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Has anyone here changed there running style? I mean specifically gone out to improve cadence/lean etc. As someone who is habitually injured I wonder whether I would benefit from looking at how I run and making modifications.
Has anyone gone down the barefoot style? Or Pose/Chi running style?
I’m curious and feel I have time with race cancellations to stop plugging away at the miles and try to work on form
Let me know
I have as time has gone on moved from reasonably structured shoes to pretty much shoes with no support, primarily driven by the need to wear fell/ off-road shoes on runs where I was joining bits of field with bits of road, it wasn’t a conscious thing but I do think it generally reduced the weight of my foot strike, I.e. lighter shoes, less cushioning, the need to strike with less force, I do find now that I seem to get less injuries than when I wore support shoes, possibly because I do tend to run a fairly consistent high mileage weekly and was probably running in support shoes for longer than I should have, I think that neutral shoes are more forgiving in this sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
So in summary I do think that my style has changed although not consciously.
Yes i have, heel strike to mid/forefoot strike. Don't think that the more you get up on your toes the better it is, because it isn't. People who mince around like they're tippy-toeing over hot coals are doing it wrong, look at videos online of African kids who've never worn shoes running, this is a far better example.Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
It feels at first like you're going to trip over and your feet will scuff hard as they land. Start by alternating it with your usual foot strike as it will load up areas that have never been loaded before. Plantar Fascia, Achilles Tendon and Achilles Bursa will get a big step change in loading. It didn't cure my knee problems by a long shot, but i know there have been changes in muscle recruitment in the quads.
I plan to go slow and steady. Whilst all races are off I think trying to rebuild with low intensity/time but high frequency (little but often) is the way to go.
You got any tips or lessons learnt which you think are worth knowing?
Well this may have been a failure. The increased hamstring use in running at a higher cadence has caused my hamstring tendinopathy to flare up. Balls.
As a rule, anyone encountering hamstring problems should do a lot of Glutes recruitment drills. It's very easy, you lay on your tummy and fire each one up individually one at a time. The idea is to snap from 0-100% in the shortest possible time without any other muscles kicking in. The number of reps you do is not as important as the quality, always remember to relax off fully after every activation. 3mins on each side twice a day.Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
After a couple of weeks you can move to stage 2. After the squeeze don't let go, but tense the quads in the same way, then release the quads without releasing the glute, then release the glute. so: glute-quad-quad release-glute release. After a couple of months of this you should be able to do it in your sleep and your hamstring should have got better. Try friction massage with a lacrosse ball on your hamstring, 4mins every 4 days, the 4 day wait is for your body to clear out the inflammation from the 4mins and it matters that you wait- less is more.
Millions. How long have you got? How much athlete's discipline have you got?Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
You've already encountered the best one, which is to take the threat of injury seriously, now you need to take the threat of not running properly for 5yrs seriously. A split second decision recently cost me 3yrs of my life; that's 3yrs i could have spent tapering back in after injury that i spent laying on the couch wishing i had been better disciplined or walking round Fewston Reservoir trying to be disciplined in recovering. I decided to run instead of resting; the rest would have cost me a week at best, the run cost me 3yrs.
How sure are you that you've got a tendinopathy? Proper diagnosis is critical. The hamstrings are more of a stability group than a power generation group, but they can carry out both functions. You may have an underlying stability problem. Lumbar spine problems can skew the movement of your pelvis which causes compensation issues, i get this affecting me through the ITB.
Having the discipline to turn around a quarter of a mile into a run and head back to the car is fundamental to recovery. You can't run through things like tendinopathy, you have to have the balls to stop running and walk back. It sucks, but true athletes have warrior-like levels of self control and self discipline, they embrace the suck and stick to long term strategies keeping focused on the win at all times. This can mean turning back over and over again and heading home for a deep stretching session.
Yeah so I’ve had a bilateral tendinopathy diagnosed by mri. It’s been about 3years of very slow rehab. I remembered a quote from a physio 3 years ago which went along the lines of “your Glutes seem to be entirely decorative”. I would say I’ve strengthened them but I struggle to isolate them from the hamstring if doing that exercise described. I’ll work on that though cheers.
So I tried this, and I find my left glute is much harder to control than the right. Also it's a battle to control just the glutes not the other muscles around it. I'll keep going with it see what happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
The brain possesses something called neuroplasticity, this means it can readily create new neuronets and, crucially, disassemble idle nets. All unused nets get taken to bits because the body never wastes anything. The Rorke's Drift of the entire process is the attempt by the patient to harness the principles and be the puppeteer not the puppet. The first place to begin is the mind, that's the intangible 'mind' not the tangible 'brain'.Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
To a greater or lesser extent depending upon circumstances the body will manifest what the mind experiences or believes. This is because in quantum mechanics consciousness is the ground of all being, not matter, and matter has been proven by means of the 'double slit experiment' to be an epiphenomenon of consciousness. Counsciousness, therefore, is an energy field not a biochemical anomaly inhabiting your brain, and it can exert control over matter. You need to start believing you can isolate individual muscle groups; every time you think you can't just stop the process and think you can for as long as you can, eventually you'll get distracted, but it's ok, the important thing is to get rid of self-defeating beliefs. You can also use visualisation; an interesting quirk of your brain is that it doesn't know the difference between what it sees and what it thinks about, this has been tested clinically using EEG scanners. If you sit quietly and calmly with your eyes closed breathing deeply, and imagine perfect isolation of each muscle group as you perform your exercises, your brain will think you are actually doing it, and if it thinks you're doing it then it will start reinforcing neuronets.
Keep your exercises going, as many as possible, but stick to the most basic levels. Don't go any further than tensing and relaxing individual groups until you can do it while you're juggling flaming balls. There aren't any shortcuts.
That’s all really interesting stuff. I’m consistently amazed at the power of the mind over the body.
There seems to be some evidence for taping the glutes to improve activation as well. So I might look into that as well
I was too. Injuries that had screwed me for years disappeared in 6 months, my legs suddenly became a lot stronger and i went from finishing races in the middle third to the first third.Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew
Something else i started to take more seriously was practicing unconditional love and forgiveness. This is a major stumbling block for anyone increasing the power of their mind because it means living a life with no duality. Your ego, which straddles the conscious and subconscious, likes duality because it's inherently arrogant and wants to be right; it's vain, childlike and loves a righteous quest. The downside is that your body is constantly dropping in and out of the fight/flight response all the time, under which circumstances it will divert resources away from tissue repair and regeneration.
For the last 2 years i've been back in the depression boat again and i generally hate the world half of the time. This is plenty enough to slowly bring back old problems and i now have persistent articular cartilage problems in my right knee as a result of my letting myself down. The path to total discipline and maximum performance can be incredibly difficult, knowing it and walking it are two completely different things.
So one thing I’ve noticed is how stress based my pain reception is. If I’m stressed and worried I feel the injury much more. I ran for 15minutes today, with only the slightest twinge, 3hours later when I began to stress and worry about missed training, not being where I wanted to be with my running, feeling like when I come to race later in the year I will be embarrassed by my lack of ability etc the pain in my sit bone was there constantly. I’ve since calmed down and the pain has subsided. I think having this chronic injury has really messed my head up, and I’ve created this really screwed up feedback loop in my brain