Piriformis syndrome is one of the most frustrating running injuries precisely because it sits in an ambiguous zone. Unlike a stress fracture that demands complete rest or a hamstring tear that makes running immediately impossible, piriformis syndrome often allows running to continue at some level while simultaneously preventing full recovery if the wrong decisions
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The pogo jump is one of the most underrated exercises in athletic training. It looks deceptively simple: rapid continuous jumps on the balls of the feet with minimal knee bend. But the simplicity of the movement is precisely what makes it so specific and so effective. Pogo jumps train the ankle spring mechanism and
Pogo Jump Exercise: What It Is, Why It Works, and How to Use It Read More »
Ground contact time is one of the most revealing metrics available to runners with modern GPS watches, yet it is one of the least understood. Most runners who see their ground contact time figure either ignore it entirely or are not sure what it should be or what to do about it. Ground contact
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If you asked most runners which physiological quality most determines their race performance, they would say VO2 max. The answer is correct for some runners but incomplete for most. The quality that most separates runners of similar VO2 max is running economy, and it is the quality most responsive to the targeted training interventions
Running Economy: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Improve Yours Read More »
Running form is one of those topics that attracts a lot of strong opinions and not enough practical guidance. Some coaches insist that form should never be consciously modified and will self-correct with fitness. Others prescribe rigid form rules that fail to account for individual biomechanics. The reality sits between these positions. Good running
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Before diving into how to stop heel striking, it is worth establishing something that most guides in this space skip over: heel striking is not automatically wrong. The majority of recreational runners heel strike, and many of them run injury-free for years. The relationship between heel striking and injury is more nuanced than the
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Overstriding is one of the most common running technique errors and one of the most consequential. It increases impact loading on every stride, wastes energy through a braking effect that works against forward momentum, and is directly associated with some of the most prevalent running injuries including knee pain, shin splints, and stress fractures.
Overstriding in Running: What It Is, Why It Causes Injuries, and How to Fix It Read More »
Stride length is one of the two variables that determine how fast you run. Together with cadence (steps per minute), it sets your pace. Yet while cadence has received enormous attention in running circles over the past decade, stride length is often reduced to a single generic figure without context for how it varies
Gait cadence is one of the most informative single measurements in human movement. It tells you how quickly someone is taking steps, and from that single number you can infer a remarkable amount about their mobility, health, fall risk, neurological function, and physical fitness. It is a measurement that appears in sports science, physiotherapy,
Cadence of Gait: What It Is, Normal Values, and Why It Matters Read More »
Running cadence is the number of steps taken per minute during a run. It is one of the most discussed and most misunderstood aspects of running mechanics, largely because of a single number that has taken on almost mythological status in the running community: 180 steps per minute. You will hear it everywhere. Running
Cadence for Running: What It Is, What the Research Says, and How to Improve Yours Read More »