Elite Walkers Teach Elite Runners
In a nutshell, I believed that the best walkers have proven to teach the best
runners. All I needed was a reason to pursue that logic. And the weight transfer
formula provided the science necessary to point the way.
If my thesis would be correct, then studying the tribal women of Kenya would
lay an accurate foundation for explaining the Kenyan runners, as well as deriving
a running model that others could build from.
These women walk still as a post from their legs up. They have to, given the
added weight to their bodies. A motionless torso is required to balance the wood
bundles overhead. In trying to keep their head perfectly still in motion to carry
the weight, Kenyan women learned instead to alter their walking gait underneath
that added mass to accomplish the biomechanic efficiency necessary to carry the wood.
Because of a traditional walker's natural imbalance, even adding mere ounces in
weight amplifies their inefficiency and creates a measurable increase in heart
rate. These Kenyan women carry with ease a weight load that equals the maximum
limits set by the US ARMY for a soldier's backpack. And they carry it without
even breaking a sweat.
Even if runners ignore the rest of this story, there isn't a soldier alive that
wouldn't give up a week of desserts to learn the women's secret for their next
50-mile march. Even backpackers can mimic their secrets quite easily.
The women themselves don't know how they improve their walking gait, and without
any wood overhead their gait reverts back to a traditional normal walking step
no different than any other human on this planet. So in backwards philosophy
then the secret isn't in the women, it's in the wood. Without the wood bundles
to carry, they can't change into their efficient biomechanic processes or
wouldn't have learned their efficient gait technique in the first place.
The physical gravitational picture isn't simply women carrying wood, it's
actually wood being carried by women. The women take advantage of the wood's
momentum with each step they take. From that perspective, their bundle of
firewood overhead has it's own center of gravity and the women themselves
have a different center of gravity.
The body's natural center of gravity for these women doesn't exist anymore
because a new center of gravity is identified by the combined size of the two
entities: they are one combined unit and recognizing that a completely new
center of gravity exists created the opportunity for these women to develop
a new walking technique around it.
Track and field coaches refer to this new center of gravity as the,
"Center of Mass." Discus throwing and hammer throwers each have to adjust to
their body's rotation around a center of gravity that lies somewhere between
the weigh they're throwing and their own bodies. That's a new axis and center
of gravity for the athlete to recognize, understand, and master to be successful
with the event. As the body rotates through the air, the better control of
the athlete's center of mass determines their throwing or rotational efficiency
for further throws.
With Kenyan women, they shift the wood slightly forward so that they maximize
creation of the combined weight and a more efficient center of mass. This new
center of mass facilitates a longer and easier stride. The stride efficiency
adapted to this new center of mass hinges around the observation that they have
no natural upward motion when they walk.
Linear rise, vertical force, or simply "bounce" are all the terms used to
describe the pendulum motion of pushing ourselves up with each step walking or
running to come down on our next step as we walk or run. Humans do this because
of the body's forward lean when we walk and run. The women don't need to push
themselves upwards because their entire gait cycle of each step occurs behind
the new center of mass.
As Kenyan women don't expend the energy pushing the added weight up, and thus
no energy is wasted to absorb the impact forces of landing. That difference
describes their weight transfer efficiency. Once the wood is removed, then,
like everyone else, their body's natural center of gravity is redefined and
in result they walk no different than you do.
In teaching students to integrate the Kenyan running efficiencies, they
jokingly refer to it as the "model's" technique because the end result
looks so much like how the best runway models of New York move.
By walking with their feet crossing over in front of them, runway models
get rid of the natural bounce in their walking stride. Why? They have to.
No photographer wants a frilly dress bouncing up and down and ruining the
natural flow of the clothing for pictures.
However because of our natural forward lean, their crossover walking technique
extrapolated into running is impossible to do. Forward lean of a model's foot
placement over-cross locks out the ability to increase a stride length necessary
to run.
The women of Kenya however utilize their own version of a models walk with a radical
change in balance. While noting that these women have no counterbalance arm swing,
they also walk like a model with one foot almost perfectly in front of each other.
What the Kenyan women learned is that the shortest distance between two points is
a straight line, thus the closer your foot placement can be rotated towards that
goal, then the longer your natural stride length. The women of Kenya walk highly
similar to a model with only one slight modification that runway models can't accomplish.
Pull, Don't Push
With a center of mass further forward than their bodies own natural center of
gravity, these Kenyan women can also do something supermodels can't do; they can
pull their weight. The most efficient walkers in the world don't lean forward
and push backward, they actually lean backwards and pull themselves forward onto
their next step. It's still within Newton's laws of gravity, but it is a whole
new chapter of exploration for athletes to ponder.
The ideology of letting your feet pull you forward upon contact allows a runner
to remove the energy naturally wasted to keep the upper torso upright during the
running process. Pulling one's weight also is a natural way to remove unwanted
foot pronation or suponation in a runner's technique.
In a very subtle difference of pulling one's weight, the biological advantage
is that the gluteus muscle group becomes the primary firing muscles of moving
the body forward instead of the expert opinion that the quadriceps are more
important.
The Gluteus Maximus is arguably the strongest muscle of the human body yet
traditional running technique athletes don't use them at all in the weight bearing
leg during their gait cycle. The women of Kenya and their running countrymen use
their glutes far more efficiently than traditional runners do. Considering that
everyone follows the Kenyans running, why they haven't noticed the muscular
differences of their glutes is merely a chuckle to me.
Using the glutes more efficiently also allows the quadriceps to fire more effectively
because it takes way the resistance to fluid movement that is naturally in the
kneecap and thus elimination of any patella pain. The idea of pulling their
weight is how the Kenyan women walk efficiently, and how I teach knee surgery
patients to walk and eventually run again.
To test this theory I recruited a group of volunteer firemen from the Portland,
Oregon fire department. With 60lbs of equipment (reflecting 20-25% of the
individual's bodyweight) in clothing, oxygen bottle, mask, and axe, seven of
the ten member test group were able to mimic the Kenyan walking technique with
less than an hour of teaching. Learning the skill of forward pulling to walk
resulted in no change in heart rate compared with walking without the added
equipment weight.
With firemen, the increase in walking efficiency and lowered heart rate means
decreased oxygen consumption needs giving them the added time with an oxygen
bottle to search a little longer for a missing building occupant, fallen comrade,
or stay inside a building a little longer with a hose to minimize fire damage.
Most important to me, a Kenyan walking technique provides the few extra breaths
they get from their oxygen bottle that means being able to escape a burning
building when all hell is breaking loose.
For the runners of Kenya, they too run with a different center of gravity than
any other running athletes. For them, the advantage is nowhere near the
efficiency numbers of the Kenyan women carrying firewood, but they are more
efficient none-the-less.
When I can teach a runner with a 154 beat per minute heart rate a new center
of gravity to run from, their heart rate running at the same speed can drop
to only 142 beat per minute rate in less than an hour of training. You tell
me if that doesn't mean anything to a marathon runner.
By utilizing an altered center of gravity, learned from the best walkers in
the world, beating the Kenyan runners isn't as impossible as one thinks. If
the cliche of walking before running is true, then I've merely found the path
walked by the world's best distance running athletes and answered the questions
I asked to what could make me a better runner. In offering that skill to others,
willingness to learn is another story…
About the Author
Robert Vervloet states he is a running coach certified with USTAF. His passion is working
with distance runners and long jump for field events. According to the author, he has privately trained
injured runners for over 5 years and has been researching sports injuries for
13 years.
Clearly a controversial sports trainer, Vervloet say his running technique has been
referred to as "Genius" by Tony Veney, sprint coach for UCLA.
Video
The following video links were provided by Mr. Vervloet to illustrate his technique.
Reader Feedback
If you would like to discuss this article, please go to the
Cool Running Forum. The author is posting on this forum.
If you would like to respond directly to the editor of this website,
email victor@competitiverunner.com.
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I advise against it. I read the article, watched the videos and then
used the technique for the following 4 weeks. After this period my
right ankle puffed up, I had a case of shin splints and my legs had
shooting pains. I stopped and presently am resting before returning
to running. I do not feel very smart.
Did it work? Yes, I ran somewhat faster. I run with an HRM and noticed
that my times for many of my runs became faster at the same HR. However
the methodology was so physiologically opposite my normal stride that it
caused injury. I have been running since 1968 and have run close to 80,000
miles in that time with few injuries. All the resulting problems were firsts.
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Relevant Links
For your reference, here are other relevant links, most of which provide a different perspective:
If you know of another link that would be appropriate, please send the link to us at
victor@competitiverunner.com.
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