Beginning Pose Running Technique

Pose running comes to us from Nicholas Romanov, a Russian scientist and international triathlon consultant who has worked with many professional athletes. The professional connection is important because Romanov's pose method of running demands a lot from it's devotees. Romanov's professional interest in running form eventually intersected with the popularization of running as recreation and a a way to keep fit, and now we ave widespread interest in Pose running techniques.

That's fortunate for those of us who love to run. Romanov's approach to running injury free is painstaking and meticulous. If you golf, play tennis, row or swim you expect your "form" to be a key component of your sport. I don't play golf or tennis - but I do swim. And I know that you just can't swim with any kind of efficiency if you don't have the right form. Interestingly, would be swimmers have no problem taking swimming lessons and stroke improvement classes from a qualified instructor.

Well, what about runners? Try asking a running about their form. Do they heel strike? Run with their knees straight? Ankles locked? You'll just get a blank stare. Only a relatively few of us as runners have had the benefits of individual coaching. To top it off, many learn to run classes are more concerned with building aerobic capacities than in developing the right running foundations.

Runners are still suffering from tendinitis, knee pain, toe pain, foot numbness, and so on - despite unrelenting advances in shoe technology, orthotics and sports medicine.

This is where Romanov steps in. His fundamental technique, like Chi Running, is landing mid-foot rather than on the heel. Again, like Chi Running, Pose Running seeks the gradual change in running posture and a greater proprioceptive awareness of running form. Think of "proprioceptive awareness" as a kind of sub-conscious running awareness that the feet, ankles, and legs can develop with the right training

Pose running sees a high risk of injury in a long, striding slow cadence running style. The solution, Romanov says along with Dreyer, is shorter strides and more strides per minute. Speed in achieved by keeping cadence high, not by lengthening stride. Sounds familiar to chi runners!

Pose running is physically demanding. How many times have you been midway through a long run and caught yourself "catching your breath" by increasing your stride length? You'll see the same thing in cycling. When a cyclist gears up and slows down their cadence they are shifting their exercise "work" away from their cardiovascular system to their anaerobic muscular system. Unless the finish line is 500 meters down the road these guys will soon exhaust their muscular glycogen and fall behind competitors with better cardio capacity and a more rapid cadence.

Like Chi running's "lean", Pose running talks of "controlled falling": Letting gravity do the work for you as you move forward, and letting your stride open up behind you rather than 'braking' your running by heel strikes too far in front of you. Simple concepts and exhaustive techniques - learned over time.

Here's a summary of Pose Running techniques. It's interesting to see how many of these techniques are echoed in chi running and by track and field athletes.

• Raise your ankle straight up under your hip, using the hamstrings
• Keep your support time - your foot on the ground time - short
• Support - ground contact - is on the balls of your feet
• The heels do not touch the ground
• Don't 'spring' off your toes: raise your foot from your ankle when your weight is on the ball of your foot
• Keep your ankle fixed at the same angle
• Knees bent at all times
  
• Keep your feet remain behind the vertical line going through your knees
• Keep your stride length short
• Keep knees and thighs down, close together, and relaxed
• Always focus on pulling the foot from the ground, not on landing
• Do not point or land on the toes (see Fig 3: Toe running)
• Gravity, not muscles, determine where your feet land
  
• Shoulders, hips and ankles are kept in vertical alignment

Summarizing Pose Basics

1. Your lean is your speed. Lean from the ankles, not the waist. Lean more to go faster, lean less to slow down.
2. Keep your strides short, with your leading foot under your body, not ahead of it. Foot plant in front of the body slow you down.
3. Your stride cadence should be fast, with cadence in the 180's per minute. Your cardiovascular system will adapt! To go faster (lean more) and pick up the cadence!
4. Land on your forefoot. Not on your toes, and not on your heel. Pose running suggests a landing between the mid foot and ball of the foot.
5. Keep your feet parallel, pointing straight ahead. Just say "no" to pronation!
6. Your body is like the letter S, but with a straight back with no lean from the waist. Your knees are always slightly bent - especially at impact. Ideally, your running height is a couple of inches shorter than your standing height.