If you’ve ever had a sore calf, Achilles problems or cramps in the calf this is the article for you.
We all know the calves and the Achilles (from here on referred to as the Posterior Lower Leg) are among the first area to fatigue whilst running and contribute to a high number of injuries experienced by runners.
So it stands to reason; If you can reduce the energy expenditure in the posterior lower leg you should be able to stave off fatigue for longer, run faster for a longer period of time and ultimately reduce the frequency of injury and improve your time.
Let’s try a quick exercise…
Stand up on your feet for a moment… Lift up onto your toes. Feel the posterior lower leg muscle working? This movement is called ankle Plantar Flexion and it is the Posterior Lower Leg muscle that make it possible.
The thing is this movement is not ideal in running.
Think about that for a second…
Most people would think this is an important part of your running action to push your body forward.
Guess what?… It’s not.
In fact the best runners in the world will barely have any Ankle Plantar Flexion at all.
So how is this achieved?
There are multiple factors that contribute to a runner being able to reduce ankle Plantar Flexion and we will cover more of them in future posts. For now let’s focus on the title of the post. Push vs Pull.
This takes a bit of mental conditioning. Next time you run, when your Right foot is on the ground, try not to think about it. Think instead about pulling the Left foot from the ground, even though it hasn’t even reached the ground yet. Keep thinking about it so that as soon as it hits the ground you pull it straight back up. You don’t push from the ground anymore. You pull from it!
Try it for a few strides then try to do it on the other side.
Visualisation Exercise: We’ve tested multiple things here but the common one that seems to work well with people it to visualise a Gazelle bounding across a plain. The time its hooves spend on the ground is but a split second before they propel from the ground. Here the Gazelle is using the downward force of gravity, reverses it, and produces a strong upward force to propel the body into the air.
You can do the same. Focus on lifting the foot from the ground, even before it hits and you will notice a real spring in your step!
WARNING – This takes time. You won’t be able to master it straight away. When you’re doing it right something cool happens, you start running faster and your feet spend a shorter amount of time on the ground.
Less time on the ground equals less fatigue and less incidents of injury.
This will puff you out initially but as you continue to practice for a little longer each time you run your respiratory rate will stabilise and you’ll be able to maintain this style of running for much longer.
Note the feeling in your posterior lower leg at this point. Many people report that they don’t feel much at all… Perfect! —————————————————–
Here is a basic video we recorded a long time ago, that we’ve only just gotten around to posting. We thought it might help visualise the lifting of the leg, rather than pushing from the ground when you run.
[youtube url=”http://youtu.be/eRyERpskDyI” width=”475″ height=”350″ autohide=”2″ fs=”1″ hd=”1″]
