Improve Your Running: Read How
Form Drills for Natural Running
Improve Your Technique
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
No one has perfect running form, but everyone can improve their running mechanics. Doing so can make you a more efficient runner, which means you’ll use less energy in every stride and boost your running economy (the ability to process oxygen efficiently while running). Ultimately, improved form can make you faster and less prone to overuse injuries.
One of the primary ways to improve your running technique is through form drills. Form drills are easy to do and don’t take a lot of time, but they’re often overlooked, forgotten or ignored when a workout is completed. Taking an extra 5 to 15 minutes to do form drills a several times per week can make you more fluid, more efficient and even faster for both short and long distances.
Most drills take the aspects of good form — a compact arm swing, soft footstrikes with the midfoot under your center of mass, quick leg turnover, an upright posture with a slight forward lean at the ankles — and accentuate it in a repetitive motion that trains the body to be comfortable with that movement during your regular running mechanics. Some drills are aimed at building smaller muscles (such as the intrinsic group and lumbrical group in the foot), while others help your neuromuscular system fire quicker.
Read more...Beware of Barefoot Running Injuries
Natural Running in an unnatural world requires shoes
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
People have been experimenting with barefoot running for a long time, but in recent years the activity has gained mainstream notoriety and science-based credibility. Most coaches, elite athletes, physiologists and other medical experts agree that running barefoot in very small doses on soft surfaces can help improve your running mechanics and teach your body to land lightly at your midfoot, but they also agree that you should wear some kind of running shoes most of the time.
"Throw your shoes away for good? Sure, if you have perfect mechanics and you've been living barefoot all of your life," says Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, a West Virginia University professor and 2:25 marathoner who has studied barefoot and minimalist runners in relation to running injuries. "But that's not the majority of runners. Most runners absolutely need to wear shoes when they run."
If you're used to running in a traditional training shoe with a built-up heel, running barefoot can be a fascinating experience of freedom and can be the first step in developing natural running mechanics. Running unshod your foot naturally seeks out the ground by landing at the midfoot/forefoot, where it receives sensory interaction, or afferent feedback. This sensory input immediately tells the rest of the body how to move efficiently with light footsteps, a high leg cadence, a relaxed but consistent arm swing, an upright posture and a slight forward lean from the ankles. This same feedback can be gained while wearing some types of lightweight shoes, but traditional trainers with thick levels of foam dampen the sensory interaction and make it much harder to interpret the ground, especially with the heel-striking gait those shoes promote.
Read more...Lighter is Better
Lightweight trainers mean less impact, less fatigue and faster recovery
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
Wearing lightweight shoes and running with soft footsteps can be very beneficial for a runner of any ability or experience level.
If you have good form with a natural running (midfoot/forefoot) gait and you wear lightweight shoes, running can put you in a state of euphoric bliss as you effortlessly click off the miles. Everything flows together harmoniously and efficiently, no matter if you're running a minute or a marathon.
But if you have inefficient form and wear heavier, overbuilt shoes — and the two often go hand-in-hand — the simple act of running can quickly become very destructive to your body. Heavier training shoes typically weigh more because they have built-up heels, which translate to steep ramp angles of 8 to 15 percent. This encourages a heavy heel-striking gait and braking, both of which have been shown to cause a variety of overuse injuries.
Read more...Shoe Geometry 101
Running Shoe Re-Evolution
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
At the start of the first American running boom in the 1970s, most people were running in fairly lightweight shoes that consisted of a rubber outsole a thin foam midsole and a lightweight nylon upper. Although simple by today's standards, some of those early shoes were pretty good at allowing the foot to move naturally without the need for excessive muscular force and allowed a runner to obtain afferent feedback from each foot's interaction with the ground.
As footwear technology advanced over the years, running shoes generally became cushier, softer, thicker, heavier and, in some respects even more comfortable. But, while some of the innovations were driven by performance, the end result in many cases was anything but performance-oriented. And that's why, 30 years later, thousands of runners run with inefficient mechanics predicated on a heel-striking gait. Not only is that form not optimal for running fast, it can also lead to numerous overuse injuries.
Read more...Natural Running, Barefoot Running, Efficient Running
Develop efficient form with lightweight shoes and barefoot drills
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
The natural running movement is quickly becoming a revolution. Are you onboard yet?
Thanks to the advancement of lightweight high-performance running shoes plus a best-selling book and recent stories in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, Washington Post and National Public Radio, to name a few, the natural running movement has become quite the rage in recent months.
Natural running is running the way the human body was meant to run in its purest form - namely, barefoot - across a solid surface. That means running with good mechanics and a efficient gait that focuses on landing lightly on the midfoot/forefoot (the ball of the foot, but not the toes) and quickly lifting your foot off the ground instead of pushing off with excessive muscular force. Natural running can help make you a stronger, more efficient runner who is less prone to overuse injuries.
Read more...Reduce & Avoid Common Running Injuries
Efficient form and lightweight shoes are the keys to staying healthy
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton Running
Do you think a running shoe with a thickly cushioned heel pad and rigid medial post can keep you from suffering common running injuries such as plantar fasciitis, iliotibial band syndrome or shin splits? Think again.
Recent research and news reports are confirming what those close to the sport have known for years: running shoes with thick midsoles, extensive anti-pronation devices and large heel crash pads don't prevent injuries.
Read more...Land-Lever-Lift Technique
Good form is the key to efficient running and preventing injuries
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton RunningI've been coaching efficient running and injury prevention through optimal running form, foot support and footwear for years. It would be naïve to go by the results of sponsored elite athletes and satisfied customers, but the initial results of a study started last spring at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reinforced my ideas.
The study, conducted through the Chemistry of Sport class taught by Dr. Patti Christie, took 25 athletic individuals with various running abilities and put them through an eight-week distance running program. The research was based around running 4x800m or 4x1600m repeats while holding a constant heart rate.
Read more...Good Running Form
By Danny Abshire, co-founder, Newton RunningGood running form is the key to efficient running and preventing injuries. When most people take up running for general fitness or to train for a marathon, they don't think twice about how to do it. They buy a pair of running shoes, lace 'em up and start running.
While that simplicity is one of the things that makes running so desirable, if you start running without learning proper form, you could wind up being woefully inefficient, and, worse yet, set yourself up for a variety of debilitating injuries.
Read more...
