Category Archives: Running Injuries

READY FOR LP REVIEW – Who Is The Best Beginner Runner? It’s NOT Who You Think!

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

So, Who Is Really The Best Beginner Runner? It Might NOT Be Who You’d Think!

ARE 20 YEAR OLDS BETTER AT BEGINNING RUNNING?

Have you always had the desire to become a runner, but you’re 50+ and you think there’s no way that that’s probably going to happen? Well, think again! haha I call BS on that!

I think I’m pretty much an expert on this topic, not because of me my personal experience. I started running in my late 30s, just so you know, and that’s not that old! I hate to even use the word ‘old’.

If I think about it, I know that 20-year-olds sound like they’d be ‘the perfect beginner runner,’ right? Because they’re young, they’re fresh, and they can do pretty much whatever they want with their bodies. But that’s one of the reasons I think they’re not the best.

ARE 50+ YEAR OLDS BETTER AT BEGINNING RUNNING?

So let me tell you some of the reasons why I think a 50+ year old (woman, especially) is perfect to become a beginner runner. I’m a running coach – and again, I started a little later in my life, not quite in my 50s, but close – and the people I coach are mostly 50+.  As a matter of fact, I had one of my runners, who is now 64, do her first 100K last month! (A 100K is 62 miles, btw!) Now, okay, that’s a little bit out of control in the sense that, if you’ve never even thought about running, I know that sounds crazy to you! But that’s what happens when you actually get into a community of women who help support you and want you to do whatever you want and whatever feels good for you.
So let me tell you why I think again that we 50+ women are the best candidates to become beginner runners.

ASKING FOR HELP

First of all, we’re generally not afraid to ask for help. I teach ChiRunning – a running technique I think is a hugely beneficial skill for anybody starting to run, but especially as we get older! Learning technique is huge.In my ChiRunning workshops, I’d guess about 80 percent of the people who show up are women mainly 50+. I’ll get a couple of younger women, or maybe even a couple of guys, but I think as women in this age group, we’re just not afraid to ask for help. By the time you reach this age, if you need some help you’re going to look and you’re going to try to figure out the best way to find it.

MORE SELF-AWARE OF OUR BODIES AND PAIN

Another important thing is that we’re more aware of our bodies as they are aging. We want to make sure that we’re doing things the right way to avoid injury.

In my workshops you’ll learn how to run and get technique tips that will make your running easier and more efficient. As opposed to somebody who’s younger – and even though I’m stereotyping here – stereotypes are there for a reason. You’d probably agree that someone who is younger is maybe not as open to getting help or guidance, and is more likely to try to push through any pain or potential problems.

They might think, ‘Oh, this shin pain is probably normal’ or ‘This knee pain is normal. I’m just going to keep pushing through without really thinking about the consequences that are going to be there in 20 years or so.’

I think, as as we age, we’re just more aware of this. So, if you really think about those two things and what what that actually means or what they have in common – and I think this is just something I feel I’ve learned about myself as I’ve gotten older and wiser – is that we tend to drop the ego. Running can be a very egocentric sport. You see it all the time with people comparing their paces and how fast are you and as soon as you get done with a 5k or any distance. You’ve probably had people asking you, ‘What was your time?’ so it can be a very egocentric sport.

CARING LESS ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF US

As we age, we kind of really start caring less about what people think. Don’t get me wrong, this is still probably one of the biggest mindset things that I work with with my TRU Tribe ladies, but at the same time, I think we’re much more open to the fact that we have to let our egos go, right? So if that’s the case, then you’re going to be more likely to learn how to run (and, hey, I can definitely help you out with that! 😉 )

SURROUNDING OURSELVES WITH A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY

Then the other thing is, I think as women and as we get older, we tend to find other women that we can bond with around things that we enjoy. And that’s really pretty much exactly what my TRU TRIBE (this is my online community of women) is all about!

Bringing women together into a community is what I do! We have an online community and that’s exactly what we do there. Pretty much everybody’s about 50+ and at all different levels. I have people who have just completed their first 5Ks, and I have somebody who just did her first 100K!

does this sound like YOU??  

  • Do you feel comfortable asking for help?
  • Do you feel more self-aware of your body and avoiding the aches and pains?
  • Are you less worried about what others may think of you as you get older?
  • Do you enjoy the company and camaraderie of other women who feel like you do and are looking for more ways to enjoy their lives?

This is us! This is our TRU Tribe community! 

JOIN US TODAY

If you are even in the slightest bit interested in joining an awesome community of 50+ women, just send me an email Lisa@TheRunningUniversity.com and say, ‘Hey I saw your your video and I’m interested in a 30-day free trial in your TRU Tribe!’ I’d love to have you come in check it out. 😊

The Key to Avoiding Knee Pain When Running

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

‘Running will be hard on your knees,’ they said… and, hey, they’re not wrong, but it’s not ‘running’ that causes pain. It’s HOW you run.

Today I want to talk a little bit about running technique. (Of course, if you’ve been following me for a while, you already know that I’m a ChiRunning Master Instructor and that ChiRunning has absolutely changed my life.) A lot of times, when we talk about knee pain, there are various things in your run that will cause knee pain. I’m going to lay them out for you. At the end of this blog post, I’m also going to give you the quickest tip on how you can avoid all the things I’m talking about without really having to focus on them.

HEEL STRIKING

So first of all, one the major underlying causes of knee pain is heel striking – putting your front foot too far ahead of you during your stride. If you’re looking to avoid knee pain, you really want to avoid heel striking. Ideally, you’re going to land on a midfoot strike.

OVERSTRIDING

The two biggest causes of knee pain are overstriding and heel striking, and many runners do both at the same time. What that looks like is this (see video for demonstration). You can see here that I’m overstriding AND I’m heel striking. When you bring your foot out in front of you, it’s that impact from the heel strike and your foot landing in front of you which can cause knee pain. Again, it’s directly related to overstriding. What happens is that runners reach out with their foot, they heel strike, they land, they brake, they put that impact on the knee, and then they paw their way across the ground to move forward. This style of running ‘technically’ works, but running this way is also potentially an easy way to get injured. And it’s also pretty inefficient, since you’re actually slowing yourself down when you’re heel striking.

LIFTING THE KNEES

Another thing I see a lot of runners do is that they lift their knee. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos and I see a lot of people talking about lifting your knee for power. While this style might be appropriate for power sprinting quick short distances, it’s much less efficient for longer distances and actually takes more energy, so we don’t do that at all in ChiRunning. We keep our knees down because we use our core and posture to help us fall forward. By lifting your knee higher, you’re going to be using a lot more leg muscle than we like to do.

If you want to become a more efficient runner, you’ll want to avoid heel striking AND you want to avoid lifting your knee as much as possible. You always want to make sure that your knee is bent and it’s soft when you land, instead of it coming out in front of you and locking.

FOOT SPLAY

You also want to make sure that you don’t have a ‘splay’ in your gait. That would mean that your feet should always be pointing straight forward. If your feet splay out like this (see video for demonstration), what’s happening is you’re torqueing your whole entire leg, which is basically affecting your entire kinetic chain from the hip all the way down.  Over time and miles, this is going to have a negative effect on your running and your body.

RUNNING CADENCE

Keeping a good cadence is another way to avoid knee pain and that will actually bring everything together. 170 to 180 bpm is the ideal cadence that you want to keep. This cadence will keep your strides shorter and quicker, which should naturally help you heel strike and overstride less.

HOW TO INCORPORATE ALL THESE WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT

Now, for my favorite tip on how to avoid all of those things without focusing on them…
What I have found as I’ve been teaching running technique to thousands of runners over the last 10 years is that when runners think too hard about not overstriding and not heel striking and not doing all the things they’re trying so hard to make it happen, that they’re really not RELAXED anymore.

So, the best way to go about it is to really think about moving from the center of your body (basically your center of gravity). In ChiRunning and in Tai Chi, we call it your ‘dantien.’ Basically, your dantien is going to be about a couple of inches below and about one to two inches behind your belly button. That is your center of gravity. It’s just a location in your body that is an energetic location but also your center of gravity or your center of mass.

So what you want to do is you always just want to make sure that you’re keeping the center of your body directly above your feet, so your feet should never come out in front of the center of your body. It’s going to look something like this (see video for demonstration). And the wrong way to do it would be to reach out in front of you like this.

So these are a few individual elements to avoid developing knee pain. These technique focuses all build on one another, but instead of focusing on each ‘individual’ thing that your leg should not be doing, just try putting your center (dantien) ahead of your feet, and this could eliminate the heel striking or lifting the knees as a result of this one change.

At this point in the workshop, people often ask me about opening up their stride and getting faster! That topic is a little too much to go into right now, so I’ll save that for another video. But yes, that’s how it will eventually happen. Your stride will open up behind you as you move your center farther forward and you pick up speed. Just keep in mind that, as you get faster, your stride doesn’t open up IN FRONT OF you (which can bring back the heel striking and lifting the knees), but BEHIND you (which avoids these potentially harmful and less efficient motions).

A QUICK TRU REVIEW: HOW TO AVOID KNEE PAIN FROM RUNNING 

  • Avoid Heel Striking
  • Avoid Overstriding
  • Don’t Lift the Knees
  • Check for Foot Splay
  • Running Cadence of 170 to 180 bpm to Keep Shorter Quicker Strides
  • Move your center of mass/gravity (your dantien) forward (in front of your feet)

Let me know how it goes!