plantar muscles

Treadmill Training with Healthy Posture

Treadmill Training with Healthy Posture

Esther Gokhale
Date

During the Victorian Era, a British engineer, William Cubitt, invented the treadmill as a means of harnessing hard labor in prisons and penal colonies. It was also used unproductively, purely as a punitive measure. Despite this sordid history, the treadmill has become a highly beneficial and enjoyable device within the context of a contemporary lifestyle.

The sedentary nature of modern life in the industrialized world leaves most of us with less than the ideal amount of physical activity. In 1968 the importance of aerobic exercise was popularized by the book Aerobics by Kenneth H. Cooper. Inspired by this book, the first electric consumer treadmill was developed by another American by the name of William Edward Staub. 

Front cover of book Aerobics by Kenneth H. Cooper
The book Aerobics by Kenneth H. Cooper did more than any other to promote the role of “aerobics” for health, founding a paradigm that continues to this day. Aerobics by Kenneth H. Cooper

Staub’s invention was enthusiastically taken up and the exercise treadmill is now used by some 50 million¹ plus Americans and millions more around the globe. The treadmill has several benefits over running outside:

  • It provides a controlled environment and avoids inclement weather
  • It can be private and safe
  • The track is clear and trip-hazard free
  • Incline or speed can be set as required
  • Progress can be tracked and data stored
  • You can read and work at it

A row of contemporary treadmills with screens, with one female user
Treadmills are now in gyms, homes, hotels, colleges, and research and medical facilities across the world. They encourage cardiac fitness, but not necessarily healthy form. Unsplash

Treadmills can be particularly helpful for some groups of people:

  • Those new to exercise who are still building a baseline of fitness and confidence
  • People rehabilitating from injuries, surgeries, strokes, etc. 
  • Those with a lack of access to good walking and running terrain
  • Athletes, fitness trainees, and research subjects wanting to track progress
  • Those who have little time for exercise

NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei on a treadmill inside the ISS module Tranquility
NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei jogs on a treadmill inside the International Space Station module Tranquility—perhaps the ultimate example of limited space and opportunity for exercise, and for the value of monitoring. Wikimedia

Healthy form—as important in treadmill workouts as any other activity

Because a treadmill track has more give than some terrain it may appear to be a more forgiving surface for our joints. However, we know from research on running shoes that substantial cushioning can actually result in a higher level of injuries²—the cushioning reduces proprioceptive sensitivity and lulls people into a false sense of being protected and actually hitting the ground harder.³

When it comes to using a treadmill, you don’t want to rely on either softer shoes or a softer surface to offset the effects of less than healthy biomechanics—and the biggest obstacle to healthy biomechanics is poor posture. 

Man running with tucked pelvis, internal rotation of feet and legs, rounded torso, and forward head carriage
Jogging or walking with a tucked pelvis, internally rotated feet, legs, and hips, a rounded torso, and forward head carriage stresses both muscles and joints. Switching to using a treadmill won’t fix these problems—but reclaiming healthy posture will. Pexels

Treadmill exercise is repetitive, and what you want is repetitive benefit, not repetitive strain. With some posture know-how, your treadmill training will not only get you aerobically fitter and stronger, but will also retrain your musculoskeletal system to work optimally. That means more gain, less pain, and less time out nursing injuries. Here are our top training tips:

Caution: Using a treadmill can be hazardous. If you’re not accustomed to using one, make sure to get appropriate support to make your introduction safe. Please consult your physician or PT if you have medical challenges. 

Starting your treadmill session

We recommend that you walk before you run! Not only is walking an excellent orientation and warm-up on a treadmill, but you get to practice actions common to both walking and running at a speed that helps you correct, pattern, and refine as you go. We encourage all our students to evoke the benefits and protections that are built into the ways our ancestors have walked for millennia.

Man in India walking carrying pitchers on yoke.
Treadmills are useful for practicing many aspects of healthy walking form, a body-wisdom we can relearn from traditional village societies where it is still prevalent. This man is in India. 

Power yourself with the right muscles

The earliest treadmills were human powered—which meant you had to push the ground away behind you, much as in natural walking form. With a machine powering the track beneath you, it is easy to underdo the muscular self-propulsion that ideally comes from squeezing the glutes of the leg that is going backward, and pushing off with that foot. 

Use your treadmill session to wake up your foot muscles. Imagine the treadmill is broken and you are using your feet to jump start it. In the first half of the stride your foot pulls the ground towards you; in the second half of the stride, it pushes the ground behind you. Be careful to not disproportionately use the muscles under your toes, but rather, include the long plantar muscles under the main arches.

Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method teacher, running on sandy beach, close-up
We can relearn the natural responses of the feet to grab the ground and push it behind us—even while wearing shoes on a treadmill.

We teach these nuanced techniques in logical sequence and detail in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, online Elements course, plus Gokhale Exercise program. 

Using an incline on a treadmill can improve your posture and back pain

Setting an incline of 10°–15° for part of your workout will help you cultivate a slight forward lean. This stance puts your behind behind you and your gluteal muscles in a position of mechanical advantage. It can also take pressure off the upper lumbar area if you have a habit of swaying.

Woman running on curved HIT treadmill, lower body view.
We get greater benefits and reduce potential downsides when we use treadmills with healthy posture. This runner is on a curved track, designed for sprinting and high intensity training (HIT). Pexels

Monitor your posture as well as your performance 

One thing that treadmills cannot track is your posture. Especially as you increase your miles and speed, problematic posture increases the risk of damage throughout your body. We suggest the following ways to monitor your posture:

  • Take a deep-dive into healthy posture by reading 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back or taking one of our courses
  • Use the mirrors in the gym or an app on your home computer 
  • Videotape yourself and play it back in slo-mo to examine your form
  • If you have a personal trainer, share this article and get them on board with your healthy posture treadmill training
  • Use PostureTracker™, our Gokhale Method wearable, available to course participants and Alumni.

3 views of PostureTracker™app in use.
PostureTracker gives you real time feedback on your form, and tells you the degree to which you are moving away from your healthiest position—whether that’s your spinal shape (a), your head position (b), or your degree of leg extension (c).

For more detail on healthy posture in running check out our blog post series: 

P1: Introduction  P2: Meet Your Feet  P3: How to Choose Running Shoes  P4: Taking Care of Your Knees  P5: Anteverted Pelvis  P6: Upper Body

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

 

References:

¹ Statista Research Department. “Users of treadmills in the U.S. from 2006 to 2017,” Dec 8, 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/191605/users-of-treadmills-in-the-us-since-2006/.

² S. Robbins and E. Waked. “Hazard of Deceptive Advertising of Athletic Footwear,” British Journal of Sports Medicine 31, no. 4 (December 1997): 299–303, https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.31.4.299.

³ Daniel E. Lieberman, “What We Can Learn About Running from Barefoot Running: An Evolutionary Medical Perspective,” Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews 40, no. 2 (April 2012): 63–72, https://doi.org/10.1097/jes.0b013e31824ab210.

 

How to choose running shoes. Running: Part 3

How to choose running shoes. Running: Part 3

Author: Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method teacher
Date

Welcome to the third blog post in our series on running. My name is Michelle Ball, and I am a Gokhale Method® teacher in Tasmania. I am a lifelong runner and am passionate about sharing my experience with beginners as well as seasoned runners and everyone in between. Even if you don’t run, but do wear shoes, this blog post is for you!

Active feet come first

When it comes to advice about running, our feet often get sidelined by the subject of shoes. If you missed Part 2, which is about how to build healthy, active feet, we recommend you catch up here. 

The job of a good running shoe—performance and protection

At the level of elite sport, running shoes are designed with increasingly sophisticated technologies to enhance performance. Time will tell what long-term effect these may have on athletes. From the Gokhale Method® point of view the primary purpose of all shoes is to protect our feet and our weight-bearing joints while still allowing us to move as Nature intended. 

Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method teacher, running, side-on.
A lightweight, barefoot-style shoe gives my feet sufficient protection and lets them be active on a soft, forgiving surface like this sandy coastal trail.

Cushioning the joints

Over the last 50 years, the increase in urban running on hard surfaces, combined with a reduction in healthy posture and biomechanics, has made for a perfect storm of running injuries. These include runner’s knee (patellofemoral syndrome), Achilles tendonitis, shin splints (stress involving microfractures of the tibia), and plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the bottom of the foot). The design of modern running shoes has seen many innovations, twists, and turns, but one clear trend has been to increase the amount of protective padding in the form of thicker, spongier soles, air bladders, and gel at chambers. Whilst some degree of cushioning for the joints is desirable when running on unnaturally hard surfaces, it is now thought that overly thick soles reduce proprioceptive sensitivity and actually encourage runners to hit the ground harder. 

Highly padded modern road running shoe, black, white sole.
This contemporary road running shoe is heavily padded. From the Gokhale Method perspective, such bulk interferes with our ability to feel the ground and make softer landings and can encourage ankle turnover. Run4it

Strong, responsive feet combined with the natural gait pattern that arises from healthy posture can enable you to land more softly and avoid injury. Building in extreme cushioning cannot compensate for excessive heel strike and its damaging impact on poorly aligned joints. 

Healthy alignment of the ankle

The first time I experienced a running injury was in my twenties. I had bought a new pair of shoes. The salesman measured me and recommended shoes that were designed to prevent overpronation (inward turn) of the foot. They felt good in the store, but after rolling my ankles more than once, I realized the shoes recommended were predisposing me to injury. I found out later that I tended to supinate my feet very slightly and not pronate them. Having shoes that were heavily padded on the inside edge to keep my foot from rolling in, increased the chance of my foot rolling out. The result for me was torn lateral ligaments and crutches on several occasions for six weeks at a time. Once I even had a hairline fracture on the ankle coming down off a boulder. I learned the hard way how important it is to have your ankles well aligned. After buying shoes for normal ankle alignment, I didn’t roll my ankles anymore.

Diagram of neutral, overpronated and supinated lower leg.

Your weight should align centrally and distribute evenly (left). In overpronation (center) weight bears down more on the inner foot and the ankle veers inward, and in supination (right) weight is carried on the outer foot as the ankle veers outward.

You can do a simple check on your ankle alignment using a mirror or have someone take a photograph. You want to be able to see your heel and ankle from behind.

Photos of neutral foot and overpronated foot with lines on Achilles tendon.
An overpronated foot may show distortion of the Achilles tendon (right). Wikimedia

Photo of overpronated right foot, from behind, Gokhale Method teacher M. Ball.
Poor ankle alignment may also show up as an ankle bone protruding markedly over the edge of the heel. Here my inner ankle bone shows I am overpronating my foot.

Photo of kidney-bean shaped foot, from behind, Gokhale Method teacher M. Ball.
Kidney-bean shaping my foot has now aligned my ankle well. The Achilles tendon is straight, and each ankle bone is better aligned on either side of the heel. 

You can also get useful information by examining the soles of your shoes, which may show more wear and tear along the inner (overpronation) or outer (supination) edge. Check several pairs to ensure that what you see is not peculiar to just one pair of shoes. Compare the left and right shoe.

Learning to correct flat feet

The postural techniques that we teach in our in-person Foundations Course, online Elements, and Pop-up courses, will often be sufficient to correct overpronation, or “flat feet” as it’s commonly known. Here you can learn the detail of, for example, kidney-bean shaping your feet and externally rotating your legs, with a teacher to guide you.

If, after putting some time and effort into solving the problem, it persists, we recommend that you get advice from a good running shop and use your Gokhale Method knowledge to help choose a shoe appropriate for you. They can advise you on which particular shoes can best support you while you continue to work on your posture, remodeling your feet, and realigning your ankles. As you can see in the diagram below, both these measures can support a healthier structure.


This diagram shows how overpronation of the foot can misalign the ankle, knee, hip and spinal joints further up the chain.

Insoles and orthotics as training devices

An insole can add the necessary padding and support to help you transition from a padded shoe to a thinner or barefoot style running shoe. It is important to make this transition alongside learning protective and strengthening posture and foot work. Take your time—start with occasional short training runs in your new shoes, build up the proportion of your running in them gradually, and be very attentive to your form. 

In the Gokhale Method, we teach students to use the contours of an insole as a training device, gripping it to actively strengthen the arches of the feet, rather than just to prop them up. If it is best for you to use a more padded shoe, perhaps because you run on hard surfaces and/or have some degree of joint degeneration, then it will likely have a molded footbed that you can use in this way. 

If you have prescription orthotic insoles to correct overpronation or supination, don’t stop using them abruptly. Try using them less often as your feet gain the strength to support themselves better.

Healthy shoes need to be foot-shaped!

One of the most common faults with modern shoes—including running shoes—is the shape of the toe area, or toe box. The toe box of most shoes is tapered to some degree, which distorts the natural kidney-bean foot shape that the Gokhale Method encourages. We are all familiar with the pointed toe in many women’s fashion shoes, men’s winklepickers, and even cowboy boots—yet it surprises me how this tapering persists in sports and activity footwear. Even some shoes marketed as “barefoot” or “natural” reflect the conventional wisdom of a straight foot, rather than a healthy bean-shaped one. 

           Photo of pair of trainers, from below.  Diagram of adult kidney-bean shaped feet, from below.
Most running shoes assume the feet to be straight and tapered at the toes (left). Nature’s blueprint for our feet maintains the external rotation and kidney-bean shape that we all have as infants (right). This is preserved throughout adulthood in traditional societies and explained in Esther Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back.


Note the bean-shaped contours and wide toes of this Indian woman’s feet. (Odisha, India, 2017) 
This strong, active foot would be constrained and deformed by a tapered running shoe.

Tipping forward/curve in modern shoes

Shoes with an upward toe curve have become increasingly popular. People like the feeling of forward momentum that they give, and they can encourage the glutes to work. Better to learn to use your glutes anyway, then this feature isn’t necessary, and you avoid the downside—the upward toe curve encourages your foot to peel off the ground passively, rather than grab and propel you forward. 

Photo of pink running shoe, from the side, showing upward curved toe box.
An upward toe curve depresses the transverse arch at the base of the toes. This concavity directs excessive weight through the ball of the foot and contributes to weaker plantar muscles and push-off. Run4it

I hope this blog post has helped you with your choice of running shoes. If you are in the market for a new pair, enjoy shopping with new confidence and purpose.

Running: Part 2: Meet Your Feet

Running: Part 2: Meet Your Feet

Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method Teacher
Date

Welcome to the second blog post in our series on running. My name is Michelle Ball, and I am a Gokhale Method™ teacher in Tasmania. I am a life-long runner, and am passionate about sharing my experience with beginners and would-be beginners, as well as seasoned runners and everyone in between. If you missed Part 1, you can catch up here. 

Reactivate your feet

When it comes to advice about running, the feet often get overlooked as the subject immediately turns to shoes. While shoes are an important subject (spoiler alert! Part 3 is about shoes), I prefer to start with that miracle of bioengineering that actually does the work—your feet.

Our feet become very passive from walking on flat, featureless surfaces rather than natural, more undulating terrain. They are also constrained, misshapen and deconditioned by less-than-ideal footwear, which, sadly, includes many running shoes on the market.

Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method teacher, running on sandy beach, close-up
Running on sand trains my feet to grab the ground and push it behind me.

Learning to engage and strengthen my feet has been a game changer, enabling me to recover from old running injuries and enjoy running into my sixth decade. I would therefore like to share some well chosen exercises you can do in addition to training on the job. These will both strengthen your feet and train them in better patterns of muscle recruitment. Your feet will soon engage more actively than they are likely used to doing. 

Engraving of foot bones, side view, Henry Vandyke Carter
Some basic anatomical knowledge can help us get to know and appreciate our feet. This beautiful 1850s engraving (by Henry Vandyke Carter, Gray’s Anatomy) illustrates the primary arch that gives the foot its convexity. Wikimedia

Exercise 1: Inching your way to stronger feet

Inchworm is an excellent warm-up exercise, mobilizing the toe joints, mid foot, and heel bone, contracting and releasing the plantar muscles, and lifting the inner arches and also the transverse arch which spans the base of the toes. It mimics the grabbing action our feet naturally make when accustomed to walking on more varied surfaces.


This video shows how my plantar muscles contract and release to inch my foot forward. I alternately release my heel, and then my toes, from the ground.

Exercise 2: Kidney-bean shaping the feet.

One of my favorite Gokhale Method® concepts to help develop strong, functional feet, is “kidney-bean shaping.” Like inchworm, it strengthens the four layers of plantar muscle, helps raise the inner arches, and also preserves the transverse arch which spans the base of the toes. Restoring tone in these areas confers the springiness you are looking for and protects against common foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, Morton’s neuroma, and bunions. Infant’s feet have this more bean-like shape, and this is the shape preserved into adulthood among more traditional, nonindustrialized societies around the world.

Infants’ feet (right) a notably bean-like shape (left) 
Infants’ feet have a notably bean-like shape.

Indian foot (left) and bean-like shape feet, drawn from underneath (right)
In nonindustrial societies a bean-shaped foot is maintained throughout life.

In addition, kidney-bean shaping the foot enables us to find a healthy outward angle for the feet and legs, and weight in our heels when standing. This multipurpose exercise is taught in all three formats for learning the Gokhale Method—our in-person Foundations course, our online Elements course, and our Pop-up course. Directions can also be found in Esther Gokhale’s number one best-selling book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, and her DVD (streamable), Back Pain: The Primal Posture™ Solution.

Kidney-bean shaping the feet, “before” and “after”, Tegan Kahn.
These photos show how, if you have a tendency toward flat feet (left), kidney-bean shaping can restore your arches, and counter any tendency to being pigeon-toed (right). It also guides your big toe home, reducing bunions. Modeled by Tegan Kahn, our Gokhale Method teacher in Australia.

Exercise 3: Bob before you jog

If you are not in the habit of jogging, or even if you do so already, it is good to ensure you jog with spring in your feet. This contributes to both push off and, most importantly for injury prevention, absorbs energy on impact. This is a natural, effective, and sophisticated mechanism that uses your muscles and foot structure rather than relying on heavily padded shoes to cushion your landing. It helps care for and protect all the weight-bearing joints in the body, as well as your feet. 

CAUTION: If you have back pain or reason to believe you may have spinal degeneration, we recommend you take one of our courses to learn appropriate techniques to protect your spine before doing this exercise.

Getting started with bobbing 

I recommend you start bobbing by shifting from one foot to the other with the heels scarcely leaving the ground. Initially just a few minutes may be plenty, and you can develop resilience for greater bounce and duration over a number of weeks. I like to suggest students play music and make it a dance. A few tracks each day will quickly build strength in your feet. 


Esther demonstrates bobbing on the feet. These clips are from her 1-2-3 Move program for Alumni. Each 15-minute Dance Party has bobbing covered!

Bobbing is a very adaptable exercise for all levels of foot strength—from slowly shifting your weight from one foot to the other, to your first split second of being airborne. As you get stronger you can intensify the work with more skipping and even hopping. 

Free Online Workshops

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, whether you are currently sedentary or a seasoned runner, sign up to join one of Esther’s upcoming FREE Online Workshops.

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