I find it perplexing when long-distance runners unanimously state that they want to be better runners but when it comes to doing what is necessary to be better, they do not do it. I continually wonder why they don’t do what it takes to become better. It is not difficult and just takes a little time and effort with little expenditure of money.
Many articles have appeared on this topic not only in magazines but in major newspapers. For example, I recently came across an article that appeared in a major city newspaper that brought out how minimalist shoes were creating more injuries than the standard running shoes. such articles have appeared in many major newspapers including the New York Times.
These articles are usually devoted to the types of injuries that runners sustain while wearing minimalist shoes and the statistics to back up their statements. They also offer some general guidelines to help prevent such injuries.
The guidelines usually include recommendations such as start off gradually when wearing minimalist shoes. Do not wear them for long runs and be sure you have good running form. The latter recommendation is heard from many different sources.
For example, a runner recently commented on a running forum that he successfully used minimalist shoes for several years until he had a stress fracture in the foot. His doctor commented that it was probably due to his running form.
Even Lieberman, the author of Born to Run and who was somewhat responsible for the boom in minimalist shoes, stated that runners must have good technique in order to prevent injury. This seems to be universally accepted. You must have good running form (technique) in order to prevent injury.
In my work with hundreds of runners I have found that most runners who get injured almost always have poor technique. Every time they modified and corrected technique and did strength exercises specific to the joint actions and muscles involved in running, they never again experienced injuries.
Even more satisfying to these runners was that they now ran better than they ever did before. They never realized that their running could be improved to such a great extent. Thus it is surprising (or perhaps it is not surprising) that the answer to prevention of running injuries is always given, but no one takes it into consideration or works on doing what is necessary.
Why then is running form (technique) almost always ignored? Even in many running forums any time technique changes or specialized strength exercises are presented that can prevent injury, they are completely ignored. In other words there is no follow-up for more information on how technique changes or exercises should be done.
It appears that runners and would rather talk about their experiences and what shoes or clothing they should wear rather than how they should run. They do not seem to be interested in how they should prepare themselves for effective, and injury free running.
The information is available as for example, in Explosive Running. But it appears most runners would rather read books about runners rather than books that have a touch of science to them.
Because of this I have come to the conclusion that most runners would rather be “macho” or think it is a badge of honor to have an injury that they can complain about. They talk about wanting to be better but they are not willing to work on technique or do any specialized strength exercises known to prevent injury and more importantly enhance their running greatly.