Don’t Worry, Be Hoppy!
Spring has sprung, so let’s hop to it!
It’s easy to make pun of springtime running, simply because for so many, the long, cold, dreary winter days meant lots of treadmill running, and it’s got us bouncing off the walls. Fortunately for those in the northern hemisphere, the daylight is getting longer, and the temperatures are creeping their way up into T-Shirt and shorts range. For those in the southern hemisphere, the long, hot, humid, dog-days are becoming those gloriously crisp and clear days, and prime race weather means peak physical race condition! Unless we’re sidelined by injury, which unfortunately happens all too often.
As we have been saying (and will continue to say!), the Breath Runner Method is designed to help minimize injury by helping us refine our running biomechanics in a wholistic and sustainable way. We’ve discussed many parameters of this, from the cadence patterning power of the 9-Step and 7-Step patterns when running at low effort levels, to the foundations of training structure. Now we’re going to dive deeper into the analysis of running gait, the importance of developing a robust and energy efficient stride, and how our tendon-muscle units in our legs work to propel us forward. Additionally, we’re going to explain scientifically validated methods for strengthening our bones, ligaments, and tendons so that our muscles can produce as much power as possible, while keeping the whole assemblage happy.
When we run, the movement of our legs goes through two distinct phases, alternating right and left: the Stance phase, characterized as one foot is on the ground, and the Swing phase, also known as the Flight phase, during which the both feet are off the ground.
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Researchers describe how running is dependent on what is known as the ‘stretch-shortening cycle’ (SSC) of the musculotendinous unit, which they describe as an eccentric (stretch) phase, followed by an isometric transitional period (amortization phase, where the energy stored up from the eccentric phase stabilizes), leading into an explosive concentric (release) phase. A more common name for the stretch-shortening cycle is plyometrics. Professor Yuri Verkhoshanski, a well‐known track and field coach in Russia, is credited with starting the training concept that he referred to as ‘shock training’ or ‘jump training’. It was two-time Olympian Fred Wilt who, in 1975, first coined the actual term plyometrics. He combined the Greek words plythein (to increase or augment) or plyo (more), and metric, which means to measure. Therefore, plyometrics may be thought of as a way “to increase the measurement.” Increasing the measurement(s) in sports performance outcomes, whether it be throwing, serving velocity (as in tennis), jump height, or running speed, is the ultimate goal of any training program. Understanding plyometric’s role in such performance is crucial. In order to do that, understanding the basic biomechanics of running is fundamental.
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