POSE Method

Events like marathons, triathlons, 5K's, 10K's, ect. are very popular today, but few people that compete in these events actually have proper running technique.

The problem is most people strike the ground with their heels and then roll to the ball of foot and push off. This seems natural, but in fact it is not! The human foot evolved to strike the ground on the ball of the foot because this acts like a spring or shock absorber. Try this out: jump up and down on your heels. All you get is a thud. Now, jump up and down on the balls of your feet like your jumping rope. You've got some bounce there, right? Like I just said, landing on the balls of your feet acts as a shock absorber and a spring. The springiness comes from the stretch reflex, that is, when your muscles and tendons undergo a quick stretch and rebound requiring you to do less work. So, wouldn't it make sense to use this to your advantage while running? Landing on the heel, after all, does nothing but send a bigger shock up through your ankles, knees, hip, and back, making it more likely that you'll become injured.

So, who's fault is this poor running form? Well, some comes from an unlikely source: shoe manufacturers. Because many running shoes are made with a substantially cushioned heel, the heel does the job of absorbing impact instead of your body in the way that it's designed. This allows people to run on the heels when they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Ok, let's go back to the little experiment from before. Start bouncing up and down on the balls of your feet like you were before. Now, while keeping up your bouncing lean your body slightly forward. What happened? You should of started to move forward. This is another element of the POSE method. Allowing gravity to do the work of forward propulsion. Why do the work when you don't have to?

These two concepts are what makes POSE running the safest and most efficient method of running. But what does POSE running actually look like? From here on out, I'll let the man behind the POSE method, Dr. Romanov, do the talking. In these next three videos, he's going to explain the three phases: Pose, Fall, and Pull.







This short video puts everything together.