Let’s try a little science experiment. First, I want you to walk barefoot from one end of the room you’re in to the other while walking on your heels. Next, I want you to walk back to where you began, but on the balls of your feet (the base of your foot right behind your toes). Now, repeat both walks, but add a little hop in your step each way.

Notice any differences? If you do this right, you’ll notice how much more uncomfortable and painful each step was while landing on your heels. Think about it: what exactly is there to absorb the impact while landing on your heels?

It’s basically up to the bones running from your ankle to your knee to absorb the impact of each step. This is how shin splints and knee problems happen: bones are not designed to take impact. Just imagine repeating each painful step over the course of several miles.

So what makes landing on the balls of your feet any different? Your calf muscle. Think of the calf muscle as nature’s shock absorber.

The human body evolved (or was created, but we’re not here to have that discussion) to run on the balls of the foot. This is how our barefoot ancestors had been doing it since the dawn of time. Somewhere in between then and now, the design of the modern running shoe has ruined proper running technique by adding extra cushioning to the heel of the foot.

The concept of adding extra cushioning is not completely dumbfounded: think of how you walk. Each step begins on the heels and ends on the toes, as it should be. But transferring this technology to modern running shoes has been extremely counterproductive, since using a walking shoe for running is like wearing briefs as a t-shirt. It was taught people to land on their heels while running, and has been the single greatest cause of running injuries.

Have you ever seen the spikes sprinters wear while running track? The metal spikes reside entirely on the front half of the shoe, and there is absolutely no cushion on the heel of the shoe. This is what you should imagine you’re wearing while running.

I’m not talking about running on your tippie-toes. Rather, as you run, you should try to have your foot land just slightly past flat, with all of the pressure being focused on the balls of your feet.

Shin splints? Gone.

Knee tendonitis? Adios.

This can be uncomfortable at first, only because your Achilles tendon is not used to working this hard. The muscle running from the large part of your calf muscle to your heel will be sore for a day or two after a good jog. But, over time, this muscle will strengthen and adapt to your new running style.

But don’t rush it. If your calves are sore, take a few days off from running, and try again once the muscle has fully recovered. Your knees and shins will thank you.

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-A G @ EpicFit20.com

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It happens to all of us. We begin a training regimen, and after a few weeks we notice ourselves getting leaner, looking more toned and getting stronger. This continues for a while, but then sort of tapers off, until we hit the dreaded “plateau” in our training, where we feel like no matter what we do, there’s nothing that can be done to improve our physical conditioning. We’ve hit the ceiling.

Can anything be done to reverse this trend? Of course. But first, let’s take a look at a couple things that may be causing you to plateau.

The process of working out breaks down muscle. Over the course of the following days, the muscle rebuilds itself, becoming stronger and larger. From looking at this, one obvious culprit of stagnation is a lack of proper rest time. By breaking down the muscle even further rather than allowing it to fully recover and grow, you may actually be deteriorating the muscle.

A good rule of thumb is to only exercise a particular muscle or muscle group once or twice a week. If you are working out your chest by doing bench press one day, don’t turn around and workout your triceps heavy the following day.

Another possible reason your training may have stalled is due to a lack of relative intensity. I use the term relative, rather than absolute, simply because of the fact that as your muscles grow stronger, the workouts you performed and weights you lifted as a beginner will not have the same effect as they once did. Your muscles can become accustomed to a certain routine, and, in turn, performing the same routine over and over again will break down the muscle less and less over time, allowing for less muscle growth.

So what can you do about overcoming plateaus in your training? All of these solutions revolve around one key theme: INTENSITY!

Try mixing up the style of lifting you do every two weeks or so. Used to doing bench presses every week with a barbell? Try it out with dumbbells for a few weeks. Experiment with doing squats in a wide stance and a narrow stance to target different areas of the thigh.

If you’re comfortable doing a given weight for a desired repetition range, increase the weight. If you’ve been doing sets of 8 reps for the past few weeks, increase the weight incrementally and see how you do. You may also experiment with lower weights for a few weeks just to target the slow-twitch muscle fibers.

Probably the most important factor in overcoming training plateaus is pushing your muscles beyond failure. This is typically done by performing assisted reps or drop sets. With an assisted rep, a spotter can help you lift a small percentage of the weight so that you can perform a few more reps at a lighter weight. The concept of the drop set is the same, where you perform as many reps as you can at a given weight, drop the weight, and without any rest in between, continue pushing out a few more reps until failure.

Drop sets can be especially handy at the end of a workout. For my leg workouts, I like to get on a leg press machine and perform a drop set with 3 iterations. The first set I will do as heavy as possible for about 10 reps, the second set will be typically 50 pounds lighter for another 8-10 reps, and the third and final set will be about 50 pounds lighter for as many reps as I can push out until my legs can’t move anymore.

You can also try lifts that use the same primary muscle but target different secondary muscle groups. For example, try performing a set of upright rows immediately followed by a set of military presses. In both cases, the primary muscle is the deltoid (shoulder), but the secondary muscles shift from the biceps to the triceps, allowing you to target your shoulders for just a little bit longer because the triceps are fresh. These are excellent at the end of a shoulder workout.

Try working in some of these into your workout regimen and say goodbye to your plateaus!

Check out EpicFit20.com for all of your free online personal fitness training needs, or visit our Free Blog for more free fitness and health articles, updated daily!

-A G @ EpicFit20.com

Follow us on Twitter @EpicFit20