Running Easy

As I came into the studio this morning I saw a lady running at the side of the street that I assumed was running with an injury. When I passed her I saw that she was running in a pair of shoes designed to make her work harder while she runs, they looked like clogs! Maybe she was injured before she owned the shoes?

There are a lot of advertisements at the moment for footwear that makes it harder to run or shoes that tone your butt… The idea is that you work harder when you are training or just walking around town and this tones your body. Great advertising, but is it too good to be true? Probably…

The idea of getting more from your training is obviously appealing to everyone, you get more bang for your buck and something for nothing. Athletes have tried different training methods for all time and will continue to do so. This is great as it pushes technology and new training methods develop. But some training methods just don’t stand the test of time.

In the gym we use instability training all the time, swiss balls, BOSU and balance discs are all great ways of increasing the demands on the body, but there is a limit. If you wear instability shoes and you don’t have great biomechanics to begin with, the chances are that the shoes will not help you become more stable, or improve your biomechanics. If your body is dysfunctional, the shoes will most likely magnify this dysfunction, overusing muscles that are already working too hard to stabilize your body.

Shoes that mimic running in sand are crazy, have you ever tried running in sand? Running on sand can be useful in particular circumstances, but as someone who has lived close to the West Sands in St Andrews (where the famous Chariots of Fire scene was filmed), running in soft sand is a recipe for turned ankles, pulled muscles and torn tendons. For good runners, yes it can be useful, and when learning to run barefoot sand running can be great, but I wouldn’t want to do it all day long!

Running with ankle or wrist weights is a bad idea, running for extended periods of times wearing instability shoes is a bad idea, even sitting on swiss balls at work all the time is a bad idea. You need to find a balance, if you pardon the pun.

Find a good running shop, speak to someone who runs, try on half a dozen shoes in the shop and don’t buy gimmick shoes as your main millage shoe. If you need more intensity in your run training: run faster, join a running group, train with people a little faster than yourself, change the route that you run, but don’t become injured because of a fashion shoe that is marketed as a magic bullet.

Happy running!

Alan