This routine is technically a proprioceptive exercise, yet it also falls under the category of "leg prep," a term my good friend Robert Chapman uses to describe a progresion of exercises and strides that get the lower leg prepared to race. To be clear, you're watching a video Mike Smith, not Robert Chapman, is narrating, yet this video is a perfect exmple of coaches doing similar work for similar reasons, with the difference being only a matter of semantics.

This is fairly straight forward video this week, yet it's important for two reason.  First, this is a great example of a proprioceptive activity that is running specific; we hear about the importance of proprioception all of the time yet it is often taken out of context (i.e. "runners should kneel on a swissball for 30 seconds to improve their core").  The second thing to take from this video is that don't need anything!  You don't need to a $100 Bosu Ball, you don't need to drop $80 on a pair of Frees and you don't need to go out and buy the little blue inflatable balance discs.  Now, I believe in all three "tools" i just listed, but I've got to be honest about that fact that more and more I want to do things at practice that require no props/equiment.

Okay, so whay do this?  Well, as Mike Smith (Kansas State) says during the video, the foot on the ground is the foot that's doing the majorty of the work, yet it's really all three joints - ankle, knee and hip - that are working.  And a thought that just occured to me is that this is a great precusor (a necessary precusor?) to Olympic lifting for track athletes when we consider that we're trying to get "triple extnesion" of the ankle, knee and hip joints during those lifts and this type of work does the same thing.  Anywya, back to the the real issue - in this routine you're improving your neuromuscular system and that improvement has the potential to not only decrease the chance of injury in the lower leg and foot but also, in a small way, improve running econonmy. 

Lately I've been using this as part of the warm-up, so that 4-5 days a week the WU is "LM, LL and 4-6 min of Alpahbet (2-3 min per leg)."  Due to the weather in Boulder and Flaggstaff the athletes are doing this with their shoe on.  Is that easier?  Most definately...but it's still a nice neurmuscular stimulus in the warm-up (and later in the year if someone is falling all over the place when normally they're good at this we can assume that their nervous system is fried and that we should probably alter the workout or simply just change the assignment to an easy day).  However, for many athletes this could and should be used after practice with other preventive and ancillary exercises, i.e. the exercises you've stollen from the trianing room and are using as part of your weekly routine.

I think I'll leave it that - with no comment on the Leg Cycle drills - so that we have something to talk about in the comments below.

I look forward to everyone's comments and thanks for tuning in to Tuesday Tips.
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Jay Johnson

*Weekly RunningDVD giveaway! We know that people are watching these Tuesday Tips and that's great, yet we'll all be better served if you and others will write questions/comments/observations in the comments area. I'll respond, then you may decide to respond to that response and pretty soon we'll have a much richer resource for us both. To that end, RunningDVDs.com will be giving away 4 DVDs each week to the first 4 people that comment on the newest "Tuesday Tips" video and become a fan of the RunningDVDs.com site. Simply post your comment below, become a fan and shoot me an email at support@runningdvds.com with your name and mailing address. I'll send you a free copy of Vol.1 or Vol.2 of Building a Better Runner, just specify which DVD you'd like. I look forward to your comments and to making Tuesday Tips a dialogue that helps us all.

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Jay Johnson