Many people run for exercise and this is a good way of burning calories as well as hardening your body. Running uses many of the different parts of the body, however if you run the wrong way it can cause injuries such as shin splints, plantar fasciitis and hamstring pain. Once, these injuries were an accepted part of running and no one thought they could be avoided by running a different way.
Runners often push off with one foot while stretching their other leg as far to the front as possible. This is not good for their balance; the reaching foot will come down heavily and must stay on the ground absorbing the weight of your body as it catches up. If you can hear your feet slapping the ground hard as you run, you may be using this technique.
You can avoid injury by learning to run a different way. Basically, what you do is fall and pull, rather than simply pounding the pavement – which tends to pound back and give you injuries. This is called the Pose Method of running and it was created by Dr Romanov, world renowned Russian sport scientist who has lived in the US for many years. He was a winning track and field athlete and has coached many other athletes who competed in Olympic Games over the years.
His way of running uses the force of gravity and reduces impact on the knees by 50%. Many professional sports programmes now use this method. Basically, the Pose Method of running uses gravity for forward and downward movement and the back foot pushing up to propel the runner forward. With this method runners learn to run using muscle elasticity which enables them to run lightly rather than slapping their feet down heavily.
Running becomes much more effortless because the runner is using gravity to help instead of all their own effort. When running with the Pose Method, the body is leaning forward so that it is over the position of the forward foot. That foot does not have to pull the body along; it just has to support the body and prevent it from falling, then lift up while the back foot and gravity pushes you along.
In this way there is far less injury likely, meaning you won’t have to pull out of the competition at the last moment. Even for people who just like to run for their own fitness, running using the Pose Method is far safer, not to mention easier. You may find you can run further without feeling exhausted and your feet, knees and shins will not be nearly as painful. While injury used to be thought par for the course, this has been proven to be untrue. Who wants to get an injury if they don’t have to?