You Get What YOu Pay For...
Call me cynical, but I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for in life. I say this because last night the marathon clinic went to a Pilates Studio that is, to my understanding, considering offering a program designed for runners. The clinic, such as it was, was "by donation". And the suggested "donation" was twenty dollars. Frankly, I have never heard anything so preposterous in my life.
Allow me to digress for a moment. After my back surgery and after I was advised to stop running as a form of exercise, I was at a loss for an exercise regimen that satisfied me in the same way. In an attempt to be open-minded, at the suggestion of a friend, I tried yoga. The yoga that I did do conferred immense benefits on me managing my chronic back pain, to the point where I took another stab at running. The end result was that I am probably in the best shape of my life, and because of the constraints of time (and disposable income!) my running has superceded my yoga. Regardless, the point of this digression is that I like to think I am relatively open-minded. Yoga worked for me, but up until I tried it, I had also exhausted various treatments featuring chiropractors (what a load of hooey in my books), accupressure, accupuncture, electronic gizmos, physiotherapists and massage therapists. Hey, if any of these work for you, more power to you.
Anyways, back to pilates. I am sure it works for some people. But endurance athletes, specifically runners? First off, most yoga studios I know of, offer pretty reasonable drop in rates that AREN'T twenty dollars. Secondly, most yoga studios I have attended are peopled and staffed by instructors and long term devotees who are a testament to the benefits of their discipline. In the vernacular, in a yoga studio you can usually count on seeing more than your fair share of hot chicks. I was the first guy at the pilates studio and had a chance to watch the folks coming and going. The bottom line? I didn't see a lot of athletic looking people. In fact I saw a disproportionate number of chunky monkeys.
And, in reference back to earlier posts, I am a firm fence sitter when it comes to the benefits of extensive stretching for endurance athletes. The studies and the data are simply inconclusive. Period. In fact, people who are extremely flexible, such as gymnasts, dancers, and yes, yoga practioners, often have a slightly HIGHER incidence of injury when endurance running. There may be stability benefits for endurance runners in having a slightly - emphasis on slightly - inflexible pelvis.
The pilates class was interesting. But at the end of the class, the two instructors, who neither looked like runners, or who offered any history of their running backgrounds or coaching expertise, then offered "gait analysis". Oh my God, what is it about our culture nowadays where people will pass themselves off as freaking experts in areas where they haveno actual personal experience! I have paid for gait analysis. I have been taught by accredited coaches from national programs. And the gait analysis that was offered to me and that I overheard offered to others was just plain wrong. It was wrong.
As a former sprinter I have had to modify my stride and running style to go from a hundred or two hundred meters to forty or fifty or sixty or seventy KILOMETRES. It wasn't a huge change but it was significant. I shortened my stride, I focused on turnover, I limited my knee lift slightly, I try to just skim the road surface, I try to use LESS quads and MORE calves. The emphasis shifted from POWER to ECONOMY. A successful marathon is about careful management of scarce physical resources. Any slight gain in efficiency will pay dividends over 26.2 miles.
My gait analysis last night? "Push off more with your toes for greater power, increase your stride length. Your upper body is too still, use your upper body more, swing your arms more." In essence, I was being told to revert to a sprinters power form, the exact opposite of what accredited coaches who have actually run marathons and coached marathoners had advised. When I ventured this opinion, I was met not with any meaningful dialogue but a shrug of the shoulders and abrupt dismissal. Frankly, I've always felt that having an open mind is a two way street.
Moral of this story, free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. And beware the instant experts.
Allow me to digress for a moment. After my back surgery and after I was advised to stop running as a form of exercise, I was at a loss for an exercise regimen that satisfied me in the same way. In an attempt to be open-minded, at the suggestion of a friend, I tried yoga. The yoga that I did do conferred immense benefits on me managing my chronic back pain, to the point where I took another stab at running. The end result was that I am probably in the best shape of my life, and because of the constraints of time (and disposable income!) my running has superceded my yoga. Regardless, the point of this digression is that I like to think I am relatively open-minded. Yoga worked for me, but up until I tried it, I had also exhausted various treatments featuring chiropractors (what a load of hooey in my books), accupressure, accupuncture, electronic gizmos, physiotherapists and massage therapists. Hey, if any of these work for you, more power to you.
Anyways, back to pilates. I am sure it works for some people. But endurance athletes, specifically runners? First off, most yoga studios I know of, offer pretty reasonable drop in rates that AREN'T twenty dollars. Secondly, most yoga studios I have attended are peopled and staffed by instructors and long term devotees who are a testament to the benefits of their discipline. In the vernacular, in a yoga studio you can usually count on seeing more than your fair share of hot chicks. I was the first guy at the pilates studio and had a chance to watch the folks coming and going. The bottom line? I didn't see a lot of athletic looking people. In fact I saw a disproportionate number of chunky monkeys.
And, in reference back to earlier posts, I am a firm fence sitter when it comes to the benefits of extensive stretching for endurance athletes. The studies and the data are simply inconclusive. Period. In fact, people who are extremely flexible, such as gymnasts, dancers, and yes, yoga practioners, often have a slightly HIGHER incidence of injury when endurance running. There may be stability benefits for endurance runners in having a slightly - emphasis on slightly - inflexible pelvis.
The pilates class was interesting. But at the end of the class, the two instructors, who neither looked like runners, or who offered any history of their running backgrounds or coaching expertise, then offered "gait analysis". Oh my God, what is it about our culture nowadays where people will pass themselves off as freaking experts in areas where they haveno actual personal experience! I have paid for gait analysis. I have been taught by accredited coaches from national programs. And the gait analysis that was offered to me and that I overheard offered to others was just plain wrong. It was wrong.
As a former sprinter I have had to modify my stride and running style to go from a hundred or two hundred meters to forty or fifty or sixty or seventy KILOMETRES. It wasn't a huge change but it was significant. I shortened my stride, I focused on turnover, I limited my knee lift slightly, I try to just skim the road surface, I try to use LESS quads and MORE calves. The emphasis shifted from POWER to ECONOMY. A successful marathon is about careful management of scarce physical resources. Any slight gain in efficiency will pay dividends over 26.2 miles.
My gait analysis last night? "Push off more with your toes for greater power, increase your stride length. Your upper body is too still, use your upper body more, swing your arms more." In essence, I was being told to revert to a sprinters power form, the exact opposite of what accredited coaches who have actually run marathons and coached marathoners had advised. When I ventured this opinion, I was met not with any meaningful dialogue but a shrug of the shoulders and abrupt dismissal. Frankly, I've always felt that having an open mind is a two way street.
Moral of this story, free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. And beware the instant experts.
posted by Vince Hemingson at 8:07 AM
2 Comments:
"a disproportionate number of chunky monkeys"?
I love it!
Glad I didn't waste a beautiful Wednesday evening....
I don't think it was wasted. Some of the stretching was very interesting. You just have to take everything with a grain of salt. I think you need to have a healthy scepticism - any idea or theory should be able to withstand criticism and should be defended solely on it's merits. Anything else is intellectually dishonest.
Cheers, Vince
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