Toe-Ball-Heel

[naughtoj]

Because I am really curious about this now..I wanted everyone to see it. In another post....another poster writes...

>>As Cathe always says -
>"You know you should be landing toe-ball-heel right? I know,
>you knew that!" She's so cute isn't she?!

My response is:

WHAT in the world does that mean? I have never understood what the heck Cathe means by that. Yeah, to me, when you do the one-legged hops, you should be planting your heel firmly so that the brunt of the impact is dispersed more evenly, and your glutes and legs do more work.

But....isn't that landing heel-ball-toe? That is how you land when you run or walk. Toe-ball-heel implies that you roll backwards with your foot. Anyone????

Janice


http://www.picturetrail.com/thrashej

 

[Gayle]

Hi naughtoj,

By landing toe-ball-heel on something like the one legged hops, your foot acts like shock absorber for your knee. I believe landing firmly on your heel would cause more of a jarring effect to the knee. Maybe another poster with a deeper background in exercise science could elaborate.

Walking does seem to be more heel-ball-toe, but the impact is much lower.

As for running, I watched a really interesting program on TechTV a little while back that documented the history and technology of running shoes. One of the things they elaborated on was the possibility that running shoe designs with the heavily padded heel may be attributing to knee injuries for some people in that they alter their running style to land to harder on their heels. Part of the study included working with people who run long distances barefoot (anybody remember Zola Bud?)and that the knee problems don't seem to be as evident with those runners since their running style was completely different. Sorry if this is a digression, but I thought it was pretty fascinating.

 

[Connie1]

Janice,
When you step down off of the step, while doing a basic step, your toe touches the floor first. When doing power 7's and 15's, our toes touch the floor behind the step each time.

Cathe wants to make sure we don't just jump right back up on our toes, using the instep muscles more than they're intended to do, but in between each toe landing that we take the extra time and effort to quickly but smoothly ease our weight all the way to the heel of the weight-bearing foot. This includes the larger calf muscles in the effort.

When I first started stepping I used just my toes a lot. Then I understood what she was saying (more fully explained in Cathe's interview with Beauty Buzz, accessible through "links" from the Home page) and took the extra effort to touch all the way down to the heel, of the weight-bearing foot, 8 times during every box lunge for example.

HTH
-Con.

 

[naughtoj]

Wow, great replies!!

Connie..makes sense. I know I spent alot of time on my toes at first and soon realized the error of my ways (thanks, shin splints). I guess while I try to put the brunt of the impact into my gluteals and quads during those one legged hops, I am sure I land toe-ball-heel. I just probably never think about it this hard...

Gayle, that is very interesting. Have you guys ever seen that Tech TV?? It is a show called "Performance" and it is really cool. Sometimes the topics are less interesting, but I saw one entitled "Eat to Win" and it was about nutrition and athletes. Kinda cool. I keep trying to catch it again, but it is on at akward times and I can't seem to find any reruns.

Makes sense with the running shoes though, however, I don't think I would ever want to land on my toes for running!!


Janice