Blog Post

Chris had been experiencing some groin issues during the last week or so and during this run he had me look at his run stride and technique.  I noticed that he was getting "lazy" with his leg lift or what I call knee drive.  This was the same leg he was experiencing the groin pain, so I had him visualize or imagine he had to step over a log each time he took a running step.  The faster he ran, the larger the log, the slower he ran, the smaller the log.  We practiced this for the remainder of the run and his groin pain vanished - which was really a hip flexor issue from swinging his leg on each step rather than lifting it (over the log) properly.

More recently, I have been experiencing slight tightness in my upper hamstring attachment and hip flexor of my dominant right leg.  I was writing this off to too much time spent sitting and catching up on my coaching computer work.  But on today's trail run I decided to spend some time focusing on this with my own technique.  Since this is my dominant leg, my good form awareness always shifts to my left leg and I noticed that my left leg was near perfect.  This is pretty common, to have better form with our weaker or less dominant side or limb.  I was a switch hitter in baseball and my left swing was always better than my right, but I had more power on the right side.  So in discovering that I too had gotten lazy with my right leg knee drive, I focused on this during my 30 minute threshold trail run today and what do you know - my tightness released in both the hamstring and hip flexor.

So inspect my video at the 2:00 mark to understand how the knee drive helps promote stance leg stabilization, allowing the hip flexor to do it's job of lifting the leg and NOT act as a stabilizer - that is the job of the glute medius.  If we do not lift that leg, the hip flexor will be recruited to do more work as a stabilizer, over working it, causing tightness.

And then focus on the 3:19 mark of the video to see how imagining stepping over a log might help with proper knee drive.  Keep in mind that your knee drive height is relative to your speed.  The faster you run the higher the knee and the slower you run the lower your knee will be.  BUT the biomechanics and mindset if lifting the leg stay the same.

Now that all of the shoe company's are NOW claiming to be experts on barefoot running and making a good run form transition, many in the industry are asking me how my program differs.  Below is one of my recent email responses to this question.  See you on the Naked Tour - E

My approach is to build foot, leg, glute, core strength thru a potent strength program that can take as little as 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes several times per week based on the runners time frame.  The aim here is to strengthen the feet, which in turns creates strength up the leg, thru knee and glute stability, firing the core appropriately.  I also incorporate barefoot running as a way to continue developing foot/leg/glute strength and to help develop better form. These runs are done as recovery runs within the weekly program.  But what everyone is missing is how important it is to develop economy and efficiency.  This is the holy grail for running and improving, whether it be speed, injury, endurance, etc.  Improving strength and run form is just one part of this, as my programs really focus on economy and developing what I call speed-strength and this is done by executing run workouts: sprints, hills, strength intervals, strength endurance run, etc.  I design this based on HR and pacing zones, so the runner is always working within their ability, as most runners don’t run fast enough or slow enough – just somewhere in between.  So this not only improves their run fitness, but develops fat burning efficiency, raw speed improvements, and creates muscle equilibrium throughout the running gait so there is less muscular-skeletal breakdown when endurance or weekly volume is increased.  Most runners are taught to develop a base of long and slow miles FIRST, but I believe you need to develop strength and muscle integrity first and THEN build volume so each step is a “good” step.  If they build volume first without muscle integrity, every step is muscle break down – which was Chris’s problem.  Once I got him strong with appropriate run intensity training, he went from 90 min runs to 5 hours.  Most people never quit running because they are out of breath, they stop because something hurts….but most people take this to mean they should just shuffle or not work on speed-strength, just the opposite. 

All this dysfunction leads to improper muscle firing patterns that lead to issues, IT Band pain, tight hip flexor, PF, poor core and glute activity….my aim is to eliminate this dysfunction with proper form, strength, and run training.  OVERLY tight muscles are a sign of poor muscle firing patterns that lead to muscle overload dominance, which is why stretching may feel good but very rarely eliminates the tightness over time.