The Importance of the foot function and posturing at terminal swing in a great and talented runner. Part 2 of the Toe Extensor Dialogue.
* This is a follow up from yesterday’s video blog post. Lets review once again and then dive in, layering some deeper principles onto yesterday’s dialogue.
Stand up. Both feet on the floor. Close your eyes and raise your toes up off the floor, just the toes, and then let them fall. Pay great attention to what happens to your arch height as you raise and lower the toes. Yes, do this now. Then come sit down again and read some more. Go !
Ok, now you are back.
Do you think that toe extension ability (range, skill, endurance AND STRENGTH) will play a significant part in achieving adequate successful arch height and thus treating plantar foot pain syndromes (plantar fascitis to name the most obvious and simple nemesis)? You better believe it, we showed it in yesterday’s blog post ! * For a great little video sample of a young boy with flat feet using our queue’s to restore tripod positioning and arch height along with a more normal foot progression angle, see yesterday’s blog post or click here.
So, if toe extension is critical for arch height, both in preparation for foot strike/contact and in arch height and control should you ever try to consciously limit this natural phenomenon ?
In the video above the author and runner (Jordan McGowan) at 1:07 discusses his concern that the left foot is coming across in too much toe extension (ie. ankle dorsiflexion as well) in preparation for contact phase and that his right foot is coming across less extended/dorsiflexed, something we sometimes call shallow dorsiflexion. He indicates that he likes the appearance of the right foot pre-contact approach but he feels that he wants to relax the toe up/dorsiflexion exaggeration on the left. We do not necessarily agree based on the principles discussed above and yesterday because arch height preparation will be reduced (again, see yesterday’s blog post and video). However, Jordan is not wrong either. Read on !
Now, although Jordan himself does not discuss any deeper concerns we could imagine that some less skilled runners in this scenario might worry that if the toe extension is too excessive that it will pre-position the foot for a heel strike phenomenon. This does seem very reasonable thinking, but it is not necessarily so. Heel strike is a conscious choice. If this is your concern, it can easily be overcome; you will just have to do one of two things to avoid heel strike (ie. get to mid foot strike, which Jordan does very well on both sides, even the left, despite its increased toe extension/ankle dorsiflexion).
To overcome the concerns of heel striking with high toe extension pre-contact:
1. One will have to lean forward more to offset the possible early heel strike. Leaning forward more (as is done in natural/chi running form) will make it harder to heel strike because the foot will land even further under the body. Whenever the foot reaches out in front, the opportunity for heel strike increases. Make no mistake however, there is a difference between heel strike and heel contact. A skilled walker or runner can heel contact and quickly transition to midfoot load and get the same effect as a more pure midfoot strike. The difference is whether you LOAD the heel contact or quickly transition to the midfoot. Any skilled runner can do this and feel this. When done skillfully, a mere kissing of the heel, a mere light brushing with the ground, before the midfoot loading occurs is completely fine just do not load the heel otherwise a deceleration event is going to occur and that is a definite “no no”. This is a problem with amateur gait analysts and runners, and proves once again that what you see is not always what you get. We demo this illusion all the time with our runners and without a skilled eye they cannot see the difference, but they can feel the difference when asked to focus on the skill difference. To reiterate, for MOST runners there should be little if any rearfoot loading response, it is a mere zone of transition. This topic is absolutely no comment here on Jordan, he has superb midfoot contact.
2. Back to overcoming heel loading……. one will also have to better eccentrically control the descent of the forefoot to the ground. This is a normal biomechanical event. Yes, you can reduce this need if you bring the foot through shallowly as Jordan explained regarding his right foot, but at the possible consequences of entering the pronation phase with a partially unprepared arch and subtalar joint configuration (if the subtalar joint is starting its loading at the mid or anterior facet joint pronatory unlocking of the midfoot will occur too soon). A runner with a highly competent and strong foot can get away with cheating this mechanical event, and it is quite (very) possible that Jordan has such a foot with all his running experience. On the other hand, a more amateur runner could be loading a bullet into the pronation gun. Now, back to the eccentric loading of the anterior compartment muscles. Too slow an ankle dorsiflexion posture release and the heel will strike first, too fast and the forefoot could slap on the ground. One will thus need to get the proverbial porridge just right (not too hot, not too cold…..rather just right). Most skilled runners will be able to get this skill down within just one workout and then master it over the next 12 weeks (the time we find necessary to engrain a new motor pattern in the cerebellum and parabrachial nucleus, the primary pattern generators). And with more skill and foot strength a more risky shallow posturing can be taken with success. And, this may very well be the case with Jordan. He may be there and be correct in his evaluation. We just wanted to share both sides.
Understanding the end-phase swing foot and toe function is important. Understanding what your foot is doing is paramount. We wanted to share both sides of the coin because we would hate for amateur runners to see this and try to reduce their proper and necessary toe extension/ankle dorsiflexion and mimic a shallow late swing phase foot posture. This is where running moves from science to an art. Guys like Jordan can play with this stuff safely, but not everyone else can or should. For many, better preparation of the foot for the contact phase in a solid tripod will reduce excessive and possibly deformative pronatory forces. Presenting the foot to the ground with a less than optimal arch, via a conscious reduction in toe extension, will increase risk for the deformative pronatory forces to have a better chance of creating tissue pathology (ie. plantar fascitis etc).
Here is one of the reasons we recommend even our elite runners from time to time to exaggerate the toe extension-ankle dorsiflexion range off and on during runs. If you never use the FULL range Tib Anterior and extensor digitorum longus muscles (as in the shallow end swing foot posturing), you will begin to lose their strength at the end ranges. We often lose end range strength first. And in time that can trickle down those weaknesses into the ranges where more of the strength is truly needed. This is the “gosh, my pain just started out of the blue phenomenon !” Truth is, it did not, you just finally found yourself without that necessary extra little bit necessary to adequately protect a joint for the load at hand. And perhaps this is the take home point here. We all need to be sure that we still have what is necessary for optimal joint complex protection from time to time. It is why many athletes come to see us a few weeks before big events, for assessment to be sure that they are not trickling down into that risk zone as they peak their training and then taper.
In another post, we will discuss Jordan’s frontal view issues. He wisely has detected his foot pronation issues and we couldn’t agree more about his mention of the gluteal control and an important factor. So we will once again review our Cross over gait pathologic movement pattern which is somewhat evident here and part of the foot posturing, but we will also discuss the abductory twist phenomenon of his left foot, which is truly what is going on at the foot level (don’t get us wrong, the glute is part of the deal, but it is not the entire deal).
From the start our mission has never been to strike at the moral fiber of someones good intent. Rather, our mission has always been to dispel the myths and state the facts. This was a great assessment by Jordan, we just wanted to point out a few possible misconceptions and explain some of the differences between a skilled runner and what they are working on and what an amateur runner should be aware of mainly so that the masses of runners who will see this great video will get the honest facts and not start to, or too early, consciously change normal behaviors and start to generate compensations.
We spoke to Jordan about this blog post before we ran it and he was a champion about it. It opened some productive dialogue on both ends, that’s the way it should always work. Jordan was all for stating the truth and facts from all angles.
We are Jordan and Newton fans. We thank Jordan for his input, his feedback and for sharing his nearly flawless running form in his Newton’s. This is a form everyone should take note of and try to strive for.
The Gait Guys
Shawn and Ivo
