Form Question - Tightening calf muscles before strike

smaihlee

I haven't "officially" started the program yet--waiting on my new shoes so that I can give myself the best tools to encourage success. Anyway, I went out and completed the first 15 minutes of W1D1 this morning as a "trial" to get myself psyched.

This is going to sound weird and possibly dumb, but I just noticed something today as I was focusing on proper form. I noticed that when I'm running, I tend to tighten my lower leg muscles on each side before that foot strikes the ground. I'm not sure why--maybe this is fear of hurting myself or something I've always done. Once I noticed it, I then tried very hard to relax my calf before striking. Definitely less "controlled" feeling but logically it would seem that relaxing the calf is preferred. Then again, tightening the muscles seems like it would help maintain proper form and reduce injury.

Anyone else have experience or knowledge about this? I don't recall reading anything in my recent research about proper running form--then again, I didn't realize I was doing this until today.

likitisplit

Great job for getting out there and giving it a go! I tried it up and down my hall - I didn't notice any calf tightening, unless I was purposely heel striking. However, that might be because I've been running several months and no longer consciously tighten muscle to run?

mtcastillo86

I admire anybody who runs, especially any adult who is new to the sport, because I SUCK at it and find myself to be easily intimidated by those sprinters at the track, especially that gray-headed retired guy who lapped me, what, twice? Three times??? At any rate, I did once manage a 5K several years ago, and I have been trying to take it up again.

So my advice is worth exactly what you are paying for it.

The only time I noticed what my calf muscles were doing was when I quit my knee-destroying heel-striking and started using proper running form. Using proper running form requires more work from your calf muscles, vs. heel-striking. Could it be that you never ran correctly before now? And that is what you are feeling, your calf muscles working?

I pay more attention to how my foot strikes the pavement, and, in my opinion, that is the most important thing. I could go into a long story about my knee injury, but I'll try to resist and boil it down to this: avoid heel-striking. That's what we tend to do because we wear these space-age running shoes with the thick heel cushions. That's not natural, though. If you want to know what is natural, run barefoot. You'll learn to pick up your heels within two steps, trust me. That's because the ball of your foot evolved over the millenia to take that initial impact, and your ankles and, to a lesser degree, your knees were designed to be your body's natural shock absorbers. When you heel-strike, you're transferring that initial impact to your heel, which it was not designed for, and you're losing the shock-absorbing benefits naturally provided by your ankles and calves. In turn, you're forcing all that energy to your knees and hips and back.

You might have to ease into the running more slowly in order to let your calves get used to the extra load, but it will be worth it. Trust me.

That's my $0.02.