Do you think running form involves other parts of the body besides the lower limbs? It seems like most, if not, all of the focus these days are on footstrike and shoe selection, Nike Air Max 270 Dámské but i would argue that other factors beyond foot placement and degree of heel lift contributes to “proper form” when running. Off the top of my head, i can think of hip angle/tilt, body posture, arm carry, etc as other contributing factors. Maybe because you’re mainly a shoe guy and this is a shoe blog so you’re concentrating on it here, but personally, I think proper running form doesn’t just involve feet and shoes or no shoes.
“Improvement in biomechanics” to the scientist in me involves energy expenditure, which can be objectively measured in laboratory setting. We do this all the time with lab Nike Air Force 1 Femme animals when we study how motion affect different physiologic parameters. So if a particularly running form or running in a particular running shoe leads to improvement in biomechanics, that would mean that the runner running in Nike Air Max 97 Damen one form or type of shoe vs another would expend less energy running for a particular time at a particular pace in an ideal setting. Of course these types of experiments would never be done, but that’s what improvement in biomechanics means to me.
One final point. Why do we always use Kenyans as the “ideal” that we should all strive for? I never quite understood that. Yes, they were born and raised running with no shoes and yes they are the fastest, most efficient runners in the world, but does that mean that their running style/form is ideal for US? We are not born with the same genetic makeup as Adidas NMD Dámské they are. Anatomically, their bone structures, muscle composition, proportion of brown/white fat, etc, are slightly different and they are evolved to adapted running in their environment. We are simply not. Even if we run with Nike Roshe Run Womens exactly the same form as they, we will not harbor the same results. What works for them may not necessarily work for us, with our genetic makeup, in our environment. That’s why i’m always hesitant to draw conclusions based on observations about how Kenyans are brought up and how they run as the “model” upon which we should adopt. Perhaps that’s why running barefoot does not work for many of us and gets many people injured. It may not just have to do with speed of transition…there may be subtle biological differences which make it harder/impossible for some to adopt that style of running because of Nike Roshe Run Donne our genetics.In case you aren’t a subscriber, I wanted to mention that the June edition of Runner’s World (currently on newsstands) includes an article by Peter Vigneron titled “Does Form Matter.” I wanted to thank Peter for including Nike M2k Tekno Dames me and my buddy Harry Hollines (the barefoot runner) in the article, and I have to say it was quite a trip to actually do a photo shoot in my little lab. Here’s the picture that was ultimately published in the magazine (that’s my colleague Eric Berry on the treadmill – he’s a far better runner than I!):As you can see, I don’t have the fanciest lab in the world, but it suits my Nike Roshe Run Womens purposes since for most of my academic life I’ve studied critters smaller than the tip of your pinky finger (tadpoles). I’m a newcomer to the world of running research, but have learned a lot over the past few years, and I’ve Nike Air Max 270 Womens enjoyed getting out and filming runners in real world situations (i.e., races). Lab data are valuable, but I also think it’s important that we also take a look at what runners really do when they’re out on the road, and my first Nike Air Max 270 Womens academic publication on running is currently undergoing peer review at a scientific journal (a far longer and more involved process than posting on this blog!).Anyway, I recommend that you check out Peter’s article – he does a very balanced job on a very controversial topic. He also put together a nice video in which he dissects some of my race videos and gives his thoughts on the Nike Air Huarache Womens form of some elites from the Boston Marathon.