I just received some very interesting information about the Pose method of running that I thought I would pass along.
Last year, I started experimenting with Pose. I focused on bringing my foot up the pose line toward my butt, which resulted in a more forward foot strike. It felt fine, but didn’t really improve my running. I occasionally experienced calf soreness, but nothing serious. This winter, however, I started focusing more on my running form and , in particular, worked on increasing my cadence. During one of those workouts, I felt a pull in my soleus and had to stop my run. In fact, I could hardly walk for a week. As a result, I stopped running for three weeks to give it a chance to heal. The next time I ran, the same pain came back after a mile and I had to stop. Then, another week of rest, another short run, and another recurrence of the pain. I started to freak out that my race season would be haunted by this nagging injury.
Based from a referral from this forum (Agret), I recently went to see a physical therapist in Boulder named Mark Platjes who specializes in running injuries (he is a former world champion marathoner). After he watched me run on a treadmill and discovered that I had been trying Pose, he told me that my injury had been caused by running on my toes, instead of my heels. He further told me that he treats 3-4 patients per week for calf injuries caused by a forward foot strike and/or the Pose method. While I cannot explain the mechanics the way he did, he also was adament that running on your heels with a forward lean in your upper body is much more efficient, fast, and less likely to cause injuries. He said that the only world class distance runners that run on their toes have recurring calf injuries.
Fortunately, a few deep massage (very, very painful) and ultrasound treatments will eliminate the problem as long as I do not go back to running upright and on my toes. Apparently, rest will not help this kind of injury, because it results in scar tissue that can only be removed through deep massage.
I am no expert on running mechanics, but Mark Platjes clearly is. The number of “Pose” related injuries he sees (and my experiences as well) is something worth considering when trying to get faster by modifying your running gait.
Yes. That surprised me too. While he can explain it much better than me, he said that heel first striking does not cause deceleration if your upper body is forward, your bent knee is in front of or directly over your foot, and your foot rolls fluidly. Your quad, instead of your (weaker) calf absorbs the road shock better.
That’s quite interesting. I actually attended a triathlon clinic this past weekend, where Eric Sorenson talked alot about running mechanics and form. Though I don’t think he actually referred to it as the Pose method, much of his talk centered around a mid-foot strike directly under your center of motion, high turnover (90, ring a bell?), a slight forward lean. He would argue that a heel-striker with long strides is prone to shin splints, and that the Pose method utilitizes the body’s own shock-absorption system. A high turnover, with shorter strides is key though (as you know). At any rate, he had a “sample workout” for this method and IIRC, it takes a good 6 weeks to build up your calf strength–to then be able to do some faster running. How long/slow did you build up?? Good luck on the road to recovery. Shin splints knocked me out of training for NYC marathon (I do happen to have a longER stride and am a heel striker)…I know the feeling. Good luck on the road to recovery.
Thanks for the info. I’ve finally decided to get serious about improving my running and reluctantly admit that tri isn’t just a serious TT with a warm up swim beforehand and a cool down jog afterwards. Been thinking about attending a Pose seminar. So I’d certainly be interested to hear what others have to say about this.
Don’t know exactly what your PT did, but I’d treat it the same way with deep massage and ultrasound. So would a million other chiros or PT’s. Sounds like a fairly standard treatment for this kind of problem. Being a world class runner however, he likely has a greater familiarity with these injuries than most of us.
admit that tri isn’t just a serious TT with a warm up swim beforehand and a cool down jog afterwards.
Is that what an epiphany is?
I was always under the impression that true pose running could only be done while running fast for short distances. Athletes are always taught to run on their toes (because it keeps the eyes from bouncing up and down all over the place) when chasing down a ball (baseball, football, etc), and it allows for more agile running.
Once long distance is brought into the equation the strike shifts from a “toe” strike to a midfoot, etc. Based on what I’ve read and tried that always made the most sense to me.
We are getting into some fine distinctions that I am not really qualified to make. I don’t think Mark was advocating “heel striking with a long stride” as is commonly used pejoratively on this forum. That implies running with your weight behind your foot. He told me you should land on your heel with your weight forward and agreed that high cadence is preferable.
I did not do any special calf strengthening before I started running the Soernson/Pose way. I did, however, run that way (without trying a much faster cadence) all last year with no serious problem. It was only when I combined the mid-foot/toe strike with the higher cadence that I got hurt.
Too many conflicting opinions in this sport. Sometimes, it is tough to know what to believe.
“Too many conflicting opinions in this sport. Sometimes, it is tough to know what to believe.”
That’s a big problem. The Internet has opened up volumes of information to us that we get caught in a wirlwind of information and often missinformation. There’s a ton of advice, plans, etc and it’s easy to get tied up comparing yourself to others - pushing when you shouldn’t be, doing crap just cause others are doing it.
I love all the information but I follow one simple rule; I listen to my body and ultimately do what it asks.
A much better explanation of how to run in the “Pose-type” running style.
I went to the Pose Tech weekend workshop (because of bad IT Band pain) and just didn’t get it 100%. I did change from a heel striker to running on the front of my foot. But after the workshop I had that calf pain, bad. So I did some more research and found chirunning. Danny Dreyer paints a much better picture of how to run pain free in the pose than DR. R does. Since I studied that, no IT band pain and no calf pain.
The Pose Method is interesting in that it does provide a viable model for improving just about anyone’s efficiency on the run. However, when that is applied to experienced athletes of varied backgrounds, the new geometry can create absolute havoc with the supporting musculature.
I think it will be (if it hasn’t already) proven out that it takes a lot of time to develop the smaller, supporting muscles (like the soleus) to the point where they can provide adequate protection. Many of us have years of running within a particular geometry. Slight changes can take use into a whole new range of motion, not unlike changing angles from a cycling perspective, but now we have added a weight bearing (while fatigued) element.
I like what the Pose Method says and demonstrates, but apply with caution.
What’s interesting about the Pose method is that it talks about several aspects of sound running biomechanics. But the ONLY thing people get is… run on the balls of the feet! So what’s supposed to be the endpoint of the method, turns into the first thing people pick up.
This is pretty interesting. I started doing the pose method last summer and was never able to completely land on the balls of my feet. Instead I was landing pretty much with my whole foot with most of my weight on the balls of my feet. What this seemed to do was make a stomping motion that rattled my ankles. It was much easier and faster to run this way but I seemed to hurt myself. I found that if I rolled my feet from heel to toe while keeping my body weight forward and over my feet, I felt a lot better.
Finally last November, my left ankle started to hurt enough to take a week off of running. When I came back to it I started running with my hands just above my hips. Some people call it running pretty. What I found is that I stopped stomping and started kind of floating along as I ran. I also started to bend my knees a little and used them as shock absorbers. This made things better still. My ankle pain got a little better but it was still there, just the left ankle.
Yesterday I saw a sports medicine doctor about my ankle pain. (I’ve been looking for a way to write about it). I was concered that I had stress fractures in my ankle but that was ruled out from the x-rays. The doctor said that I have the bone density of a 20 year old and I’m 36. He claimed that an inflamed tendon was putting pressure on the posterier tibial nerve and that I should be taking anti-inflamatories. Another thing that he said was very unexpected for me. He noticed that I had very flat feet and recommended that I get shoes with a lot more arch support. Enough support that it would feel like a big hump in my shoe for me. What this would do is support the middle of my foot and not let the tendon supporting that part of my foot to stretch and squeeze the nerve. It sounds very closley related to Plantar Fasciitis. In fact, he checked for that too.
Upon hearing this, my ideas about the pose method have changed somewhat. I believe in keeping your foot strike under your body but I am moving away from trying to land mid-foot anymore and will favor rolling my feet heel to toe and try to glide along as weightless as I can.
These are just my experiences and I realize that everyone is different.
Can anyone find anything wrong with the following statement pulled directly from their website in the FAQ section?
I don’t understand how gravity can help us run. I thought the only way to deal with gravity was to push off the ground, fighting it. Can you clarify?A: Gravity does not exist in a vacuum. The only time its sole impact is to pull an object straight down is when that object is perpendicular to the ground. If the object is not perpendicular, gravity will pull the object down, but the object will go down at an angle. In our case, the angle is “forward” since that’s the way we’re leaning. When we remove our foot from support, it allows our body to fall, and we fall forward. The next support foot touches the ground and interrupts that fall. Remove the support, and we fall again. If we did not have gravity, we would not be running, we’d be floating. Without gravity we cannot go forward unless we can push off from something directly behind us. The more we lean, and the more quickly we can remove support, the more quickly we fall. i.e., run. If you use very slow motions to go through Pose motion, or even walking motions, keeping your feet under you, not in front of you, you’ll see that all forward movement is a series of controlled falls. We cannot fall without gravity. We don’t need to fight it. We just modify our motion to maximize its benefits.
Making a statement like “Gravity does not exist in a vacuum” when it is absurd and has no bearing on the initial question in the first place just makes them look like they have no idea what they are talking about. I just thought it was funny…
Somebody get NASA on the phone, Dr. Romanov has found a much more efficient way for training astronauts to deal with zero gravity - just put them in a vacuum dummies!
This is Dr R’s main problem. Communication. At his clinic he talks that way all the time. He needs to learn to teach line the Total Immersion guy, Terry Laughlin. At TI, Terry doesn’t care how you currently swim. He teaches you the basics of every motion as if each person had never swam before. At Pose, Dr. R says… here, run like this. No, no, no… like this. It is a very difficult concept to get especially the way it was taught. I am finally running pain free (and quicker), but it takes a good 6 mos to “get”. I “got” the TI thing immediately.
All this being said, I still am slow as sh–. But I have fun.
Were you pushing hard off your toes, or pulling up with your hamstrings like pose suggests. If you pull up with your hamtrings, there is almost no load on the calf-achilles-plantar fascia system. They truely get used as shock absorbers that you roll over as you “fall forward”. As another reader suggests though, your point of impact has to be under your c of g.
In defense of the “pose method” consider that the forefoot strike it advocates, as Romanov will tell you, mimics the natural footstrike of the bare foot. thus, it has the “argument from design” on its side. The human body is not “designed” to be a heel striker b/c this is only possible with the help of massive amounts of cushioning from heavy shoes (interestingly not found on light racing flats, which most fast runners use and which are not intended to cushion heel strikes). Unsurprisingly, people who are heel strikers or just novices who consciously try to become forefoot strikers may experience calf soreness due to new running style and the new stresses it involves. Its like if you hit the weights room after a big layoff and do 3x12 bench presses at some eye-popping weight. Your pecs will let you know about it the day after. In switching to forefoot strike the calf may get used to its new role or it may become injured, depending on its strength/resiliency, and the savvy of the individual in terms of knowing when to stop and when to continue. IMO, Pose method is the running equivalent of TI. Both have their proponents and detractors. You are more likely to like and benefit from pose (and TI) if you have no history with running (or swimming), are not particularly fast or economical in running (or swimming), and happen to respond well to structured and intellectualized “systems” consisting of specific drills and concepts designed to babystep you to a faster and more efficient run (or swim). Unfortunately, because running involves so much more impact on the body than does swimming, the risk in trying any new technique is greater. Our current running style may be damn ugly but its our run and our body is used to it! Accordingly, people starting to transition to a forefoot strike system for longer distance running also need incorporate high cadence (180 strikes/min), relaxed arms and torso, and “running on eggshells” concepts to minimize the stress to calves and knees. (All of which are pose method correlates and, surprise, are also hallmarks of many elite runners.)
Bottom line is you should seek to run the entirety of your chosen distance like a cheetah and not like a 3-legged moose with a hangover. (a lot of people can start out looking like the former and cross the finish line looking like the latter.)