Paul Ford Athletic Development

Run Tip #102
Run, swim, cycle, row, ski better - effort & speed are different beasts. Harder isn't faster. Relax 🏃‍♂️

Fit Tip #101
Strength: ability to manage force - forces of Nature, muscle force, force of mind & habit, force of crowd. Be strong 🏋️‍♀️🏃‍♂️

Run Tip #100
Run happiness is not a distance or time you achieve, yet the trails, paths, roads, challenges and track you travel 🏃‍♂️

Run Tip #99
The ultimate activity, exercise & sport continuum: from NEAT to elite 🏃‍♂️

Run Tip #97
Challenge of youth athlete development: perceived short term peer performance vs long term success 🏃‍♂️

Run Tip #96
Use you (bodyweight), your environment & Nature as your gym playground & gym 🏃‍♂️

Run Tip #95
Movement & mobility - the less you do the more you lose, and the less you’re then able to do 🏃🏻‍➡️

Got asked today, “How long is the 20m multistage shuttle run?”
Oh my 🤦‍♂️😵‍💫

“Weights before or after running?”
🏃‍♂️🏋️🏃‍♀️🏋️🏃
A few thoughts:
Weight training and strength training can be related yet aren’t the same things - the latter dependent upon exercise/activity choice, load, and progression.

And, is it a two session day (ie. am and pm) or a joint/combined session?

That said, consider:
*context: doing the right kind of strength training related to your background, context and goals is better than not doing it.
*practicality: access, availability, timing and climate/weather (and hygiene) issues particularly if in a commercial/public setting.
*preference, yours?
*prioritise: do first that which is the most important session/s for that day, week or cycle.
*agility: be adaptable/agile according to circumstances , and to add structured variety of months/cycles.

A few side notes:
1. I often recommend runners (people who use running as their main sport, exercise or activity) do strength training (usually 2nd) on their hard running days, then they have longer to recover on inbetween/easier days
2. It depends upon the nature of the strength training, as opposed to a “leg day” smash-fest
3. Most gym related weight/strength exercises are generic in nature, ecentose that try to mimic run posture/actions as “specificity”. Special and specific related strength training for more serious runners will take them out of the gym onto the track, hills, sand, grass, and trails and include jumping, skipping, hopping and bounding
4. Generic weight/strength training can benefit runners (especially this over 40yo) indirectly too - metabolic health, injury risk reduction, reduce LBM loss, mental health, social setting, and establishing a valuable habit for latter in life🏃‍♂️🏋️🏃🏋️🏃‍♀️

“Weights before or after running?”
🏃 🏋️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️
A few thoughts:
Weight training and strength training can be related yet aren’t the same things - the latter dependent upon exercise/activity choice, load, and progression.

And, is it a two session day (ie. am and pm) or a joint/combined session?

That said, consider:
*context: doing the right kind of strength training related to your background, context and goals is better than not doing it.
*practicality: access, availability, timing and climate/weather (and hygiene) issues particularly if in a commercial/public setting.
*preference, yours?
*prioritise: do first that which is the most important session/s for that day, week or cycle.
*agility: be adaptable/agile according to circumstances , and to add structured variety of months/cycles.

As three side notes:
1. I often recommend runners (people who use running as achieve sport, exercise or activity) do strength training (usually 2nd) on their hard running days, then they have longer to recover on inbetween/easier days
2. It depends upon the nature of the strength training, as opposed to a “leg day” smash-fest
3. Most gym related weight/strength exercises are generic in nature, ecentose that try to mimic run posture/actions as “specificity”. Special and specific related strength training for more serious runners will take them out of the gym onto the track, hills, sand, grass, and trails and include jumping, skipping, hopping and bounding
4. Generic weight/strength training can benefit runners (especially this over 40yo) indirectly too - metabolic health, injury risk reduction, reduce LBM loss, mental health, social setting, and establishing a valuable habit for latter in life

➡️ Is Heel-Striking in running an issue, really?
1️⃣ Short Hat: nope! ✅
2️⃣ Casual Hat: What do you mean by an "issue"?
Most runners heel contact, and more heel-contact later in (longer) races.
HC running downhill and decelerating are normal.
Speed, posture and surface influence it. Overall posture, including trunk, lean often has a major bearing on stride and foot contact.
There are more important things to focus on to become a better and/or faster runner ✅
3️⃣ Science Hat: Too much is often made of Heel-Strike itself.
HS is rarely the issue alone. Running gait is contextual, including speed (Cavanagh 1985; Dorn et al 2012; Schache et al 2014;Napier et al 2019), surface and individual factors (incl posture) - not to mention perspectives/biases of training and performance vs injury (risk reduction and rehabilitation). ✅
Apart from the barefoot, minimalist and forefoot-strike advocates, has isolated "heel-strike" as initial contact itself ever been a real issue? No. ✅
Context is king - on firm, even and flat-surfaces even-paced moderate-speed run gait, (type of) foot-strike should be taken into consideration WITH, at least:
(a) the direction foot is moving at contact, and
(b) how far contact occurs ahead of CoG/CoM*, influencing shank angle (Napier et al 2019). That's important in running economy (Polland et al 2017), middle-distance performance (Trowell et al 2019), and kinetic variables related to Runnning Related Injuries (RRIs; Napier et al 2019). ✅
*This is NOT say, as one brand of "running form" advocates and sells, you should (try) to run with your foot contact under your CoG/CoM. Elite male & female 5km track athletes contact the ground 31-33cm ahead of their CoM/CoG (Hanley et al 2011) with recreational runners likely having less strength (or movement coordination variability (Hanley et al 2015pc) to maintain that and the related postured ✅
There may be value in reducing (not eliminating) this for some, however (Daoud et al 2012; Anderson et al 2020).
Heel contact is far more common in slower running, beginner and novice runners (de Almieda et al 2015)), and when running longer distances (ie. as runners fatigue) (Bovalino et al 2021).In fact, its' been shown that many forefoot and midfoot footstrikers change to HC strike over the course of a half-marathon and marathon (Hasegawa et al 2007)Bovalino et al 2021; Kasmer et al 2013; Pzzuto et al 2016; Bovalino et al 2020).)
❇️ HS is unlikely to be an issue for all - injury or performance wise.
Where and how that HS occurs as initial contact, and what is happening above (kinematics and kinetics) as a result of other factors is likely more problematic.
Run well, train well - be smart 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🙏

Run Tip #97
Is don is good.
Is "can't" is often "won't".
Is done is better. 🏃‍♀️