The Dividing Line 
Two runners are moving along at a given speed.  This is not one of those crazy algebra problems you had back in school, it's just a day of training with your buddy.  One runner is working at a given intensity. The other runner is working at a given intensity. One runner might be working really hard. One runner might be loafing, but they are never working at the exactly the same intensity. Why? Just like your momma told you....Everybody's special.

Physiologic efficiency. Fancy word huh? It means how hard you are working to go a given speed. At your efficiency goes up, your ability to hold a given pace gets easier. And you are able to hold faster and faster paces. This is why we train. Internet training plans help. Custom training programs help. Coaches are even better because the plan is plastic and changes as you develop as an athlete. But there is another piece to the puzzle.

This puzzle piece is called biomechanical efficiency. If you could place identical engines...heart, lungs, blood vessels, and genes....in 2 different people and made them work at identical efforts, one would still pull away from the other. Why? Biomechanical changes have to do with how you apply force to your body. Quite simply, if you don't overcome gravity and take a stride, you aren't going to go anywhere. He or she who is more biomechanically efficient will travel a greater distance with less effort then another. When it comes to sport, we are engines, with pulleys and levers attached.

Is any of this crazy talk new? No - it's been around for years and years  - ever since Aristotle. People have been looking for better more efficient ways to do anything. The high jump is a perfect example. People used to run at the bar and jump over. This went on for years until a gentleman by the name of Fosberry decided to jump over backwards. This changed his center of gravity moving over the bar and records were broken. His technique made the difference. The same goes for runners. There are "better" more "correct" ways to apply force to the ground and propel yourself. Most of this research has been done at National Training Centers and is quite expensive. The equipment required to analyze it is expensive, the personnel has to have great knowledge about it, and also experience on the field applying it.

If you come over, you'll see we have some pretty cool toys. We have a treadmill which is one of two in the world. (it's sister lives at an Army base in Massachusetts). It lets us examine your force loads in 3 planes at all times. No other facility can match that. You can't hide either. You will have no fewer than 10 infra-red cameras watching you to record, digitize, and quantify your every move. "Wow" is a word we get a lot when people walk in our lab. Not only do we have cool toys, we have great engineers who know how to decipher this information to something we can read, and we have a clinician who can break this down and apply it to you.

Its often been said to train you weaknesses. We can help you find your biomechanical weakness. We can quantify them, and we can help you figure out a plan to correct them. You'll leave your in-depth visit with applicable information you can use to change your training program. Not just words, but video as well. You'll get a DVD with video of you running and us identifying weak links in the chain. Pictures are worth a thousand words.....video....that much more. We want to give you something to share with your coaches and physician, or something you can review to help in your learning process.

The SPEED Clinic is a network. We are physicians, physical therapists, strength coaches, coaches, and dieticians all here for a reason. We want to be your resource for the extra edge in sport. 

Keep pushing the limits-

Jay