[WarriorDiplomat]

Thought I would give an update of my experience with minimalist style running. As an SUT Cadre although a NCOIC I wanted to be able to throw on a heavy ruck and do exactly what we ask our students to do here. For the last 10 years my knees were killing me to the point of not being ble to squat down at times to pick something up, my lower back gave me alot of problems etc....I was looking at surgery and had tried all the rehab except for THOR3. I read this article I posted about mnimalist running and decided to give it a try, I realzed it isn't just running it applies to walking and rucking as well. I had been striding heel to toe for so long it caught up to me, I was forcing my hamstring to pull into the next step by overstriding with a slightly less back stride. My hamstrings were kept over stretched which I believe had weakened my lower back and the IT bands that run from the hip region down the side and across the knees were constantly tight and painful.

I decided to apply the same movement to walking after a week my knees quit hurting along with my lower back...success. I started running with no pain and no crippling tightening of my back and hips afterwards...success again. I felt great and can without pain squat to the ground without pain to pic something up. Next step was putting a ruck on and using the same step stride change and only went 4 miles, no pain and even after some stretching and sitting down to do some work my body felt good, in the past I would be walking hunched and struggle to step up however my body felt good. One more adjustment for a ruckmarch was to balance my weight with my core strength not simply leaning forward but a strong nuetral position. The next step was an 8 miler and a 10 miler bumping my weight up the same resuls, I was sore where I should have been but my knees, lower back amd heels felt great. My pace tempo changes due to a shorter forward stride but my kick is stronger and had no issue at 46 yrs old being able to walk a sub 2,5 hr 10 miler with 60 pounds + the next will be a sub 2.5 12 miler and a serious long range movement.

Thats my experience, it takes some time to get used to do something you haven't done since barefoot country boy but I wish I had done this sooner.