chats with Running Influencers, Researchers, Olympians, Experts & Everyday Runners
Health:Fitness & Nutrition
Today I am excited to welcome Max Prokopy to the show. Max has his masters degree in exercise physiology and a member of the UVA Speed Clinic. At the Speed Clinic they help people runners and walkers optimize their gait to remain injury free and increase their performance. Max and his team have helped both elite level runners to age groupers, and from age 10 to 80 come through their 2.5 hour evaluation process.
When you arrive at the clinic you will run a little, watch a lot of video, and perform a battery of examinations to gauge your current abilities. After this thorough examination you’ll have not only a grasp on where you can improve, but precise instruction on how to improve that form in your daily running.
This includes a 3-D representation of your running from the sensors placed on your body during the testing, along with another dozen pages of charts, graphs, and detailed instruction on what your “homework” is after you leave the clinic.
The beauty of the Speed Clinic is that it’s not just for the injury prone runners, but for runners at any level who want to improve their performance. The key to getting the most out of your visit, regardless of where you are in your running, is to have an open mind to the information you’ll learn there, and how long it will take to implement.
One of the most common questions that Max gets is whether orthotics are a good thing for runners. This is a tough topic and one that is tough to nail down with a concrete answer. As running is a dynamic activity and the fitting of it is static, monitoring of an orthotic must be done over time, and incremental changes should be made over this time. This can be a process that takes up to a couple of months and is a process you should go through with the fitter of your orthotic.
Other topics we discuss are:
Max says that the most common gait faults in his examinations include things that can be adjusted in your daily life. Tight ankles, tight hip flexors, and weak buttocks are often the result of these environmental factors impacting your running form in the end.
If you’re not able to make it to UVA, you can do a quick self assessment yourself (one straight on and one from the side), be sure to look at:
Yoga for Runners: How to Integrate Yoga into Your Training Regimen. Our Interview with Sage Rountree
Training for Trail Races and Ultra Runs: Interview with 2012 USA Mountain Running Champion Sage Can
How Antionio Vega Won The US Half Marathon Championships Running All His Workouts on the Treadmill
How to Dominate Running Multiple Marathons: Interview with Chuck Engle, Winner of 148 Marathons
Humerous Running Lessons Learned from Author Bob Schwartz
The Problems With Traditional Marathon Training Plans and The Magic Long Run Formula
Registered Dietician and Olympic trials qualifier Emily Brown Answers Your Nutrition Questions
Why Running Slower on Your Easy Days Helps You Run Faster and Keeps You Injury-free
Interview with Dr. Mark Cucuzzella
How to Integrate Strength Training Into Your Running Schedule
The Importance of Strength Training and How to Easily Incorporate It Into Your Training Schedule
How to balance your training. From finding time as a parent to progressing to minimalist shoes, running expert Amanda Loudin shares her expertise.
What can you learn from one of America’s best marathoners?
How to persevere and change your mentality when you struggle in training
How do you change your mindset about what is possible with your running
How to structure your training for continued, long-term improvement while still racing well at a variety of distances throughout the year?
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