Injury prevention is one of the key themes to my running, and why I switched to POSE early last year. I just read this article in the New York Times, and I believe it is extremely relevant for runners as well as people in general. Humans were born to walk and run, and the ankle is one very important part of the picture.
The theme of the article is that balance is key to preventing ankle injuries from occurring or reoccurring. I strongly agree with this, and in an addition part I believe that the lower leg muscles surrounding the ankle are also key.
Balance is something that I often neglected to practice until recently, after learning to skimboard from my uncle. He divided exercise into two categories, moving activities like running and balance activities like skimboarding or surfing.
Balance is very relevant to running, for reasons of injury prevention. Running is the act of falling forward and constantly catching yourself, and how you fall forward depends on how you balance on the foot that most recently touched the ground.
Try it out: stand on one foot and see how long you can balance before you have to catch yourself.
