Get on your feet - and stay there!
Spend four minutes reading this, and learn how and why a check-up with an orthotic specialist can help you succeed more than buying new shoes.
What is most the most frustrating thing about training? Not being able to! Think about it; what is the right eating habits, expensive gear, tight change routines, superb breathing technique and raving fans worth, if your foot is swollen or your knee is aching? The pain can be a part of the final challenge,but it should never be part of training.
You put on weight when you run
Body force on the feet and lower part of the legs are at least 4 times the normal force when running compared to walking. What few people know, is that the energy used for running primarily goes to compensating, rather than forward motion. That’s why - from an energy perspective - running is less efficient than walking. Timewise it’s a different story, but we think you already know that. So aside from the very important fact, that the right shock absorbtion and support, can help you avoid injuries, it can also improve your running e"eciency, by making you use less energy on compensation.
Shoes are not enough
The right shoes is the single most important factor in absorbing the repeated shocks from running. But shocks is one thing, support something else. Truth is, that even though shoe manufacturers say their shoes also provides great support, it’s often too little or actually often too much. When running long and/or repeated distances, a shoe that supports in the wrong places will give you problems. Too little support will give trouble. Too much support will likely give problems with knees and joints, that has to take an extra beating. Bodies are di"erent - and how different are your shoes compared to the next guys’?
Try eating ten times more for a week
When you’re biting your teeth together, a millimeter goes a long way in making a change on how right or wrong it feels. Try making your jar go a millimeter or two to one side and bite. See? Something’s wrong.
If your bite is not tight, your jar and teeth will compensate. It’s the nature of the body, and clever for survival. But in the same way eating ten times more
for a week, will blow the small flaws up into trouble (and worst case get you a nice dentist bill), an intense training topped with a Triathlon will reveal if
your support is tight and right. Or if it’s not.
A “bracelet check” for your feet
You can see it as an experiment, or you can make sure you will never know. We can only speak for ourselves, but at Klinik you are given a thorough check-up - which is quite a lot more than just a video recording of your feet on a treadmill. We spot if something needs to be adjusted or corrected to stand up to an intensified training. If so, we use a combination of orthotics, exercises and body mechanics to explain what is going on, and what to do about it.
We think the most important thing to get through is the understanding, that feet are the single point of contact between force and ground, and buying new shoes is just a step (no pun intended) in the right direction, but not enough, if you want to train “injuryless” and thereby reach your goal.
Happy training!
Three things you should do before getting an appointment with an orthotic
specialist:
- Write down any old injuries you can remember. Also the ones you’ve got from climbing the big oak tree in your grandma’s back yard or other injuries not directly related to training.
- Draw a timeline for a week of training. Note any light pain or uncomfort, and when in the training session it shows (beginning, midway, on a hill, when tired etc.)
- Hold o" on buying new shoes until you’ve been checked.
