POSE METHOD® IN MILITARY RUNNING
Running skill in military injury prevention, training, research, and professional education.
Military medicine had identified running-related lower-extremity injury decades before there was a practical system for teaching the running action itself.
By the early 1980s, military medical literature was already describing running as a source of lower-extremity injury. In the years that followed, research examined training volume, conditioning, footwear, individual risk factors, screening, treatment, and rehabilitation. Running performance continued to be developed and evaluated through variables and outcomes such as distance, pace, duration, frequency, and timed runs.
2007: THE FIRST MILITARY APPLICATION
In 2007, Pose Method® entered U.S. military application after Army personnel searching for a way to address running-related injury identified the system as a potential solution.
The initial objective was injury prevention. The practical application was running-skill instruction: observing the running action, identifying errors, applying corrections, and reassessing the result.
Pose Tech Corporation was brought in to provide and deliver the system.
2007–2009: RETURN-TO-RUNNING APPLICATION
Between 2007 and 2009, Pose Method was used in Army return-to-running environments at Fort Sill.
The training was applied with injured trainees and delivered through Army personnel, including Drill Sergeants. The system could be used in formations, small groups, or individual instruction and was designed to work without specialized laboratory equipment.
During this period, return-to-running classes reportedly produced a 98% return-to-duty rate and routine improvements of approximately four minutes in the two-mile run.
FIELD-EXPEDIENT ASSESSMENT
By 2008, one of the practical advantages identified in military use was the ability to assess running with ordinary video rather than requiring a gait laboratory.
The running action could be recorded, observed against defined criteria, corrected, and reviewed again using equipment already available in the field.
This created a direct link between instruction and assessment: the action itself could be examined rather than inferred only from time, distance, pain, or injury outcome.
INTO MILITARY RESEARCH
Military application was followed by published research examining running-technique intervention in active-duty populations.
One of the earliest examples involved chronic exertional compartment syndrome, where changing running technique was used as a non-operative intervention. The work was later replicated in another military population.
From that point forward, military research increasingly began to examine gait retraining, running mechanics, loading, cadence, foot strike, and other variables associated with how running is performed.
- Diebal AR, Gregory R, Alitz C, Gerber JP. Effects of forefoot running on chronic exertional compartment syndrome: a case series. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2011;6(4):312-321. PMID: 22163093; PMCID: PMC3230159.
- Diebal AR, Gregory R, Alitz C, Gerber JP. Forefoot running improves pain and disability associated with chronic exertional compartment syndrome. Am J Sports Med. 2012;40(5):1060-1067. doi:10.1177/0363546512439182. PMID: 22427621.
- Helmhout PH, Diebal AR, van der Kaaden L, Harts CC, Beutler A, Zimmermann WO. The effectiveness of a 6-week intervention program aimed at modifying running style in patients with chronic exertional compartment syndrome: results from a series of case studies. Orthop J Sports Med. 2015;3(3):2325967115575691. doi:10.1177/2325967115575691.
- Zimmermann WO, Helmhout PH, Beutler A. Prevention and treatment of exercise related leg pain in young soldiers: a review of the literature and current practice in the Dutch Armed Forces. J R Army Med Corps. 2017;163(2):94-103. doi:10.1136/jramc-2016-000635. PMID: 27451420.
- Zimmermann WO, Linschoten CW, Beutler A. Gait retraining as part of the treatment programme for soldiers with exercise-related leg pain: preliminary clinical experiences and retention. S Afr J Sports Med. 2017;29(1):1-6. doi:10.17159/2078-516X/2017/v29i0a1923.
- Zimmermann WO, van Valderen N, Beutler AI. Gait retraining for young soldiers with resistant exercise related leg pain: a short communication on recent findings. J Yoga Phys Ther. 2017;7:277. doi:10.4172/2157-7595.1000277.
- Diebal-Lee AR, Kuenzi RS, Rábago CA. Return to running following a knee disarticulation amputation: a case report. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2017;12(4):655-669. PMID: 28900572; PMCID: PMC5534156.
- Zimmermann WO, Bakker EWP, van Overbeeke AJ, et al. The relative importance of three gait retraining cues in reducing peak vertical ground reaction force. Clin Biomech. 2019. PMID: 31265933.
EXPANSION INTO TRAINING + INSTRUCTOR DEVELOPMENT
Running-skill instruction expanded beyond a single clinical or return-to-duty setting.
The system was used in unit training, professional education, instructor development, and additional military environments. Army leaders sought ways to place the instruction into Initial Entry Training, Drill Sergeant development, NCO education, and other settings where running performance and running-related injury directly affect readiness.
The U.S. Army Physical Fitness School later recognized Pose Method as a system compatible with Army instructional principles and physical-readiness training structures.
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION + CREDENTIALING
The military application of running skill also developed into an individual professional pathway.
The Certified Running Technique Specialist credential provides a way for Service members and professionals to demonstrate competency in assessing and instructing running.
The credential is now listed through DOD COOL and aligned with Soldier Common Core (MOS) and P5 – Holistic Health and Fitness Integrator (ASI). For Army personnel, it is recognized as a technical certification and carries 10 promotion points.
Individual running-skill training is available online, with certification pursued through a separate examination.
ARMY DOCTRINE
Running-skill instruction was later incorporated into Army doctrine, placing the concepts developed through years of military application into a broader institutional framework.
That doctrine represents one stage in the progression of the work. The current direction of military running skill is no longer dependent on a single manual or program.
TODAY
Running skill is still not established as a standardized military capability at scale.
The same system first introduced into military application in 2007 continues through live unit training, individual professional education, certification, return-to-running application, and ongoing work around military running performance and lower-extremity MSK injury prevention.