Was this your natural biomechanics, or were you trying to change your biomechanics? Whereas landing on the ball of the foot occurs 'naturally' while barefoot, doing so with shoes may 'go against' the mechanics of the shoe. Our body strives to be the most economical in a given condition. As well intended as you may be trying to mimic what is 'natural' (~barefoot), if it goes against what the body is striving towards in a given condition it may cause unusual stresses in unusual places.
No, it definitely isn't my natural form. I was forced to learn a different way to run due to torn kneecartilage (during volleyball injury in 2005). I had been a heel-strike runner in big cushioned shoes for 27 years, 10-15 miles per run, 3 times a week. Never had these injuries before.
I found after the torn cartilage that the impact stress from heel-striking caused harsh pains emanating from deep inside the planar area of the tibial plateau and the femoral condyle. These pains occurred when I got back up to 0.8 mile intervals X 4 sets. The pains occurred during the run and for 7-10 days afterwards. My conclusion was that the tear in the outside of the lateral meniscus (oblique tear) caused the impact shock of footlanding to stretch the horseshoe shape of meniscus outwards farther than it should, exposing more of the bone-to-bone surface upon each footstrike impact. The technical term for the meniscus converting vertical impact deformation stress into lateral outward expansion is "hoop stress"...In my case the hoop lacks integrity.
So began my training with Pose Method of Running. Started with 0.3 mile intervals in Jan. 2006, worked up to 3 runs of 6 miles by early December 2006. WITH POSE I NEVER HAD ANY KNEE PAIN.
However, I was trying to undo 27 years of patterned movements in learning a knew ambulatory pattern. To be specific, Pose biomechanics mimic sprinting.
To make a long story short, I strengthened my calves, achilles tendon, posterior tibial tendon, and hamstrings sufficiently by the drills and by the gradual increase in mileage, but in the end what did me in was the hip flexor.
I had been working with the online Pose coaches to critique my form, etc.
I am consulting long distance with a coach who is a certified Pose Coach and also a board certified physical therapist in orthopedics who works at a large university.
I am also seeing my orthopedic surgeon again in 6 weeks.
THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION -- HOW DO I GET BACK TO RUNNING NOW??? IS THE POSE METHOD DOOMED FOR ME DUE TO BIOMECHANICAL INCOMPATIBLITY WITH MY HISTORICALLY-CONDITIONED BODY? I CAN'T RUN THE OLD WAY ANY REAL DISTANCES DUE TO THE KNEE.
I highlighted the elliptical (80 min.!) because one problem with the elliptical, is it's at a set stride length that may not be ideal for you.
Actually, I found the ONLY MACHINE at the gym with a longer stride length was the CYBEX ARC TRAINER front wheel drive elliptical. I have been ONLY using that machine since Summer of 2005.
One problem with this particular elliptical is a wide stance. I feel like I am jogging bow-legged. It may be a contributor to the tugging on the iliopsoas, I am not sure. But certainly the VOLUME of elliptical could have been a factor, so I am now restricting myself to 30-45 min. per session. I still get lower back tiredness (different from the pain from the hip sfx condition) after doing elliptical. The pain is focused on the right side spinal attachment of the iliopsoas, deepdown. But hey, it's exercise.
This is why the pool may be a better option, initially (non-impact), because it allows for greater range of motion.
I did 80 to 100 laps of crawl stroke at the YMCA during the first 6 weeks post injury. The trouble is weekdays the YMCA only has open lap swimming after 8:30pm. That conflicts with family dinner because if I eat beforehand I lose motivation to go that late at night. So I only averaged once per week.
So I started easy elliptical (30 min) six weeks post injury. No real pain afterwards, but when I increased over 2 weeks to 60 minutes, I had some very mild but persistent hip pain the next day that was vague and moved around to different spots, anterior, lateral, even posterior hip pain. So that tells me to keep the volume down for the next few weeks.
I started walking a couple weekends ago...One 2 mile walk, and the next weekend one 5 mile walk. But I was stupid and also tossed in a couple 0.7 mile runs, which caused achiness afterwards. So I am ONLY doing easy walking of 2 miles, 2 or 3 days per week.
Also, I was doing upper body weights to increase testosterone (I do this year round but less in the winter). However, my home weight machine has hanging ab crunches and I felt a little hip soreness after 3 sets of 25 hanging crunches, holding horizontal position for a count of 20 with each rep.
So it turns out all kinds of little things I am doing all come down to stressing the same iliopsoas insertion point.
I will have to keep that in mind now -- look at each individual thing I do as to it's cumulative influence.