terrorized
I am Boston I will run

Yury's Corner

Using Exercises In The Right Order

In high performance sports there is a term called periodization of training,  which means that a training process should be divided into certain phases or time periods. The biggest one is the 4 year long Olympic cycle, then there's an annual period, smaller 2-4 month long (off season, pre-season, peak of season, post peak) cycles, and weekly. Combining small ones into bigger one allows an athlete to have better control of his/her program, and also helps the athlete adjust and peak at the right time. All of the periods have different goals, value, and intensity, and use different tools and exercises.

In fitness it is slightly different, as people don't compete and don't have to peak at certain times. Conditioning training for sports, on the other hand, is only one part of the annual cycle and is usually done off season or at the beginning of the season. But there is something important to consider - to get the best results in training you must have a particular schedule (or order of exercises) used in the weekly cycle and daily routine. In the other words, it is very important to know how to connect different types of exercises in one program.

There are five major types of exercises used in training: flexibility or mobility, skills training, quickness or speed, strength, and endurance.

 

1. Flexibility, or joint mobility, allows us to increase the range of motion, which generates stronger forces needed in both sports and everyday life.

 

2. Skills training is a program where you are learning/improving/polishing some new exercise technique.

 

3. Quickness, or speed training, is about doing something faster, including reaction time to the signal, visual or auditory, and frequency of the movement.

 

4. Strength training encompasses a few different types, such as maximal strength (ability of produce maximal muscle force), power or explosiveness (maximal afford in the shortest period of time), and muscular endurance.

 

5. Endurance (muscular and aerobic) is the ability to sustain fatigue without losing proper form.

During a single workout or weekly program you would follow the order mentioned above. Structuring your program in this manner works with your physiology and is more efficient. You don't necessary need all of them in one session or even in one week. It this case, just skip things you aren't focusing on. As an example, if you don't do skill and speed work, go from flexibility to strength and then to endurance. Never start your routine a long cardiovascular session. You still need a warm-up, but don't do it for more than 10-15 min. If you do double sessions, you should do cardio at the end of the day or right after the other parts (depending on the intensity of the session).

 

Best of luck!

 

~Yury

If The Shoe Fits: Stability Features

  

These days athletic shoes run the gamut from no support at all (minimalist shoes) to shoes that sport an array of features aimed at tightly controlling the movement of your foot (motion control shoes). Figuring out what level of support you need can be tricky at times, but knowing how the different features work can help you sleuth out which shoe is best for you.

Before we talk about any specific features I want to first say that you should not be using the footprint method to decide how much support you need in a shoe! I know, it sounds like heresy, and I might get banned from certain running shoe stores for saying so, but that old method of looking at a foot print to determine arch height (and thus shoe type) is exactly that - old. The height of your arch is only one small factor in the way your foot functions, and it can't reliably tell you if you overpronate or not. Real life is far more complicated, and when you're dynamically moving your body has surprising ways of compensating for problems you may not be aware you have. You might look at your foot print and see that you have a high arched foot, but that does not automatically mean you will be a underpronator (rolling on the outside of your foot). If you'd like to delve deeper into science, Gretchen Reynolds wrote a great piece on the NYTimes Well Blog about this very issue.

The support features in a shoe are theoretically aimed at helping your foot move through (what some people consider) the ideal foot motion from heel strike to toe off; which is a landing with more weight to the outside of your foot, then transferring your weight toward the inside before the final movement through the big toe...there's been some controversy on this issue as well, but we'll save that for another post. Conventional wisdom has been that people who overpronated (or roll to far to the inside) need a shoe that will help push them back towards the middle, so most stability features center around this idea. Here are some of the common stability features you'll find in a running shoe:

Duel Density Midsole: The gray section of midsole you sometimes see in a shoe indicated that it is a denser material than the white foam. The idea is that the harder material will slow down some of the foot's pronation during your stride. Some shoes will have different amounts of the higher density material - generally speaking, the more gray area there is the higher the level of support. This area may also be called a "medial post."

Shank: This is the hard plastic piece seen in the middle of the shoe. The shank prevents the shoe from flexing under the area of your arch.

Midsole and Outsole Flare: If you look at a shoe from the top down you'll notice that some shoes have a midsole that extends further out than the upper; sometimes you'll see this more in one section than another. This is called midsole flare and is another method to try to help guide your foot towards an ideal pattern.
 





Heel Counter: No matter where a shoe falls on the stability continuum all shoes have a heel counter, what varies is how stiff it is. An inflexible heal counter will help prevent your heel from pronating too far one way or the other at heel strike. You can easily determine how stiff a heel counter is by trying to bend the cloth portion of the shoe that wraps around your heel and Achilles tendon - the harder it is to move, the more stability it affords.



When trying to decide how much stability you need in a shoe the best thing to do is try the shoe on and go for a run. Most good running stores will let you do this, and some even have a treadmill inside the store to test out their wares. Don't relay on your foot print shape or standing arch height to determine the level of stability you need. Go by comfort - if you feel like you're going to twist an ankle just walking in a shoe, try one with a bit more stability...but don't go so far that you feel like your running in a brick. A good shoe should work with your foot and feel quite natural without a lengthy break in period.

~Nicki

Yury's Corner

Exercising When You Are Away

People travel. They go on vacations, business trips, and family outings. Those trips can last a few days to couple of month. How do you manage to stay in shape and continue to exercise while you're away from your home gym? Here are some tips for staying in shape even when you're away. 

 

Start with your mode of travel; when you are on a long flight, stand up every 30 min. just to walk around and shake out your limbs. It will help with blood circulation and prevent you from getting stiff. Be careful with your suitcases though; you might think, "it is just 30-40 lb. and I've lifted weights that heavy at the gym," but you are not warmed-up, and if you lift that luggage in sudden manner you might pull a muscle. Make sure to use you legs, not the lower back, to left things from the ground, and occasionally switch arms while pulling or caring your belongings. 

Finally, you're at your destination! Check out the fitness center/exercise room at the hotel/resort where you are staying. Don't panic if the machines look different from what you have seen before. In general, most machines work in a similar manner and if there is a real difference it should only take you just few minutes to figure it out. Ask for an assistance if you're still not sure. Remember your regular routine and try to modify it accordingly. Most places now have basic things like free weights, physio balls, floor mats, ect.

 

If it's a long trip, like to a winter or summer home, you may want to see if there is a gym near you. People get concerned: what if the new place does not have the same exercise equipment or what if the trainer I hire has different training philosophy? Don't worry, it is OK to change things for a little while.  

If you don't have access to a gym or didn't like the one you checked out, there are lots of exercises you can do almost anywhere. Try to spend as much time as possibly outdoors: walking, biking, swimming, hiking - that should take care of the cardiovascular part of your training. If you are close to the beach, walking barefoot on the soft sand will strengthening the small muscles around the joints (ankle, knee, hip), help prevent injuries, and improve your balance. Simple core exercises can be done in your hotel room, on the beach, or in the back yard of the house where you are staying. A few different kinds of sit-ups, supermans, and planks would do the trick. Don't forget to warm-up before doing them.

Bottom line: a change of routine is not a bad thing. Consider it as cross training, it will help you keep the fitness you already have. But if you do loose some, don't worry; we'll take care of it as soon as you come back!

 

~Yury

If The Shoe Fits: Length

Finding a shoe that’s the perfect length may not seem like big deal...you stand on that funny metal thing (called a Bannock Device) to find your foot size and you’re good to go, or you try on a shoe and see if you have a finger nail’s width of room to the end. But those methods, while useful to an extent, don’t tell you the most important thing you need to know about how a shoe’s length interacts with your foot. The key to getting a shoe the proper length to make sure the shoe bends where your toes bend.

Ever notice how your shoes have breaks in the rubber on the bottom of the sole? The shape and spacing of the tread on your shoes isn’t just a nice design, it actually affects where the shoe will bend and flex. Your job is to make sure the bend in the shoe matches up with the joint where your toes bend. If you happen to have longer toes than average you may find that when the bend matches you no longer have a thumbnails width of room at the end; that’s OK as long as your toes aren’t actually bumping into the end of the shoe. Likewise, if your toes are shorter than average you may find you have more room than usual; again, that’s perfectly fine as long as the shoe isn’t slipping up and down. If you find that a shoe that fits at the toe bend doesn’t fit otherwise you may need to try on a few other brands to find the one that fits best.

Seeing where a shoe flexes can also help you determine if it has enough stability for you. If you’re looking for a traditional type of running shoe with more stability the only place the shoe should bend is at the toes, not further back by the arch. One the other hand, if you want a minimal shoe that will allow your foot to move unencumbered look for one that will flex down the entire length of the sole (although even in this case there may be more flexibility at the toe than in the rest of the shoe). You can even get shoes that won’t bend at all! These shoes have a special sole called a rocker bottom that allow you to roll through toe-off instead of pushing; which can be real blessing for anyone with Hallux Limitus or Hallux Rigidus (painful arthritic conditions of the big toe).

Assuring a shoe bends at the same place as your foot makes sure your anatomy stays in control and isn’t forced into inappropriate movement because of the shoe. Make your shoe work for you!

~Nicki

Yury's Corner

The Best Exercise Program

People who exercise obviously want to get as many benefits as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the media supports the idea that this is possible...you just need to find the magic program, the right fitness guru, or both. People look for a quick fix, new trends, and hot ideas. Sometimes they look so far outside of the box, the box isn't even in the picture. In this case "the box" is an exercise program based on knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and bio-mechanics, applied to a particular person at a particular time.

Her abs didn't come from that Shake Weight!

So, the question is, "what is the best program?" The answer is both simple and complex at the same time. Simply, it's a program that give you the most benefits without jeopardizing your health. What does that exactly mean? It means that we are all different in age, gender, health, experience, motivation, and other aspects. Even on a day to day basis our physical performance changes due to stress, work load, mental state, and energy levels. What would work for person A today does not necessary work  for person B, or even the same person tomorrow. Things you can do at this time could be too much (or too little) next time, depending on all those factors mentioned above.

How to find a balance and properly apply the right exercises to your body is the complex part. Most people don't have enough expertise and experience to figure that out, so they rely on other sources like the internet, TV, books, and friends. That would probably be OK if all those things were related to the real person in real time. They are not. They should only be considered guidance or a base. The best way to start is to hire a professional who can  help you set things up like which exercises to use, regiments, recovery, ect. As you learn from your own experience, you'll get ideas about how your body responds to specific things. It could take some time: not days, not even month. Be patient.

~Yury

Going for Broke: The American System vs Long Term Development

Though only select few of our clients are world-class athletes, our philosophy has always been that the same principles that work for the development of the worlds best can be applied to anyone. We thought it would be applicable to address the issue of athlete development (and development of any kind for that matter) as often times we feel that our clients can be confused with all the different philosophies out there. To clarify there is no one correct way to exercise, you must always find what works best for you!  What we hope to do is clarify our stance on training and why we feel it gives our clients the best chance to succeed.

It seems today that the world and especially American culture is always looking for the “silver bullet” or shortcut to success. Many times we get people coming in two weeks before their season starts or their big ski trip looking to get in shape.  And even though it might be bad business to consciously turn people away we always take the time to explain to people that our philosophy is always focused on Long Term Development. Specifically when it comes to the high school athlete often times we observe parents and athletes getting frustrated as they feel like they are not getting the “most” out of the time that they have. This article hopes to explain in part why we feel that mindset can often times do more harm than good.

Recently we were reading an article about Alberto Salazar, who solidified himself as one of the best coaches in the world at the Olympics in London this past summer. We could not help but laugh when they asked about his approach to training because we were not sure if they were interviewing Alberto or Yury their philosophies echoed each other so closely. When Alberto was asked about his success developing HS athletes into Olympic medalists he said the following: “The long-term approach is that if you're going to be your best at 26 years old, it's a 10 year program. That doesn't mean they won't be [competing] at a world class level way before that... Somebody else might want to get you there in three or four years and you might get to a higher level in those first few years, but ultimately, I don't think you'll be at the same level than if you take a 10 year approach."1

Unfortunately most high school or even college coaches do not echo this same approach to development because they are limited to 4 years or less to get the “most” out of their athletes. A study published in the Journal of Sport Behavior defined burnout as “a withdrawal from [athletics] noted by a reduced sense of accomplishment, devaluation/ resentment of sport, and physical/psychological exhaustion.”2 The problem we feel with a philosophy that starts with “We’ve only got so much time,” is that it results in a training program that is more rushed which can often lead to taking unnecessary shortcuts that lead to injury and/or burnout.

Whereas we feel that a philosophy that focuses less on time and more on correct overall development usually results in consistent improvement, and a healthy enthusiasm to do more that ultimately leads to a higher ceiling of performance. Below is a great video of Alberto being asked about his thoughts on developing high school athletes that we felt echoes our philosophy pretty well (I recommend at least listening to the first 2 minutes, the rest is up to you!):

http://www.flotrack.org/video/665476-Albertos-new-approach-to-coaching-high-schoolers

Again, there is no one right way to exercise but our philosophy has always been that the same kind of training methods the best coaches and athletes in the world use can be applied to anyone to achieve successful results. Whether that’s making an Olympic final or simply improving your balance! So the question we pose to everyone out there is: If the best believe in it and train that way, why wouldn’t it work for you?

~Sean

References:

1. Kastoff, Mitch. "Alberto Salazar - Coach of the Year, Best of 2012." Flotrack. Flocasts, 30 2012. Web. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://www.flotrack.org/article/16594-Alberto-Salazar-Coach-of-the-Year-Best-of-2012>.
2. Understanding athlete burnout: Coach perspectives. Raedeke, Thomas D.; Lunney, Kevin; Venables, Kirk Journal of Sport Behavior, Vol 25(2), Jun 2002, 181-206.

If The Shoe Fits: Toe Box

Unless you're sporting a pair of sandals, every shoe has a toe box...but not every shoe has a toe box shaped like your toes! The toe box is the area that encloses your foot from the knuckle joints (metatarsophalangeal joints) to the tips of your toes.

There are three main foot shapes: Egyptian, Greek, and Square. In the Egyptian foot the toes taper down from the first to the fifth; Greek is similar but the 2nd toe is longer than the first. A square foot will have at least three toes the same length. You may or may not fall neatly into one of these categories, but luckily different brands of shoes have different shaped toe boxes, so with a bit of searching you should be able to find a match.

When looking for a shoe it's important that the shape of the toe box gives your toes plenty of wiggle room; the shoe might fit length wise but if the sides of the shoe press your toes together your feet won't be able to work properly, and you may even end up with bunions or hammer toes! Check out this picture posted by the folks over at Altra; this is the same foot that has been x rayed in a traditional shoe compared to the wide toe box of an Altra shoe. As you can see in the traditional shoe the toes are being squeezed in towards each other.

Besides knowing what your foot shape is and comparing that to the shape of the shoe, there's another test to see if the toe box is right for you: take the insole out and stand on it, if your toes overhang the edge then it's probably not a good fit. Here's an example of four shoes with different shaped toe boxes...these are from my personal collection and I've ran in all of these at one point and time. The red outline is the toe box area so you can get an idea of their basic shape. I have a Greek Foot of medium width, and I've found the Saucony Kinvara and Merrell Bare Access (the ones in the middle) fit me best. As you can imagine the Nike to the far right squeezed my toes too much, and I found the Altra (on the left) a bit too wide for my foot. These shoes all have a lower drop then regular running shoes, but you can find different toe box shapes in traditional shoes as well. So the next time you head out for a new pair of shoes, don't just check the length, make sure your toes also have some wiggle room.

~Nicki