I’m going to start an ongoing thematic series about some of the random training thoughts that pop in to my mind. Most of these I’ll point out, I have never tried but they seem to be like ineresting ideas although relatively experimental. Since many are quite nontraditional and potentially thought provoking I thought they might be good conversation fodder for the forums. Here’s my first one:
What do you think about sprinting or bounding on a cambered surface to address specific strength, power, elasticity asymmetries. A cambered surface is a sloped or uneven surface. Almost all the roads in the U.S. are cambered to ensure proper water run-off. The fact that the camber allows for different loading on the ‘high’ and ‘low’ leg could potentially be used to overload one leg over the other. I would expect that the eccentric loading would be greater on the low side while the joint range of motion and possibly concentric loading could be greater on the high side leg. One could conceivably control the degree of camber by where you choose to run on the slope. Closer to the middle would have less camber. Here’s a couple questions to think about:
- Is this a worthwhile idea?
- Potentially injurious?
- Which leg would you put on the high side?
- Would it screw up mechanics too much?
- Could it even be used with athletes who don’t display asymmetries by using each leg equally on the high side thus overloading one leg over the other?
Post thoughts to the forum.
Discuss entry