Forums >Health and Nutrition>Forget foot strike, good form comes from the pelvis and glutes
This may have been posted already but I thought this was a really good article in Running Times.
Foot strike is bs. It's all about posture. Keep your spine straight and your pelvis neutral and your feet will take care of themselves. A lot of the stuff in the article is exactly how I fixed myself during most of 2013 and why I'm running the best I have in 10 years. Well, this stuff plus HILLS.
A good quote from the article:
"More often than not, I see foot strike as simply being the end result of so many other things that are happening farther up the kinetic chain," says David McHenry, physical therapist and strength coach for Alberto Salazar's Nike Oregon Project. "The foot is really just the end of a big kinetic whip--the leg. Core and hips are where every runner should be starting if they are really concerned with optimizing their form, maximizing their speed and minimizing injury potential."
Runners run
Yep, saw it. Thought it made a lot of intuitive sense. Now, I'm thinking I need to loosen my hip flexors and get my glutes to firing with more regularity.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
not bad for mile 25
Yes, I am totally in agreement. I'm seeing a lot of parallels with what I'm learning in running and in ballroom dancing. The feet follow the form.
not lazy, just tired
I've been thinking about this lately while I run. I see a parallel in lower body position between skiing and running (I ski a lot). To ski efficiently you want to keep your hips and center of mass forward over your feet. If you let your but drop back, you'll be putting a lot of strain on your quads and will tire much more quickly. I've been wondering if the same thing occurs in running.
Not if it makes sense.
Thanks for sharing. I am going to incorporate into my cross workout.
I need videos to follow. Do you have any recommendation?
Is this Glute workout too much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4K26QQMYkM
5k - 20:56 (09/12), 7k - 28:40 (11/12), 10k trial - 43:08 (03/13), 42:05 (05/13), FM - 3:09:28 (05/13), HM - 1:28:20 (05/14), Failed 10K trial - 6:10/mi for 4mi (08/14), FM - 3:03 (09/14)
I have one more thing to add: Running with good form can prevent a lot of grief in terms of knee pain.
From the Internet.
Yes! Saw it last week. I've had persistent calf/shin problems since forever and I'm already seeing a difference from paying more attention to my pelvis and forcing my glutes to do their job - I think my calves have been compensating for the lazy glutes in addition to the bad posture putting stress on my lower legs.
I lift heavy weights 2-3x/week so the strength seems to be there already, just a matter of getting them to fire properly while running. I've added barbell glute bridges to my lifting routine and single-leg bridges immediately pre-run as a sort of glute warmup - so far so good!
Good article.
Village people
Great article! I have been having some gait problems, running and walking, and I think those dran hips and glutes are the root.
Something I've been working on switched I've switched from distance to track.
It's something I hope I will benefit from if I ever go back to distance.
Certified Running CoachCrocked since 2013
This may have been posted already but I thought this was a really good article in Running Times. Foot strike is bs. It's all about posture. Keep your spine straight and your pelvis neutral and your feet will take care of themselves. A lot of the stuff in the article is exactly how I fixed myself during most of 2013 and why I'm running the best I have in 10 years. Well, this stuff plus HILLS.
Thanks for posting. I've been adding hills myself out of a desire to do more trail running where my weakness on hills has been exposed pretty dramatically.
I'm curious to know what type of hill work you've been doing and how it's helped your running. I have some 5k goals this summer as well and I think core/hip/glute work along with hills will do me a lot of good.
Thanks for sharing. I am going to incorporate into my cross workout. I need videos to follow. Do you have any recommendation? Is this Glute workout too much? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4K26QQMYkM
I don't have any specific videos bookmarked but I would say you don't need to do a ton of glute work just do it consistently. Honestly I think learning and practicing good posture while tunning and not running is even more important.
Thanks for posting. I've been adding hills myself out of a desire to do more trail running where my weakness on hills has been exposed pretty dramatically. I'm curious to know what type of hill work you've been doing and how it's helped your running. I have some 5k goals this summer as well and I think core/hip/glute work along with hills will do me a lot of good.
I started doing a weekly hill workout back in October alternating 2 different hill loops. Every single week from late October through just now when i started tapering for Boston. You can see the details in my log. Mostly I did them on Tuesdays, sometimes Thursdays. Its helped my running in almost every way. I'm stronger, healthier, and faster than I've been in a decade.
Mikey, is one of those hill loops up from the corner of lake Q (prospect st. I think)? I used to live up that way, but never ran that hill...What's the elevation gain and distance approximately? I've got to start doing a weekly hill work out but all I have is bridges of various heights and lengths.
That's the hill. It gains ~108 feet in .3 miles up prospect, then there's a more gradual downhill around the bend on chestnut, then a short flat-ish stretch on ceder, back to the beginning. In all it's a 1 mile loop. From my house to the base of the hill is 2 miles so 2 up, 8 x prospect hill loops, 2 down = 12 miles.
It's not like the kind of hills in BadDawg's neighborhood but it gets the job done.
Like so.