♪ Bob and Brad the two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
- And we are the most famous Physical Therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Today we are going to talk about how to run
so you can save your hip and knee joints long-term.
- Right.
- Big issue, with a lot of us and I have a friend
who actually, he's 60, he'd be 64 or 65 right now,
he's run his whole life.
And he's worried he's
coming to the end because of his knee.
But I just told him for one thing he's gotta cut down,
he was still running like seven miles a day.
You know cut down to three!
- What's his running style?
Forefoot?
- I think he's forefoot.
- Oh okay.
- He's a big biker, too.
- All right, well, we better get to business.
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- There you go.
- All right Brad, take it away here.
- All right so I wanted to to put this on the title,
but not only does changing your style from a heel striker,
and I'm gonna say it right now,
to a forefoot runner, it reduces impact and stress
on your low back which is why I converted,
also for my knees and my hips as well.
- I would take it even further, Brad.
I think even walking, you may try to convert from
more of a heel striker,
to maybe a heel forefoot striker at the same time.
- Right.
so let's clear up what we're actually talking about.
In case someone's not familiar.
So here we have this nice turquoise, blue-ish
shoe thing that I just bought, and I don't really
like the color but I bought 'em for a reason
and I'll tell you.
So, every time you walk or you run,
a lot of people and I might say most people,
hit their heel strikes first and then you roll
to the forefoot and carry on to the next phase of your gait.
So, when the heel strikes,
that goes into your calcaneus,
which is a big bone through your ankle.
Through your ankle joint through your knee,
your knee joint, the tibia, up to the femur,
to the hip and to the back.
So it's a boney, contact.
- It sends the force right back.
- Right through bones.
- Right through the Jones.
- The Jones.
(laughter)
- The Joints
- However, if you land on your forefoot
and the heel does not strike,
what happens is your calf muscle,
your quads, and your glutes
accept that force and that shock,
so you don't have the shock that you have
when your heel strikes.
- The joints aren't taking the shock.
- Right, the Muscles are taking it,
versus the joints.
Which-
- Muscles can take it.
- Right, and the if you want to learn more
about this in detail there's a couple books
that we promote that we both-
- Recommend.
- We both read.
One is "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.
It's a book about ultra runners.
They run 50, 100 miles.
And they really need to.
- Kind of an inspirational book too if I remember.
- It is, it is.
- Yeah
- It's not real scientific, but it really has
a lot of history of runners.
- Kind of a cool book.
- The other book is "Pose" P O S E,
and that is very scientific it's written by
a PhD, Dr. Nicholas Romanov.
And he has a wealth of information
and explanation of how to run more efficiently.
- It's interesting, Brad and I came upon
these two books separately.
It's not like you recommended it to me
and I didn't recommend it to you.
We just found out years later
we both had read 'em.
- Right.
- They are big in the running community
I think a lot of you have heard of them.
- You bet
So the other thing is, they say
the forefoot running is faster.
And I'm not sure about sprinting,
but in regards to distance runners,
which, most adults once you get out
of high school or college,
if you run it's usually to relieve stress,
for exercise, cardiac, what not benefits.
- I think you automatically,
when you are sprinting you go,
and become a forefoot runner.
You know what I mean?
- Yeah, that's a good question.
I'm not sure, 'cause I haven't looked at sprinting.
- And when you're slowing down, you automatically
start hitting your heel, you know like you're running
fast and you're sprinting on your forefoot
and then when you want to slow down.
What do you do?
You start hitting your heel to put the brakes on.
And that's one thing they talk about,
is heel runners are always putting the brake on
every stride you take.
- Right, right.
So if you do, are considering it, you want to save
those joints and the back, the hips and knees
and you want to change,
and you know you're a heel striker,
you're not gonna go out and change in a matter of a month.
- Right
- It may take you up to a couple years.
It took me two years before I can go out and run
without thinking about forefoot striking
and it just happens.
- Slow learner
- Yeah I am a little slow.
(laughter)
It's just been that way.
School was tough, Bob.
(laughter)
But anyways, a friend of mine
just wrote another article
- You'll get some improvement right away
though I think, just by starting it.
- Right.
And we're gonna give you a few hints
on how to convert.
So the first one is start with short distances.
Maybe a half mile, to a mile.
It depends if you typically run 10 miles,
one mile may be short for you.
So start out short distances and a slower pace.
You're not gonna be running 6 minute miles
if that's what you, you know that's pretty good
for a lot of people.
- Especially our age
- You know slow down to at least 50%
of what you normally run, shorter distances
and then you are going to want
to shorten up your stride.
- Yeah, I think this was the most important thing for me.
- Right.
- By shortening up your stride, it kinda
forces you to start doing the forefoot.
- So if you can look down here, Liz.
If you're the heel striker, typically you reach out
in front of your hips,
if you look at the vertical line
you heel strike and you run through
and your hips go over the top of your foot.
Now, the desired way to be a forefoot striker,
is your foot hits the ground on your forefoot
below your hips, not in front.
And so your stride is back here
and you push off and the next foot lands here,
and you're leaning forward a little bit
and actually they describe it you should feel
like you're running down hill.
And I felt that exact same feeling
when I started doing this, I was like,
wow I feel like I'm falling forward.
So I knew I was doing it right.
You can feel when your forefoot hits versus your heel.
- And just as a warning, I mean
my wife is experimenting with this right now
and your calves will get sore.
- Oh right, expect it.
- And that's why Brad mentioned
to start with shorter distance is important
because you can actually
get to the point where they get so sore you can't even run.
- Oh right!
- I mean you gotta build up a tolerance
- Yep, it is typically DOMS or DOMS
Delayed onset muscle soreness,
you may not feel sore until the next day
or two days after that and you're gonna say
"Oh my gosh this is painful."
- But stick with it, because just imagine
all that force normally woulda be going through
your knee and hip.
- Right, exactly.
- That shows you right there, should be kind of a convincer.
- Right, yep.
- You know convince you of it.
- What I would recommend is to,
if you don't have someone at home
that's gonna massage your calves,
is simply get a six inch roller.
Right there Bob, can you grab it?
- Sure!
- There ya go.
Whoops!
Sorry!
- I was really good at that Brad.
- Yeah, and simply, you don't have to get
the three foot one, and start rolling your calves.
And we've got some nice videos
on how to go through that.
- There he's doing a single one there but.
- Massage those calves out.
- You're gonna wanna stay ahead of it.
- Yeah.
- In fact it wouldn't be the worst thing
to massage it the day after or earlier.
- Oh right, yep.
You're gonna I would say daily
with whatever you go to use.
And the other thing-
- Oh I'm sorry you had that on there.
- Well, yes, Bob.
- I didn't even realize that.
- Well you can't read my writing.
Cadence, the number, you're gonna shorten your stride,
but you're gonna have more strides per minute.
And they recommend approximately 180 strikes per minute.
Now, I wouldn't worry about that too much right away,
but once you get into it,
and some people recommend on your cellphone
you could get a little-
- Metronome.
- Metronome, and you can get it to tick.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
And then try to maintain that,
it's a good way to train for.
- And really the better runners
are doing higher cadence.
- Yeah
- I mean that's, and so if you are trying
to improve your running,
or you're trying to become a better runner.
Even if you're still competing in races.
That's absolutely recommended,
you should want to increase the cadence.
- And last but not least, is what kind of footwear
are you gonna use?
You're not gonna use your traditional footwear
that has a pretty heavy duty sole
and a big cushion in the sole.
You're gonna use what they call a minimalist.
And if you to a running store
and you ask for a minimalist shoe,
they'll pull out umpteen dozen of them,
if you want them to.
This is mine.
This actually has a pretty thick sole.
It's thicker than I wanted, but the reason I bought it
was not because of the color,
or not because of the sole,
but because it fit so comfortably.
I wasn't even gonna put 'em on, then I decided to,
and they fit so good, and it felt so good,
I said, "I have to have it."
And I'm forefoot running and I love 'em.
I really do, this is...
- Now, warning here this is something,
we're gonna have a video on in the future
saying are you ready for these or not.
If you start with one of these
you might get really sore.
- Right
- And not be able to handle it.
You might not have the flexibility to handle it.
- Even this, they're pretty flexible.
This one, like I said, is probably the heaviest
minimalist categorized shoe that I've ever seen
but like I said.
- You're gonna wanna work your way into a shoe like this.
- Sure.
- That's where you talk about not starting off
with a lot of mileage.
- Right 'cause there is some range of motion
and strength issues with your feet and ankle,
and actually your great toe, the big toe,
that you need to be aware of that if it's too tight
or too weak, you're really gonna struggle.
- Yeah you could end up with plantar fasciitis,
You could end up with a lot of calf problems.
I mean, so we're giving you the warning right here.
- There's four simple tests.
We're gonna have that video out,
with in the week or so.
So keep an eye on that one.
- All right.
- Wow.
- Thanks everybody for watching.
- Be careful when you're runnin'.