Pose Learning Continues…And The Barefoot Debate Heats Up

(You can read here the article launching and describing the current project.)

Summary:  The Pose walking continues.  Learning to not break posture when moving has been a bit challenging.  The feet continue to feel good.

Details:  The challenge this week has been to transition from Pose drills that are static/stationary to dynamic/moving.  This was surprisingly challenging and frustrating for me.  Essentially the issue was, while I had reasonable posture when standing, when doing a simple two-footed hop I would bend at the hips and break the posture.  My sense is that I have been running with a bend in the waist for so long I basically don’t know any other position.  Jeremy helped a lot and gave me some exercises/drills to help with this.  The one that helped the most was attaching a loop of exercise band (not Thera-Band, but tubing) to a stationary object.  I climbed inside and put it around my waist and got into the Pose stance while leaning against the tension of the tubing.  It helps you get a better feel for the position, the muscles that help keep you in place, etc.

I tried the exercises again and, ultimately, I think I’ve learned to not bend the hips – and more importantly – learn to feel the feeling when I do bend my hips.  Actually, while I thought I was doing the static drills well, as a result of working through this challenge, I noticed in one of the static drills I was not keeping the posture.  It was slight but I could see it.  So by going back to that drill and absolutely nailing it, I think I’m on the road to get the rest of them right.  (I’ll put in a little plug here for a some great freeware software called Kinovea.  You can take a video file and do single frame advances, draw lines on the frame to check alignment, etc.  It’s really great.)

The feet are doing quite well.  I need to wear the Superfeet a couple of hours a day.  The feet tend to get a bit of an ache at some point in the day.  I’ll wear the Superfeet for an hour or two and it goes away.  I did do a bit too much yesterday.  It’s Sunday morning and my left heel is talking to me the most it ever has since I got out of the orthotics.  I did a lot of stuff around the house yesterday – virtually all of it either barefoot or in the Pose shoes.  So today will likely be a much heavier-than-normal Superfeet day.

Barefooting:  You may have noticed I wrote a very short article mid-week that contained links to a variety of barefoot running information that hit the press.  While the information and science has been fascinating to me, how people and companies are reacting is just as interesting.  The various internet forums are quite the buzz.

My take is it’s wise to separate the stories that make it to the news shows from practical issues, science and thought for the mainstream running community.  The media is out to make money – and they’ll push what draws attention.  A few months back I saw a video clip done by a local news station about a guy who runs barefoot 12 months a year – in a climate that gets a reasonable amount of snow.  There were shots of him, with nothing on his feet, running in snow that was up to the middle of his shins.  The extremes are appealing to report on – because they’re extreme.  “My great grandpa ate 6 eggs and 1/2 lb of bacon every morning of his  life.  And he lived to be 104!”  I’m clearly not a barefooter per se (although I’m really looking forward to warmer weather so I can do some) so I can’t speak with authority, but I think a guy running completely barefoot through powder snow is a few sigma out on the bell curve – even in the barefoot running community.  Maybe I’m wrong………………….  The business’ reactions are interesting, too.  The CEO of Brooks put out an “open letter” expressing people proceed with caution.  A letter from the head of RoadRunner Sports is also getting some attention with a letter that expressed his concern for runners’ health and safety.

Within the running community it’s fun to watch how people react.  Some barefoot/minimalist proponents appear to be wanting to convert people.  It’s understandable.  We’re excited about either what we’ve found or what we’re finding.  I’ve seen proponents of conventional running wisdom react surprisingly negatively to the science.  One person wrote (paraphrase) “It doesn’t take a study to figure out that running barefoot is a completely idiotic idea!”  Even a running expert stated in an interview (again, paraphrase) “The idea our shoes are causing our injuries is completely ridiculous.”  Apparently the “You could step on a hypodermic needle.” argument is used to convince people they shouldn’t run barefoot.  That’s a pretty comical one.  One forum poster made a good point:  “How many times have shod runners had to pull a hypodermic needle out of their shoes?”

Setting aside the emotion and raw science, I think it’s undeniable that a minimalist or barefoot approach is the only way that some people can run at all.  That is the proof point that is important to me.  Our collective goal as runners is to run.  What does it matter what is on our feet?  I think we can all agree on that.  And if I’m running in my minimalist shoes, a barefooter is on my left, and a Brooks Beast wearer is on my right, and we’re all pain free, then we’ve all reached the goal.

Jim

Mid-Week Report: Barefooting Grabs The Spotlight(s)

(You can read here the article launching and describing the current project.  You can read here the most recent status report on my move to minimalist running.)

I normally don’t do a mid-week update, however a few things grabbed my attention today so I thought I’d pass them along.

NPR did a couple of segments on barefoot running.  One is focused more on the science of barefoot running.  The other is focused more on how businesses and others are reacting. 

The BBC has a piece on how shoes may have changed how we run.

Here is a fantastic video with Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman.  It has excellent slow-motion comparisons of the different foot landings along with force plate and graph analysis.

Also, I recently discovered a very interesting blog called On And Off The Track by Steve Magness.  Steve’s current posting is about a study on barefooting.  And, just a few days ago, Steve wrote an article about Why Running Shoes Don’t Work.

Happy reading, listening and, hopefully, running!

Jim

“Running is a privilege.”

The Orthotics Are……….GONE!

 (If you're new here you can read the article describing my project.)

Summary:  This week has been fantastic.  I was able to make major progress in getting out of the orthotics.  Lots of focus on Pose walking and trying to ingrain the basic concepts of Pose movement into walking:  erect posture, falling, quick foot cadence, relaxed limbs.

Details:  I’m old enough to know it’s not good to claim victory too early, but I think this is one of the weeks I’ve been waiting for for a long time.  I experimented with not using the orthotics and the feet responded really really well.  In actuality I was getting an indication this was going well when I pushed the “Publish” button on last week’s report.  I considered putting some of this positive news in that report, but I wanted to let this week unfold and see if it really stuck.  It apparently really has - “stuck” that is.

On Wednesday I decided to try an experiment:  How long could I go without my orthotics?  Over the last few months I think I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the little signs through the day when the feet are getting tired, so I wasn’t very worried.  I decided, when I started to feel those leading indicators, I would throw the orthotics back in the shoes and be sure things didn’t get out of hand.  Well, I went the whole day.  No pain whatsoever.  I was completely stunned.  The next morning (which is when I often feel the impact of the previous day) I still felt 100% pain free.  So I kept going…..and I made it completely through that day, too!  I was doubly stunned.

A major mental breakthrough this week was the realization that everyday movement, just not running, can contribute a lot more to the foot pain than I realized.  I came to this via input from Jeremy (the Pose coach I’m working with) and also the Pose forum.  I believe using core Pose techniques during my daily movement contributed to my ability to get out of my orthotics so quickly.  The Pose techniques, whether applied to walking or running, enable a form of movement that is much less stressful on the body.  It takes advantage of gravity to propel us, which then enables us to not have to do things like use various muscles to push us forward.  One of those body areas we often use to push us forward are our calves and feet – toe-off if you will.  Pose advocates picking up the foot (since you’re falling forward).  Have you ever been walking on a sidewalk and up ahead seen a patch of ice?  Most of us alter our gait to walk across the ice patch.  That’s because we push off when we walk.  A good Pose runner or walker doesn’t need to change their gait when they are on ice, because they’re not pushing off.  Walking and running on ice is often used to help people understand the Pose concepts and perceptions.

Progress was also made on the basic drills.  I believe I’ve graduated from “Pose Stance Training School”.  Below are two pictures.  The picture on the left is my first attempt at the basic Pose stance, which is done incorrectly.  The picture on the right is the correct stance.  The main things to notice in the correct stance are straight posture, slight knee bend and weight over the ball of the foot.

 

I’ve been doing 30 min walks in the Pose shoes to really focus and practice the Pose techniques.  Those seem to be going well.

Actually – that’s about all I have to report for this week.  I’m still a bit anxious about what the upcoming no-orthotic week has to bring.  I’ve really been looking at those devices with mixed emotions.  I view them as the key to helping me cure the immediate injury of PF, by giving my feet rest and support for the healing process.  However, they’re also things I wish to get rid of.  I keep hearing the words of my Podiatrist from quite a number of months back:  An orthotic is really a splint.  Splints help us heal, but the real goal is to get rid of the splint.  Pose, and patience, I believe, have really enabled me to get rid of them.

Jim

Reference: Stretching & Strengthening

(Last updated:  June 2010)

A collection of stretching and strengthening activities.

	Stretching	Strengthening
Foot	Cross the foot to be stretched over the opposite knee.  Pull the toes back to stretch the Plantar Fascia. Stand on a tennis ball.  Place the ball right behind the ball of the foot, in the middle of the arch, and right in front of the heel.  I do this for 1 minute minimum for each location; 6 minutes to do both feet. Sit on floor.  Wrap towel around the foot at the ball of the foot.  Pull back on the towel to stretch the calf and the Plantar Fascia.	Towel Curls Marble Pickups Check out this article.  It gets a bit technical, but the section titled “IFM Retraining” on pg. 6 is interesting. Try walking on different portions of the feet for small amounts of time:  heel, ball, outside, inside. Run barefoot in grass.
Ankle	While sitting in a chair slide your ankle as far forward as possible while keeping the entire sole of the foot on the floor. Stand with your feet reasonably close together, with one foot slightly ahead of the other.  Bend at both knees and bring the knee of the back leg as far forward as possible, while keeping the rear ankle stationary.  I find it helpful to hold onto a wall or chair while doing this.	Stand on one leg and work on balance.  To make more challenging Cross your arms in front of your chest Close your eyes Use a balance board, Bosu Ball, balance disk, etc. Sit in a chair and cross your legs (using the style where one knee is close to the other – not the style where an ankle is placed on the opposite knee).  Moving only your ankle, trace out the alphabet in the air.  Imagine you have a pencil taped to the sole of your foot and the tip has extended just past the toes.
Calf/ Shin	Foam roller Standard calf stretch against a wall.  Sit on the floor.  Wrap towel around the foot at the ball of the foot.  Pull back on the towel to stretch the calf and the Plantar Fascia. Tennis ball to massage the calf while seated on the floor. Posterior Tibialis:  Sit in a chair and cross your legs such that the left ankle is resting on the right knee.  You’ll be looking down on the inside of your left shin.  Place your right thumb right behind the shin bone (where the bone transitions to soft tissue) down close to your ankle.  Your fingers will wrap around the front of the shin.  Place your left thumb on top of your right thumb, wrapping those fingers around the shin, too.  Make small circles with your left foot.  With each rotation you’ll notice/feel Posterior Tibialis contracting and relaxing.  While continuing to make circles with your foot, slowly slide your thumbs up the shin, while pressing firmly into the muscle.  You’ll massage the muscle and loosen up the fascia that can constrict the muscle. Anterior Tibialis:  Kneel on the floor close to a step, such that the foot hangs over the edge of the step.  Your shin should be entirely on the floor.  Place a tennis ball under your shin.  Move the shin so the ball moves along the length of the shin.	Heel raises. Posterior Tibialis:  Do heel raises, however at the top of the range of motion supinate your feet.  (Move your heels outward.)  It will kind of feel like your weight is on your outside toes.  Slowly return the heels back down to the floor.
Thigh	Quadriceps:  Standard heel-raised-to-butt works well.  Concentrate on keeping the knee as close to vertical as possible.  It’s easy to abduct the thigh, which I believe reduces the effectiveness of the stretch. Hamstrings:  Sit on the floor with your leg extended straight in front of you.  Wrap a towel or rope around the sole of your foot.  Hold on to the towel/rope and pull your straight torso forward.
Hip	Hip Flexor:  Kneel down on the floor like you’re going to propose to someone.  Tighten the glute of the leg with the knee on the floor.  While keeping the glute contracted, slowly move your torso forward.  You’ll feel a stretch in the front of the hip. Gluteus Maximus:  Sit on the floor with your legs straight in front of you.  Loop a rope or long towel around the sole of one foot.  Lean back and lie down completely, while maintaining hold of the towel.  Raise your straight leg and use the towel to hold it momentarily in the vertical position.  Now lower the leg perpendicular to your torso; e.g. when stretching your right glute bring your right leg to the left and across your body. Piriformis:  Here is a great Piriformis stretch.	Gluteus Maximus:  Lunges.  One-legged squat.  Be sure you bend in the hip when you do these and be sure your knee stays roughly over the shoelaces.  Do not let your knee go in front of your foot. The pistol squat is a great goal, but in my opinion one does not need to go all the way to the floor to bring significant benefit to running. Check out these hip exercises (video) on the Pose website. Stand on one leg with the knee of the support leg slightly bent.  Stand erect – hands can be on hips or out for balance.  Rotating only at the hip bend forward.  Be careful not to curl the back or slouch the shoulders.  Rotate “fairly far” – approaching 90 degrees.  You’ll feel your hamstring kick in.  Now rotate back to standing up straight.  I do a couple of sets of 15.  This is great for the hamstring, gluteus Maximus and Gluteus Medius.  It’s also great for balance in general.
Core		The Pedestal routine, which can be found here on YouTube. Balance ball exercises.

Week 12: Walk (And Stand) Before You Run

(If you're new here you can read the article describing my project.)

Summary:  The title summarizes my focus this week.  This week marked the first week of formal Pose learning and training.  The webcam video sessions with the Pose coach (Jeremy Huffman) are really helpful.  In just a couple of sessions he has noticed some patterns that need to be addressed.  It’s amazing how something (body position, walking, etc.) can look so different from how it feels.  In my daily life I’ve been trying to reorient my body from being primarily weight back and on the heels to being more forward and weight over the ball of the foot.    Rolfing session #3 was completed.

Details:  As I said last week I’ve started working with a Pose coach.  We met twice this week via webcams and Skype.  It worked really well and I’m really impressed with the information and insight that can be exchanged.  He’d step back from the camera and demonstrate various things.  I’d step back and do things and he could comment; either confirm I was doing it right or tell me what needed to change.  (Additionally, from a raw technology standpoint, I found it quite amazing.  I work in high tech so on the one hand it was all pretty mainstream stuff:  Skype, webcams, YouTube, etc.  On the other hand, however, I was pretty astounded that I could interact so well with someone 1,200 miles away.  I’d shoot a video of myself, get it on YouTube, and within an hour had feedback from him.) 

Like most new things that are learned there are some foundational concepts that need to be firmly established before moving on to more complex concepts and actions.  This week the learning has been focused on:

• The Pose stance.  It’s a relaxed, two-footed stance with a slight knee bend and erect posture, with the body weight over the ball of the foot.  Eliminating as much tension throughout the body while in this stance is really important.
• Falling.  Transitioning from stationary standing to falling forward.  This falling motion is the basis of the forward movement.  It’s also important to maintain the erect body posture while falling.
• Use of the hamstring (not the hip flexor) to pull the foot off the ground.
• Doing nothing to get your foot back on the ground.  That sounds kind of odd, but the intent is to not use muscular tension or force to get the airborne foot back on the ground when you need it there because you’re falling.  The intent is to let gravity bring the foot back down – and rely on your brain to subconsciously get it where it needs to be to keep you from falling on the ground. Your brain will do it automatically.  We don’t need to force it to happen. 
• Focusing on the sense of how these things feel.

Have I got this stuff mastered?  No, but Jeremy has helped a lot in moving me along the road.  He also has me doing a variety of hip strengthening and flexibility exercises which are outlined in Dr. Romanov’s Pose Method book.  Getting some of these basic concepts incorporated into daily life (walking through the grocery store, walking around the office, standing at the counter doing dishes, etc.) will set a strong foundation for when I start to make it more complicated – by running. 

Rolfing:  Session #3 was completed.  This is one of the “integrative” sessions – designed to tie together the work done in the previous two sessions.  Erin worked on the IT Band, the trunk/core, arms, shoulders and neck.  Afterward my shoulders and arms felt incredibly loose.  We set up a standing every-other-week schedule.  Next up:  the medial lines of the legs.

Jim

Week 11: Pose Adoption Begins

(If you're new here you can read the article describing my project.)

Summary:  The feet strengthening continues.  I’ve been able to do 20 minutes of activity (18 min walking; 2 min running) with no ill effects to the feet.  I’m doing this in the low profile shoes with no orthotics!  I worked on the Pose drills and did some running.  It turned out to be poor running, from a Pose form perspective.  I’ve decided to work with a Pose-certified coach to help me effectively adopt the Pose methods.

Feet Strengthening:  The feet strengthening seems to be going quite well.  It’s now time to ramp up my efforts to learn Pose and, consequently, I’ve started spending time on the forums at the Pose website.  A coach there suggested I forego my plan to first transition to the Superfeet insoles (this was the plan I outlined in last week’s report) and instead just go straight to the low profile shoes – with no orthotics.  In doing everyday things around the house or office I can wear this configuration for 3-4 hours with no problems.  I can most definitely see a decrease in the total time I’m spending in my orthotics, although I’m not being anal retentive about keeping a log or anything like that.  I’ve stopped doing the elliptical every-other-day and replaced that with 20 min sessions outside.  (A sub-zero cold snap in CO put me on the treadmill and not outside a couple of times.  I really enjoy running in the cold.  But walking in sub-zero temperatures?  No thanks.)  I walk for 9 min, run for 1; and then repeat.  Again, this is with no orthotics and the low profile shoes.  At the end of this workout my feet are quite tired.  My plan is to monitor this post-workout feeling very closely and, as they can handle it better, start increasing the time.

The Pose Method:  This part of the week has been very interesting to me.  I’ve read so much (it seems like it at least), and I’ve watched so much Pose video on YouTube, I thought I was ready and would do pretty well (from a form perspective) actually trying some running.  I shot some video of myself, put it on YouTube, and asked the experts on the Pose forum if they would evaluate it.  I sat back and waited for the accolades to pour in:  “We’ve never seen someone pick it up so easily!”

  

Well, the input came in, but accolades they weren’t.  It turns out I’m not as good at Pose as my mind’s eye imagined I’d be.  What a shock!  Some extremely helpful folks pointed out a number of issues.  I wouldn’t have guessed these were happening, but when I read the input and then looked at my stride frame-by-frame I could very much see their points.

• I’m still heel striking.  This is especially noticeable with my right foot.
• The knee bend is too pronounced.
• I’m not pulling my foot off the ground soon enough, resulting in longer contact with the ground than necessary.
• I’m “overpulling”, a term used in Pose to describe the situation where one pulls their ankle too high off the ground for whatever speed they’re running.  (Pose is about a lot of things, but one of those is efficiency.  When one runs faster, in order to have the foot catch up and be ready for the next landing, the ankle ends up being pulled up higher.  Doing this too high when running more slowly is unnecessary and wastes energy.)

Given the feedback it was apparent I needed to focus on the basics, which in Pose means becoming proficient in a series of non-running drills to help one understand how the various positions should feel when you’re actually running.  This is one of the key reasons why Pose appeals to me.  A few years ago I tried one of the Pose “competitors” and I struggled with it.  I read all the theory, but translating that theory into movement I found extremely challenging.  To perform the Pose drills you get in front of a mirror, get into the right body position, see that it is correct, and then focus on how that body position feels.

The first and most basic Pose drill is the S Stance.  The drill simply tries to get the runner to stand a certain way.  The stance has a number of characteristics, but I’ll leave it to the Pose book to lay out those details.  So I shot some video of me doing the drill and put it on YouTube and, like the previous video clip, I asked the experts for their thoughts.  Well, apparently do I not only struggle to run correctly, but I also struggle to stand correctly.  While I did accomplish the goal of getting the center of mass over the balls of the feet, the other parts of my body were not in the right places.  The knee bend is too pronounced, which puts the bum too far back.  I also have some humped shoulders.  A stance that has much more subtle knee bend will allow me to stand more erect.  (Be aware, if you do watch the S stance video, that I go through some body repositioning in the video.  One coach had a great idea:  Deliberately position the center of mass in the wrong places – midffoot as well as heel - in order to feel where the body shouldn’t be.  I’m making comments in the video while I’m doing this, but the camera had a hard time picking them up.)

Amongst the various input provided on the forum was a recommendation that I work with a Pose certified coach.  While videos and time on the forums can get you successfully into the program, individualized help, obviously, is better if it’s possible.  That sounded like a good idea.  I couldn’t find someone local who was certified.  After some inquiries and email exchanges I connected with Jeremy Huffman, a Pose certified coach in Louisiana.  He offers online/webcam based coaching.  Next week is our first session.  Results from those sessions will be another component of my reports here. 

Rolfing:  Nothing new to report.  Session #3 is scheduled for this coming Friday.

The fact I’m able to do some level (any level) of activity with neither motion control shoes or orthotics is extremely motivating.  Here’s to hoping the trend continues in the right direction.  It’s incredible how good running feels after not doing so for so long – even if it is just for 1 minute at a time.

Jim

“Running is a privilege.”

Secret Page

 

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