Circle Walk, Jog, Run and Sprint
Modern society has removed the twists and turns out of our daily life. We walk on sidewalks, roadsides, hallways and treadmills. We no longer have as much uneven terrain to stimulate the receptors, which help with the balance of strength in the sides of our foot stabilizers.
This exercise is excellent for redeveloping the muscles, which have atrophied due to a lack of use.
Circle walk, jog, run and hop
An exercise you can do to strengthen the spring suspension system muscles is Circle Walk: (see pictures above and video above)
Use cones to outline a circle about 12 feet in diameter. Walk the circle at a normal pace, making sure your pelvis is directly over , or in front of your foot as it lands. As you pick up speed, lean in. Once you complete a desired number of laps in one direction, head the other way. Tighten the circle first to eight feet, then five. Ensure that you do not land your foot heel first with each step.
Excerpt take from the book, How I Got My Wiggle Back, page 158, When you walk the force is about one to two times your body weight, and when you run it’s three to five times. Plyometrics – those impact exercises- can be even greater.
To strengthen your unlocked spring mechanism we are going to initially focus on creating resistance through using your body weight to generate relatively low levels of force.
foot moving in various directions
The drills concentrate on moving in multiple directions (side to side, zig-zagging, circles) to challenge spring suspension system muscles that often become weak because we don’t vary our movement. We move in a straight line too much-on a flat footpath, a treadmill, or a stairmaster- and my doing so only exercise the foot spring suspension muscles in the front and back, not on the side and elsewhere.
Another various of the circle run are ‘Circle Run Cone Touch’ exercises as seen in the video below:
This next exercise routine repeat the strengthening technique but add speed and impact.
Excerpt taken from the book, How I Got My Wiggle Back, page 168, Remember to land on your midfoot or forefoot and spring off the ground; don’t bang your foot down in the landing/takeoff. You’ll be surprised how aerobically challenging these drills are. Our bodies are siply not accustomed to moving this way.
Dr. James Stoxen demonstrating a circle run
Circle Jog, Run, Spring:
Lean in as you jog steadily around the circle markers. Accelerate to a run and finally a sprint, leaning further in the faster you move. This accentuates the angle of the foot landing, stressing the spring suspension muscle group.
To learn more about circle runs, Dr. Stoxen will demonstrate and explain in Video Tutorial #170, click here
Circle Walk, Jog, Run And Sprint is one drill you can do to challenge the foot and exercise it in another direction beside front to back
