M2 Get a Grip!
Ever since I first began running I have been a magnet for
running injuries. Feet that are not bio-mechanically well-constructed
produced a never-ending list of aches and pains; some annoying, others
debilitating and long-lasting.
Shin splints, fascial releases, chronic muscle pulls in
hamstrings and calves, achilles tendon issues, knee pain, SI joint pain,
etc. I often joke that I got my degree physical therapy first-hand.
I first heard about e3 grips
www.biogrip.com
two years ago when I was battling through an endless series of calf and
hamstring muscle strains. Calf muscle would be feeling great, I’d be
running easily, and then ZAP!, out of the blue, the muscle would zing and I’d
be walking home. Ditto for the hamstring.
My running routine consisted of jogging 90" laps around
a soccer field where I would walk every 3-4’ to rest the hamstring so it
would not spasm and send me home depressed yet again. I had worked up to
almost 20’ of walk/run, but my state was very precarious and the muscle
was always on edge.
Enter Stephen Tamaribuchi, who I had heard about from a
friend who knew an elite runner whose chronic calf pulls disappeared by
running with these silly grip things. Stephen was in the area of my home and
paid me a visit.
Stephen led me through a series of strength and stepping
exercises with and without the grips and the difference was so striking that
I called in my wife to observe, or as I said to Stephen, to see if she could
detect whatever trick he must be doing to produce such different results
simply by holding these grips! No tricks were discernible to my wife either.
The next evening I ventured over to the soccer field with my
purchased grips to do my 3’ jog, 1’ walk routine and hoped to add up to
20’. Amazingly, I found myself running 30’ continuous and at a faster
pace than my previous jogs under the cover of darkness.
Curious as to the explanation for this quantum leap forward
in my running, I put the grips down and ran some more. Within 2’ the
hamstring was sending warning signals….not good, so I stopped. Still
curious however, I picked up the grips again and began jogging gingerly---no
hamstring tension. Fifteen solid-paced minutes later I stopped running and
was exhilarated.
Since that time, I have never in my life run so consistently
and worry-free.
I
NEVER run without the grips unless I somehow have not placed them in my bag.
Those few annoying times that this
has occurred, it was striking how out of sync my stride felt running
grip-less.
Stephen’s technical explanation as to how the grips help a
runner is as follows:
"The e3 grips help modify mechanical behavior throughout the body by
placing the shoulder and hip girdles in more inherently stable positions and
the axial skeleton in a balanced vertical alignment."
My own sense in running with the grips is that everything
just seems to line up better and my overall stride and arm swing compacts
into a tight, efficient unit. I feel better balanced and with the
elimination of extraneous movement my muscles work more easily in moving me
forward as they do not have to compensate for strains outside of my specific
exercise pattern.
In the simplest of terms, I do not feel like I am walking on
eggshells each time I venture out the door to do a run.
Many of the athletes that I coach who have suffered from
similar annoying injury patterns will tell you similar stories. We do laugh
at ourselves, and jokingly remind each other to hold crystals as well, but
bottom-line is that these things work.
