Posts by stevemagness
New studies on footstrike. Do faster runners heel strike?
Perhaps the most interesting finding in Lieberman’s work is that it may not be so much the barefoot vs. shod but the footstrike that is the important part. Brefoot running allows for the footstrike to happen properly, so they are interconnected. Let’s leave behind injury prevention for a bit here and focus on speed. Is…
Read MoreTHE first big study on barefoot running in Nature : Death to Heel striking
The barefoot debate is about to get a little bit hotter. A new study to be released tommorow by Lieberman in Nature takes an evolutionary look at barefoot running. In the study, they compared barefoot and shoe running on a whole variety of factors in both regular shoe wearers, regular barefoot runners, and even Kenyans!…
Read MoreWhy Running shoes do not work: Looking at Pronation, Cushioning, Motion Control and Barefoot running.
The running shoe model needs to be fixed. Pronation, Motion Control, Cushioning, and Stability shoes? Get rid of them all. It’s not just barefoot running and minimalism versus running shoes, the either/or situation many portray it to be. It’s much deeper than that. It’s not even that running shoe companies are evil and out to…
Read MoreHow to Increase Flexibility Instantly!
The above video is of me showing a trick on how to increase hamstring flexibility instantly. Why you would need to do this, I’m not sure. The only time I’ve ever seen a purpose for it is when my sister had to do the V-sit and reach for the President’s Physical Fitness test. Other than…
Read MoreRevisiting Running once vs. twice per day
This is a sort of mini blog post. Dathan Ritzenhein (sub 13 5k runner for U.S.) posted an interesting blog about how his training has changed from his High School days until the present. It’s a good read and can be found below: http://dathanritzenhein.competitor.com/2010/01/16/different-training/ There are several things that stood out, but one comment he…
Read MoreVideo: Hill Sprints and Running Form Analysis
Hill Sprints/Form Analysis from Steve Magness on Vimeo. This video is a combination of form work and sprint work. As those who have read this blog know, I’m a big believer in sprint training for distance runners. The video shows Will doing hill sprints and then a frame by frame analysis of his running form…
Read MoreNew Wonder Drugs in Endurance Sports coming soon…
New Drugs in Endurance Sports Coming… This is not something I really look forward to writing, but I figured I might as well get the word out there to the general public. The recent admission of Mark Mcgwire made it relevant again. I’m doing a research paper on the mechanisms of EPO/RBC production in response…
Read MoreBase training is NOT just easy running. Looking at Sprinter’s periodization
Long to Short/Short to Long: What we can learn from Sprinters regarding base building: For the endurance people reading this, you might not be familiar with what the title means. In sprint training, there is a constant debate over whether a long to short or a short to long program is best. A long to…
Read MoreRethinking Core Training: Is it a fad?
Rethinking Core Training: Is it a fad? Core training is all the buzz in almost every field of fitness. Search the internet and there have been massive amounts of literature written on the subject. As is a theme in my training, any time a ‘new’ thing becomes a fad, it is at first overemphasized until…
Read MorePractical Implications of Fallacy of VO2max paper:
Thank you for the great/enormous response to my last posting. I wrote that paper for a class and glad that some have found it entertaining and useful. I welcome any critiques, especially training related, as it forces me to evaluate my views on training runners and my understanding of the science of it all. Below…
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