ROADWORK: Efficiency vs. "Mindless" Intensity
Mark Hatmaker
If you are involved in combat sports, roadwork, i.e., running is a given. Boxers, wrestlers, Muay Thai competitors, mixed martial artists, and a host of traditional arts use roadwork to condition.
Since we all have to do it allow me to pass along some unsolicited thoughts.
If you're going to run you're probably thinking I might as well be as efficient and awesomely up to date and trendy as I can be. With that goal in mind, if you're gonna run efficiently, which style of stride do you choose? The Pose Method? Chi Running, perhaps? How about running like a Tarahumara Indian? Or a Kenyan for that matter? Or, why not a Jamaican? Seems to work for Usain Bolt. Oh, there's always the Romanov Method. (Yeah, the Pose Method and the Romanov Method are the same thing, I know; but I'll be honest I've seen instruction in these "same methods" that differed wildly on some points depending on who is doing the teaching).
Well, allow me to make this decision a little easier for you. Which method or stride will be the absolute best fit for you? Drum roll, please! Why, it's the one you already have. Chances are, if you already include running in your training you have fallen naturally into a stride that works best for y-o-u and you didn't even need a lesson.
Now I know we all seek to be a bit better at what we do, that's only natural; who doesn't want to be awesome, right? I am not denying the loads of anecdotal reports from any method you want to name of this or that dramatic improvement, but I would like to call your attention to the fact that some mighty good research into the efficacy of changing an athlete's stride revealed little to zero improvement over the long-term and perhaps only incremental results over the short term.
[You'll find sources at the end of article.]
According to the smart guys in lab coats, running is such a natural bit of locomotion hardwired into our brains that this tinkering with it may actually interfere with training as the athlete puts attentional/intentional energy (a glucose dump) into over-riding what is a lifetime "habit." It can be likened to switching your writing hand from your dominant hand to your sub-dominant simply because some blog or convincing article in Penmanship World struck a chord.
Of course, the argument can be made that all training in any physical endeavor is a hardwire overdrive, so let's just ignore these lab-coated meddlers. But...consider this, tasks that do show measurable and lasting improvement under strict conditions is the training of skills that aren't necessarily natural, intuitive, or encountered readily. A few tips on climbing a rope are often welcomed or needed as we don't often confront shimmying up a 20' length of 2" nautical rope in our day-to-day lives, or maybe a tip or two on throwing a tight jab or tweaking an armbar are always helpful as these are not intuitive skills; whereas painstaking advice on how to specifically place one foot in front of the other and then doing it again seems to interfere with your cognitive processes. This bit of interference is called choking.
There are many studies that show that the best way to make a skilled athlete choke is to have them become hyper-aware of just how they perform some given task that they have already trained and ingrained so much that it has been second nature. If we can bollix up a pro by making them over-think what they do then might we easily bollix up ourselves by second-guessing what we already do naturally. (Again, all the science-y sources at the end of this article).
Before you completely discount what me and our lab-coated brethren say, consider the following as well. Stride training is often relegated to ideal conditions, that is, tracks, road-running, and in the best case for our combat-ready purposes: trail running. Now compare the ideal stride environment with the mud-slick, scree-covered, 'my shoes weigh an extra couple of pounds due to being water-logged' and the mud-caked factor. Will these variables affect that perfect form you've been working on? Oh, you know it will.
What will you do when you encounter these variables? Run the adaptation calculus so that you can best adapt the perfect stride to the less than perfect conditions? Sure, that is, indeed doable. You can also just keep running and trust the fact that evolution has designed humans for bipedal locomotion and it has millennia of evolutionary adjustments behind the wisdom of how we travel on two feet and you will in all likelihood navigate these varying terrains and conditions just fine without any need for cognitive thought.
Still not convinced? Let's look at stride training in the context of cost-to-benefit analysis. Compare the time (and perhaps money) that it requires to run this or that drill to build the new stride in hopes that you will maintain that perfection as so few athletes actually do who complete stride training. (Again, I'm relying on the data here, this ain't me with a stride bone to pick). Add in the time and cognitive effort required to completely over-ride how you naturally run. Compare the time invested in this endeavor with the time that could have been invested in what has been shown in study after study to actually work--High Intensity Training.
High Intensity Training (HIT) has been shown time and again to reap significant rewards for those who use it as the fundamental basis for physical training. If we are attracted to perfect stride training because we have a Jones for efficiency then we should be all the more attracted to HIT training because it is not only efficient but it has also quantifiably and qualifiedly proven to be efficient.
Furthermore, if we are terribly serious about being serious about efficiency we would then compare the time-costs between a method of training that may not manifest once the blush falls off the rose of our initial training honeymoon period (stride work) and how much HIT training we could have been doing with that time. In other words, even if we are charitable about the efficiency of stride training we have to ask where we should spend our limited training hours: working a method with questionable results or working one with verified results.
With all of this said, if you are a devotee of this or that stride method and you just know in your heart of hearts that you have benefited enormously from your stride re-learning program then by all means ignore all the data and arguments I have offered and run how you see fit, just as I am arguing for everyone else to do. But, I would ask you how exactly do you dis-entangle what gave you your measured benefit, by that I mean, how can you tell where your stride is responsible for your speed or endurance, and where it might just be the actual endurance/speed training you have put in. I'm just saying.
In a nutshell, you will need to run to condition, but less important than how you run is the fact that you do run and with what intensity and also what sort of random variables can we pitch your way to more closely duplicate the odd nature of uncertain combat conditions.
Now, those promised sources.
Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths and Other Surprising Studies from the Science of Exercise--Alex Hutchinson. A mighty fine book that includes the stride study info.
The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer--Gretchen Reynolds. A good basic overview of what we actually do know about exercise and what we don't know.
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live-Marlene Zuk. A well-done de-bunk of some current trendy notions-barefooters beware.
Wrong: Why experts keep failing--and how to know when not to trust them--David H. Freedman. While not a book specifically about training it is my favorite of the bunch as it opens our eyes as to just how much of what we consume and presume to be pertinent info just may be based in zip. Most useful.
Places to Go, People to See
As some of you know I try to leave the homestead as little as possible, but this year is an anomaly as we have upped our seminar/playtime. Below you will find a listing of some of the most recent additions to the schedule.
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We'll be in Germany in May--details to come.
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Of course we'll be at the Annual Karate College in Radford, VA on June 28th & 29th. We'll teach 3 general sessions + 1 certification course. To register for Karate College http://www.thekaratecollege.com/TheKarateCollege.com/Karate_College.html
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We'll be on the roster at Martial Arts on the Mountain--September 19 (5PM start) thru September 22nd (11AM).
Myself, Boyd Ritchie, Carlos Cummings, and John Miller will be presenting classes in MMA, Boxing, Catch Wrestling, Sambo, (and if time permits) an optional Challenge/Obstacle Run.
Four days of training, feel free to room on the campground (rooms and meals provided, crew--beat that).
Cost: $250
To register or for more details contact Coach John Miller
coach@grapplingsports.com
540-354-9356
http://www.facebook.com/events/126726897501640/
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Of course, we'll also offer our Annual Tennessee Boot Camp in November-details to come.
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We hope to see you at one of these events--if you'd like to have us come to you, check out our Pitch An Adventure info in the side bar and if you've got some adrenaline in your neck of the woods that strikes my fancy we'll be there.
RAW Subscription Update
For our current and considering RAW Subscribers, beginning with volume 123 (January 1st, 2013) we will begin unveiling The Combination Man Home Study Course in which we (finally) present in an ABC/1-2-3 manner the steps from, 0-120 MPH how to become the best Boxer-Pugilist, Shooter-Stuffer, Par Terre Wrester-Submission Technician you can be.
Each volume will tied-in to the inTENS PREMIUM CONDITIONING SERVICE (free to subscribers), will be accompanied by a printed syllabi of drills for gym use, and will then be keyed to a foundation text (The Combination Man) that will be released at a later date. In other words, some good methodical let's get better stuff coming your way.
