I recently had the chance to do a Q&A session with Greg Lehman, who is a physical therapist and chiropractor based in Toronto, CA. Greg's voracious reading of the medical and performance literature coupled with his research background and time in Stuart McGill's lab has positioned him as one of the foremost authorities on a variety of topics, which include but are not limited to the following: 1) clinical application of pain science, biomechanics, tendon rehab, running, core strengthening, and clinical decision making. Greg also happens to be one of the most generous clinicians out there as he's provided the online community with a tremendous amount of free resources. To learn more about Greg please visit his website. Without further ado, Greg Lehman folks. 

Rarely do you cross paths with someone who is an exceptional clinician and a brilliant researcher. Dr. Richard Willy, who is an assistant professor at East Carolina University, is exactly that! Rich was kind enough to volunteer his time to do a Q&A session with me to highlight some of his research while discussing several hot topics related to running. The work of Rich and his colleagues has definitely had a profound impact on my clinical work and I'm confident that you will learn quite a bit from this short and sweet video. We delve into cueing, shoe prescription, cadence, ankle dorsiflexion, and therapeutic exercise prescription. Without further ado, Dr. Richard Willy folks. #UD, #Fightin' Blue Hens

Last week I had the opportunity and privilege to do a Q&A session with Matt Phillips, who is a sports physio and running injury specialist that works in the UK @ Studio 57. I'd like to first start by congratulating Matt and his wife on the recent birth of their son. Somehow he managed to find time in his busy schedule to have a chat. As you will soon learn, Matt has a great sense of humor and an exceptional command of running and the literature pertaining to it. Without further ado, Matt Phillips!

This past weekend I returned to Portland, OR to share my perspective on running injury management at Pettygrove Physical Therapy and Sports Rehabilitation thanks to Karl and Sasha Kolbeck. Part of this course involves learning how to conduct a simple treadmill analysis. Below you will see footage from a demonstration that I performed with one of the participants during the lab section. 

The runner in this video is an experienced female runner and short course triathlete, who has been dealing with pain at the plantar aspect of her right forefoot as well as her right lumbo-pelvic region. Furthermore, she has recently been experiencing left plantar foot pain that is particularly bothersome with ambulation in the morning though her symptoms abate over the course of the day. She is currently running 3x/wk at conversation pace for distances primarily < 6miles per outing in a pair of Brooks trainers that were screened for defects. Lastly, she is running on 0% incline at 6.5mph throughout this analysis.

As you can see from the first clip, she is initiating contact with the ground with her heel while "overstriking" particularly on the right side as evidenced by the sound of her foot. She is also running at a step rate of ~168 steps per minute based on our estimation doing some simple math.

Between the first and second clips, the only instructions she was given were to stay in sync with the metronome, which was set to 184 bpm (~10% increase ala Heiderscheit et al.) and to quiet her feet down. As you can appreciate, these simple cues and feedback had a profound impact on her running gait mechanics in a matter of seconds and led her to adopt a more flat footed/midfoot strike while lessening the impact at initial contact based on the sound of her feet.

This case highlights how easy and effective gait retraining can be when considering strike pattern, sound, and cadence and manipulating these variables through simple cueing and feedback.  

Last week, I had the good fortune and distinct privilege to have a discussion with Jeff Moreno, who is a seasoned physical therapist and running performance expert based in California. Jeff is unique in that he has a global understanding of running from injury management to helping running athletes realize the performance potential and beyond. It's obvious that he has invested a tremendous amount of time and energy getting to this point in his career. To learn more about Jeff and his work beyond this Q&A please visit his website move2thrive.com. Thanks again for your time Jeff and keep up the great work!