Pete:

Heeled shoes have been around since at least the ancient Roman culture and have certainly been a part of human shoe culture for the last two millinea http://www.randomhistory.com/1….  This is a fascinating subject to me, especially since I taught the course on shoe history to the podiatry students at the California College of Podiatric Medicine for a few years back in the late 1980s.

As you mentioned, the height of the shoe heel relative to the forefoot, heel height differential (HHD), can greatly impact the length of the gastrocnemius-soleus-Achilles tendon (GSAT) in an individual’s leg over time.  Individuals who habitually wear shoes with large HHD (e.g. a woman wearing 3″ heels to work every day) will tend to develop what is known as an accommodative contracture of the GSAT over time so that their passive ankle joint dorsiflexion is decreased.  This will then effectively shorten the calf muscles so that they may develop symptoms in the leg and/or foot when they try to run or exercise with a running shoe/athletic shoe with a low HHD.  Routine stretching of the GSAT on a daily basis is often necessary for these individuals to allow them to have reduced injuries due to their over-tight GSAT.

The way I view this subject, regarding the proper HHD of shoe for an individual, whether they are athletic or non-athletic, and the way that I have been teaching this subject to podiatry students and podiatrists over the past two decades, is that each individual will have an optimum HHD in their walking and/or running shoes depending on many factors.  Optimal HHD may be affected to their habitual shoe wearing habits, length of their GSAT, presenting symptoms or foot structure, gait kinematics, activities, to name a few. 

In other words, some individuals will have optimal function and less injury wearing a shoe with a moderate to higher heel (high HHD) while others will have optimal function and less injury while wearing a shoe with a very low heel (low HHD).  There are certain mechanical pros/cons for shoes with more heel height and certain mechanical pros/cons for shoes with no heel height, or even a negative heel.  One of the main jobs I do as a podiatrist for my patients is to discuss this important subject with them to make them become more aware of how shoe design may affect their symptoms and their ability to perform weightbearing activities throughout the day without pain.

Cheers,

Kevin

Robert,

I tend to agree with you on most of this. When I look at elites, I see a huge amount of variation in the amount of lean, and it has never struck me as too helpful of a cue (I feel the same way about the “gravity” pulling you forward thing). Personally, I feel much better when I’m running as upright as possible.

The thing that I stay conscious of most while running is the location of my footstrike, with the goal of having my shin vertical upon landing, with the foot directly below the knee. I also try to make sure my lower leg has stopped forward swing prior to contact. The cue to land “near the center of mass” is useful because for most people it will achieve the desired result of reducing an overstride, but I also think it’s important to maintain the distinction between cues and biomechanical reality. Maybe that’s just the scientist in me, but I like to be precise when talking about running form. In the end though, lots of folks have benefited from Chi Running, so regardless of the science, maybe that’s what is most important.

Two comments were really interesting

“Leaning doesn’t engage gravity, you can’t use it for propulsion when running.”

Followed shortly by

“To keep in balance when accelerating we have to lean forward so that the net forces go up through our center of mass, when we accelerating into a bend we lean into the bend again so that the net forces go up through our center of mass, and when slowing down we lean back so that the net forces go up through our center of mass.”
What is sounds like is that you have an incredible grasp of utilizing the position of the center of mass as a tool for acceleration, but you may disagree or on how another running style describes it.  I think your philosophies may be closer to similar that different.

I could not agree more on the balance part.  I have little kids of my own and to watch how the body develops it’s movement capabilities is really something I have come to appreciate.  Maybe this is my whole point.  The human body is really incredible on it’s own accord.  Perhaps if we learned to utilize our own capabilities, we could be in greater control of what our running experience looked like.

Seriously a huge thank you for the thought provoking insight.  Wishing you all the best in your training.

Patton

Pete:

Don’t know if I like it better when you agree with me, or when you disagree with me….I guess I just love a good scientific debate. ;-)

Cheers,

Kevin

The idea of “engaging gravity” is just plain silly IMO.  I have read ChiRunning and think it does have a lot of good ideas for improving form and posture (and thus running economy), but its justification for why it works is completely off.  Leaning forward or not, gravity is a constant and uni-directional force.  It is not going pull you forward just because you are leaning, it is just pulling your center of mass downward give you the feeling that you are “falling forward”.  The lean does a good job of preventing over-striding and braking forces from heel-striking and it also helps prevent wasted vertical energy.  We have a certain amount of force our leg muscles can exert (varies individually and by fitness), we give up a minimum amount of the force vertically to combat gravity and to keep from collapsing, and the rest is used to propel us forward.  It is very possible to run with the same economy leaning forward or with the body upright as long one is not wasting energy “up and down” vertically during their stride.

Typical response from someone who applies a technique without understanding why it works other than thinking it is some kind of “chi-magic”…

Patton:

Why not drop an egg on a level piece of wood and then drop an egg on a level pillow?  Which of these surfaces would likely cause damage to the shell of the egg?  What analogy should we then draw from the center of mass of the body dropping with each running stride onto a running shoe sole with no cushioning versus a running shoe sole with good cushioning?

Hey, Patton,
Great Video! Peter is right to question Amby’s comments. The reason why the blocks fall over (forward) is that when it’s all said and done the center of mass of the stack of blocks is NOT DIRECTLY OVER the point of contact with the base of the column (planet earth), so it falls forward… as does the human body if you do the same thing. Let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be.

When you put a lift under the heels of a shoe, your body, from the soles of the feet to the top of your head, adjust accordingly so that your center of mass always remains over your point of contact with the earth (ask any chiropractor, osteopath, or Rolfer). BUT, your posture line CANNOT remain nice and straight (like Patton’s). It has to adapt or you’d constantly be falling over. The more years a body is subject to a heel lift, the more the “adjusted” posture begins to feel “normal”.

My biggest beef with big bulky shoes is that they do NOTHING productive for the posture or movement of the wearer. Zero-drop or minimal drop shoes allow the body to find a more natural structural integrity that relies more on the alignement of your bones, ligaments and tendons for support and less on the work of muscles for support (during your support phase), which we all know consumes more fuel as you run.

William Rossi’s article is a must-read before anyone takes a shot at Patton’s demo. I would also suggest reading “Anatomy Trains” by Thomas Meyers, who describes the body as a structure held vertical by “tensegrity”, a term coined by Bucky Fuller. 

What Chi Running teaches is energy efficiency and injury prevention… and the best way to achieve that is through proper postural alignment and flat or minimal drop shoes. 

Thanks to everyone for the great comments and the lively discussion.
Onward!
Danny Dreyer

This video has her and some kids all out barefoot…lean varies but they are all in good posture and springy .
http://naturalrunningcenter.co…

Cheers,

Mark Cucuzzella MD

Fun vid.  Thanks for sharing!

I agree with Amby.  All this video shows is the simple fact that stacking blocks of wood so that their center of masses are within the base of support of the blocks makes them balance better.  This clearly has no bearing on the complex neuromuscular feedback mechanisms of the human body that allows it to perform many dynamic activities where the center of mass of the body is not directly over its base of support on or between the plantar feet.

I suppose if I had a video that showed that an egg dropped onto a flat wooden board from a 12″ height broke and then showed another egg dropped onto a pillow from a 12″ height didn’t break that this would mean that all runners should run in thick, heavily cushioned shoes?! 

Let’s all try be a little more scientific than that.

Cheers,

Kevin