How to Make Everything Hard About Running Easier: Brad Miles

Imagine being able to run and heal through an injury. Or imagine significantly increasing your weekly mileage while healthy, while also minimizing your chances for injury, increasing your speed, and improving your recovery. Wouldn’t that be great? Brad Miles, the founder of Lever Running says it’s not only possible, but scientifically proven.

Brad created his Lever system to deliver the benefits of body weight supported running in a convenient, portable package that costs a fraction of the AlterG. The what? The AlterG is basically a big, fancy, eye-poppingly expensive treadmill that takes some of your weight off as you run. It’s a bulky piece of equipment that NASA uses, not your local gym, and certainly not your average runner. And for years, it was the only player in the market for body weight supported running.

Enter Brad, who says that the Lever makes everything that’s hard about running easier. He shares use cases with Coach Claire about how injured athletes have benefitted from body weight supported running using his system, and also how healthy athletes have leveraged it to up their game. He describes the technical aspects of his system and how it works, and after hearing about it, you’ll probably find yourself visiting his website to check out the videos and see the Lever in action.

Please note: Lever Running is not a sponsor of the Run to the Top. This is not an infomercial, but we do talk about the product in great detail in order to introduce you to something that just might help you run faster and injury free.

Brad is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He started getting serious about running in high school where he helped his team win two State cross country titles, won an individual State cross country title, as well as the Footlocker Northeast Championship. He went on to run cross country and track for Baylor University and was named as Baylor's Cross Country Runner of the Decade.

Brad first experienced the benefits of body weight support first hand in college, and soon his business degree was put to good use. He and co-founder Ryan Ognibene started LEVER in 2019 after they recognized the overwhelming need for a mobile, athlete-friendly body weight support system to compete with the AlterG. The primary goal with LEVER was to take technology that was once reserved for the elites and make it available to everyone.

This episode is for everyone interested in breaking the injury cycle, cross training while running, or getting faster!

Questions Brad is asked:

7:22 You first experienced body weight supported running in college. Can you talk about that experience?

8:05 Were you injured when you first tried body weight supported running?

8:13 The AlterG is a pretty expensive piece of technology, is that right?

8:32 AlterG was basically the only game in town as far as taking gravity off your run, is that right?

8:52 From a physiological point of view, what does taking the weight off running actually do for you?

9:32 Because AlterG is such an expensive piece of equipment, not a lot of people have access to it, so I don’t think a ton of people besides the real running nerds know a whole lot about body weight supported running. So what made you decide to make a competitor?

10:37 Let’s talk a little bit about the Lever product. It’s basically an AlterG in a bag?

11:28 How much body weight can the Lever support?

11:35 Can you tell us a little bit more about what this is used for? Why would I want to have something like this?

13:32 In the use case you just described, you talked about a woman using your device to significantly increase her mileage. How was she able to do this safely?

14:28 Are you saying that anybody can use your product and basically double their mileage in a couple of months?

15:24 As a coach, I know that the best thing to do to become a better runner is to run, but there’s an upper limit to that. So basically, it sounds like using body weight support could be like cross training, the most specific cross training that you could possibly have. Would you agree with that?

16:10 Let’s go back to what Lever was originally designed for, which was injured runners. Do you have any stories that you could share about some of your clients?

17:56 Any surprising kind of uses that you’ve seen?

19:05 How do you use Lever for speed?

19:49 If the Lever makes it easier to run, isn’t it de-training by using it?

20:45 Let’s say you’re running whatever pace for your tempo run and your heart rate is X, you want to make sure your heart rate is still at X, but obviously that speed, that pace is going to be much faster with the weight taken off using Lever is what you’re saying?

21:59 Does your Lever pace translate to when you go outside? Do you run at the same pace or somewhere in-between your Lever and outside pace?

22:24 I went to your website and watched the videos and one thing I noticed is that you have to wear specific shorts in order to use this product. Can you tell me about the shorts and why that was a design feature?

23:26 You went with the shorts instead of some kind of harness system?

24:06 What are the shorts like?

24:44 What are the limitations to the body weight support device? Specifically I’m thinking about heavier runners. Is there an upper limit or is there even a lower weight limit?

25:37 The Lever takes off 45 pounds max no matter what your body size, right, not a percentage of the person’s body weight?

25:56 Do the shorts come in all sizes for all runners?

26;04 Could this potentially be a way for heavier runners to get more running in with less pounding?

26:51 What kind of reaction do you get when you bust this out in the gym?

28:07 What's next in the technology?

29:06 For those who are interested in getting this for themselves, you have both a rental option and a purchase option, is that correct?

Questions I ask everyone:

30:35 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?

31:29 What is the greatest gift running has given you?

32:16 Where can listeners and charities connect with you?

Quotes by Brad:

“One of our users just recently reached out to us and said, ‘Guys, thank you so much. I have been able to improve my marathon time from 3:09 to 2:42.’ Big jump.”

“If you can cross train but still run, you’re getting more benefit out of each step that you’re taking.”

“Far too often, a lot of athletes just fall into this repeatable pattern of like injured, getting healthy, injured, getting healthy, and so we’re trying to help athletes break that.”

“We wanted to make sure that the experience was still the experience that you have running, not a very uncomfortable… And again, I’ve run in AlterGs. They are uncomfortable at times, and so we wanted to create a very natural motion of running.”

Take a Listen on Your Next Run

Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel

Mentioned in this podcast:

Lever Running

Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community

RunnersConnect Facebook page

claire@runnersconnect.net

https://www.precisionhydration.com/

Follow Brad on:

Facebook

Instagram

We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top.

The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use.

The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

30th Anniversary: THE DOORS