I wanted to take a minute and talk about our running treadmills. At first glance they may appear as industrial versions of their more familiar health club brethren, not so….And the “they’re really fast, and really high” description bestowed upon them by first time viewers is far too narrow.

Their specifications allow for higher speeds, and higher inclines than anything else out there, true.

Still this is not the source of their importance to us. They are for us an invaluable training tool for athletes. They bring to us a controlled teaching environment for a dynamic, whole body, motion. We are able to teach, correct, coach, and cue, right next to an athlete as they work. Feedback is the name of the game and the real power here is that it is instant. Visual feedback happens both during the run, and after via a delayed capture on film. Audible feedback occurs as we coach the athletes and speak to them. Tactile feedback occurs as we can help to correct form and position directly through manipulation. And lastly the athlete-instructor feedback that occurs as an athlete responds to any and all cues from the coach. Again the power is on the fly feedback to the athlete.

Why do we use the treadmills? Glad you asked…We use the treadmills to train from “the center out”. One of the most unifying weaknesses across athletes is hip girdle strength. Be it a young athlete who hasn’t developed the strength yet, or a seasoned athlete who has developed an imbalance, a lack of flexibility, or compensation patterns, the treadmill is the most effective way for us to train the hip girdle. Coming back to “train like we play” the treadmill trains us through running, and we have evolved to be runners, so we train the motion. By training the motion in this controlled environment we achieve increased flexibility and dynamic strength by incrementally increasing required output from the athlete through ranges of motion and power produced. The result is the ability to put power into the ground in a game speed situation; translation….on field/in game performance.

Keep checking back as we write about more specific workouts and mechanics of running on the treadmill.