Alternative Approaches To Running
Water Running, Specialized Treadmills & Arc Trainers
Gordo here.
While working on our revisions for Chapter Two, Julie asked my thoughts on water running and other alternatives. I shared my view that alternatives can be bandaids enabling athletes to continue an approach that is leading to chronic breakdown.
However… the success of a number of my pals, at the highest levels, has opened my eyes to the value of alternatives for high-performance athletes with ambitious goals.
Julie has deep experience with the alternatives and I’m happy to bring this article to you.
Julie’s Experience
I believe there is benefit in utilizing other forms of running for athletes who are injury prone, or returning from injury. The purpose is to allow low-stress run specific movement patterns. In doing so, the athlete accumulates more time spent doing run-like motions.
We have seen good results with:
Water running (deep water and shallow water)
Anti gravity treadmills (AlterG) and the Lever System1
Arc Trainers (a specific type of elliptical trainer)
The approach athletes gravitate to is highly individual, and can often come down to which one they feel transfers best to their running style, and which mode they enjoy the most. In my experience water running is the least popular, but there are a small handful of athletes who report enjoying it. Taylor (Knibb) and T.O. (Tim O’Donnell) both have been big advocates of adding it in once or twice a week. Again the focus being low-stress sport specific activity.
Alter G/Lever systems can be an effective way to get extra mileage out of an athlete by taking 5-10% BW off. This can be as supplemental endurance runs, or a way to get a longer run accomplished by an athlete prone to breakdown.
For the long run we may split it as 50% FBW (full body weight) and 50% with 5 to 10 pounds taken off.
Alternatively it can be used for neuromuscular work doing high speed reps, with a lower load on the body.
Or as a reintroduction of speed work for the injured athlete.
More recently, runners and triathletes have added running on an elliptical machine called an Arc Trainer. Most athletes report to have close to a normal running style/feel with these machines, and we can get heart rates in similar zones. This trainer is an effective way to get aerobic load on the body with less impact on the joints and bones.
Case Studies
Elite Male: post knee surgery (meniscus tear)
5 days post op: started on the Arc Trainer. 30 minutes per day, increasing to 40 minutes from 6 days out. All running done with a Zone 1 heart rate cap.
9 days post op: 40 minutes on the Lever with 15-20 lbs off building to 6 minute per mile pace.
11 days post op: 10 miles as: (a) 40 minutes at 5-10 lbs off; and (b) the last 40 minutes at FBW.
From there we alternated days at FBW with a day on the Lever or the Arc Trainer.
The lever is great because, with his loping run style, he never runs slow… it feels awkward and he gets black toenails. By putting him on the lever at 10 mph, he can keep his normal run gait, with a low heart rate and low stress on his body.
Top Amateur Female: Knee pain and a history of bone stress injuries.
The flexible approach allows us to get more mileage with less stress on her body.
She is running FBW twice a week. Plus 1 longer run on the Lever and 1-2 runs on the Arc Trainer capped at the top of her Zone 2 heart rate.
Without these modalities she would report her knees hurting and increase her risk for another bone stress injury.
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John reports: In New Zealand they have underwater treadmills.
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I am curious about water running . Could you define “deep” and “shallow” ? Is there a particular technique ? An optimal “residual weight” (I.e. weight minus buoyancy) ?