The Awesomizer
Place your right forefoot on the wall, directly in front of it. (Before you do this, rotate your shoulders very slightly to the right and look at the spot where the right foot will go. This closes the hip and puts it in a position of power.)
Keeping your rear (left) foot straight, rock back on your left foot and release your right hamstring.
Lunge gently into the wall (lead from the hips) and rotate to the right, closing the hips. Feel the spring tension in the hip flexors.
Rock back and rotate to the left, opening the hips. You should feel a release on your inner thigh.
Repeat on the other side.
In addition to tuning your fascia, this movement will bring balance and relaxation to your walking and running stride. You can view some adjustments and “accessories” to Dr. van Lingen’s “Awesomizer,” on the videos page of runforyourlifebook.com.
The dynamic burpee is a bit more advanced. This exercise, created in the 1880s, is a combination of a squat, push-up, and jump, and is the ultimate full-body fascia exercise. It requires significant flexion and extension, and when it is done well you can feel the body dynamically spring off the ground.
The dynamic burpee
From a standing position, drop to a squat and place your hands on the ground (flexion).
Transition into a push-up (with slight extension in the back).
Quickly move back up to a squat (flexion).
Jump up to finish (extension and reach).
When this exercise is done well, you should feel more spring and less power. Start with just a couple of repetitions, then progress to a few sets of six to eight. You don’t need to do many—they’re meant to be done skillfully, not to exhaustion.
The couch stretch. Perfect for stretching the rectus femoris, while loosening the hip flexors. Start with your foot against a wall or couch, then progress to holding your own ankle.
Other techniques for tuning the fascia may be helpful, such as fascial unwinding, yoga, Rolfing, the Alexander Technique, and the Feldenkrais Method. Soft tissue therapy may be needed for tough areas. The science and application of IASTM (instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization) are also advancing.
Most important, here are some simple tips for keeping your fascia healthy, and for building the sensation of comfortable, fluid movement:
Stay hydrated. Like the rest of the body, fascia is composed mainly of water.
Eat healthy fats. Fats are the magic silicone that lubricates the moving cables, which you want to keep well “oiled.”
Maintain movement and mobility throughout the day. Stretch and lengthen in the morning and after sitting, and do multidirectional lunges.
Warm water is magic. Soaking in a hot tub or warm bath can loosen tight fascia, and muscles, too. Follow the bath with gentle mobility to restore any range of motion lost during the day. If you have access to a hot tub, stretch while relaxing in the water.
Finding time to work these and other routines into our modern daily lives may seem like a daunting challenge. But with creativity, and a few moments set aside, you may be able to incorporate many of these movements into your routines of work and play and domestic life. Once we have tuned up our magically springy fascia, it doesn’t take much to maintain its elasticity throughout our lifetimes.
PART II
The Body in Motion
CHAPTER 6
The Elements of Style
Whether it’s your golf score, your time on a two mile run, your soccer team’s goals—everybody’s looking at numbers. But they are not looking at the fundamentals.
—GRAY COOK, physical therapist
MYTH: Running damages the joints. If you suffer pain, stop running.
FACT: Running isn’t the problem—it’s how you run. Adopt a low-impact, balanced, consistent technique and rhythm, and progress gradually.
Most sedentary people view running as arduous and uncomfortable, regardless of how it’s done. Accomplished runners, too, routinely complain of going from painful injury to painful injury. Too many of those who do run become frustrated or resigned to their fate—or they quit altogether.
Running isn’t the problem. It’s how we run. There are ways to run that generate suffering and injury, and there are other ways to run that bring health and a sense of joy. Except in unusual instances—severe degenerative disease, joint deformities, or rare medical cases that restrict activity—running is not only possible but distinctly beneficial.
Understandably, repetitive stress injuries occur more frequently from running than from walking. When running, each stride generates a momentary impact force nearly three times our body weight. Any imbalances or imperfections in our form are then amplified by twelve hundred of these poundings every mile.
The best way to address this is to develop a low-impact, consistent technique and rhythm, and progress gradually. I hope that you can discover, as I did, that seemingly subtle changes in running form can make a profound difference in how you feel, and can reduce your risk of injury.
FORM IS FUNCTION
The cardiovascular system, as we’ve learned, can be compared to a hybrid motor vehicle engine. When it’s in tune, it can power you efficiently over long distances and provide quick accelerations for steep hills. But the chassis, shock absorbers, steering, linkage, and drive train are important, too. If your posture is out of alignment and your form is flawed, the risk of excessive wear and tear to the body’s biomechanical parts increases.
Good running form is easy to learn. You don’t need to study kinetics or kinematics, or submit to complicated, tedious drills. At the outset, simply observe how children run. Notice how they stand—balanced and erect, tall and straight—and how they move and leap with light steps and a springing motion. Their arms are bent. They don’t overstride. Their overall movements are characterized by a sense of play, like improvisational dance. This may seem like an odd approach to running, but relearning this natural movement (and unlearning bad habits and misconceptions) requires that we start by imitating kids.
FIVE PRINCIPLES
Let’s put what we’ve learned in the preceding chapters to work, and engage these five basic principles of good running form:
The first principle is to maintain proper posture. Run tall. Think of your body as a straight, vertical line. Keep your neck straight and your head from drooping forward. Look straight ahead, toward the horizon. Plant your feet flat on the ground. This is your neutral posture—the position of balance and strength. As you naturally begin to run, maintain this tall, neutral posture, and gently move your head slightly forward—as if stepping in to kiss someone. Many runners get stuck in a shoulderforward and bent forward position, pulled by the dominant muscles in the front (the pecs and deltoids) and tight upper trapezius muscles. You can “reset” these by loosening the chest, then activating the lower traps by settling your shoulder blades—as if returning quick-draw pistols to their holsters.
Improper alignment
Proper alignment
Now that you are running, the second principle is to maintain a strong and stable core, which includes your abdominals, pelvis, hip stabilizers, glutes, and even your shoulders. Visualize a can of compressed air in your belly. Hunching over inhibits your breathing, deflating the can. In movement, this is your dynamic posture, and it demands that the parts of your neuromuscular system (brain, nerves, and muscles) work together seamlessly. Strong and active abdominal muscles and diaphragm, and stable hips, allow for the greatest energy transfer to and from the ground. This positions the joints correctly to deal with the loads, and causes the least stress on joints and muscles. Your knees should not collapse toward the midline of you
r body. Remain stable but relaxed.
The third principle of good running form is to use your arms and hands to set your rhythm. Keep your elbows at an angle of 90 degrees or less, and drive the elbows back with the strong muscles of the lower trapezius and shoulders—but in a relaxed manner, such that your arms reflexively come forward. Your knuckles stay close to your sternum, but should not cross your center line. Think of chicken wings. The swing of the arms helps in four ways, by:
providing stability
counterbalancing the movement of the opposite leg
balancing the pelvis
helping maintain forward momentum
Your shoulders provide a gentle rotation that is counter to your lower body, too. In effect, you are “winding up” with a twist. This loads the fascia and adds more spring to your step.
The fourth principle of good running form is to ensure that your feet actively moderate the impact. Each foot should land with the full foot making contact at a position to load the spring and not the brake. Avoid overstriding or landing with a straight knee and foot stretched out in front. A full-foot landing pattern maintains balance, reduces shock, decreases the risk of injury, and is more efficient. Don’t be overly concerned about which part of your foot lands first: it’s all in where and how the landing forces are absorbed. Imagine the lunar lander: part of your foot touches the surface a little bit in front, part to the rear, but most of the force is straight down. And when you land with the knees slightly bent, you are set up for a stronger response by the muscles when you toe off in the next step. This should be visualized (and felt) as loading a powerful spring that helps launch the next step.
The barefoot runner on the left (in the Boston Marathon) isn’t overstriding. His lower leg lands perpendicular to the ground, and his foot is evenly weighted on landing. The runner on the right has an outstretched lower leg and dorsiflexed ankle—characteristics of overstriding.
The fifth principle of good running form is cadence, or rhythm. Efficient, springy runners maintain a cadence close to 180 steps per minute—regardless of the terrain or steepness, up or down. Find the rhythm that best harnesses the energy from your springs. Feel how some of the ground impact force is returned to you, especially when firing from the glutes (which produces a “pop” off the ground, in the manner that a pogo stick recoils). This motion shouldn’t be viewed as actively lifting your leg. The recoil sends your leg forward and upward, on its own, like a slingshot. This is elastic recoil.
The elastic recoil of your legs tends to become optimal as your cadence approaches 180 steps per minute, or three steps per second. Find what feels natural for you. Though your cadence remains fairly constant, your stride length may change. Your stride will be shorter at slow speeds and on uphill stretches, longer at faster speeds and on downhill sections. Adjust your stride and cadence to a pace at which you can hold a conversation. Most increase cadence at faster speed. The cadence that most people fall into tends to be slightly slower than what is optimally efficient, as measured in the lab. Metro Timer and Pro Metronome are two free apps that can help.
Run tall with a strong core. The arms are relaxed, elbows bent.
Lead from the hips and power from the glutes.
Top it off with a soft, full-foot landing and natural rhythm.
SLOW JOGGING
Most of those in the military with whom I work admit that they hate running. But when I frame it as “slow jogging” and get them outside and moving, it is fun to watch their expressions change. I emphasize soft and springy landings, in addition to the running principles described above—all executed at a slow speed. The endorphins released are evidenced in their smiles.
Teaching slow jogging at Air Force Basic Military Training, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
TAKING IT ALL IN STRIDE
When you overstride and land on your heels you are wasting energy by “braking” just slightly with every step. This reduces the efficiency of forward motion. Overstriding is also associated with more frequent stress injuries, because the forces of impact are absorbed by the bones and joints, which don’t store or dissipate energy well. A slapping sound accompanying each step is one indication of overstriding. Your footfalls should be quiet.
Ground impact forces. Note the impact transient (the tiny, sharp peak of the curve on the top), showing the hard impact caused by rear-foot striking. The figure on the bottom shows a flatter, “softer” impact curve typical of forefoot strikers.
An active, full-foot landing moderates and stores ground impact energy: the falling weight of your body loads the tendons of the foot and ankle, quadriceps, and hips, as if compressing springs that release their energy a moment later—in the next step.
Overstriding also tends to result in too much bounce, or up-and-down motion, which further wastes energy. As you develop your form, notice how your head becomes more stable and quiet, and how your arms move like the drive connectors on a steam locomotive. Visualize your body as the train itself: rolling on rails, powering smoothly and solidly forward, with little side-to-side or up-and-down movement. (Some elite-level runners are a bit of an exception: they have such a long stride that they necessarily rise up and down to some degree.)
WAKE YOUR BOOTY
Throughout, make use of the biggest, most important and tireless muscle in your body—the butt. The gluteus maximus—that’s right, the booty—applies more force and stability to the ground than any other muscle when we run, and it is the most efficient for generating forward propulsion. The glutes are packed with fatigue-resistant, slow-twitch type 1 fibers (think “red meat”). When you climb stairs, press a shovel into the ground, or stomp grapes for wine, you are using your glutes. If you learn how to run with your booty, you’ll never tire. I’ve never seen a runner or walker injure that particular muscle.
GAZING AT GAIT
So, what are we looking for when we analyze someone’s gait? “Reading” gait is tricky, because imperfections are often subtle. You can see movement, but it is difficult to see the forces that accompany the movement without fancy lab tools, such as force plates. It’s also hard to distinguish between what appear to be flaws in someone’s form and what may simply be their individual style, their particular strategy for movement, or a peculiarity of their anatomical structure.
Careful, gradual gait retraining should be a key ingredient of the injured runner’s rehab menu. For performance runners who aren’t injured, however, it may be risky to introduce tweaks to their form, because it can sometimes kick them out of a particular groove they’ve long become adapted to. They may shift forces to different tissues, increasing vulnerability to injury.
Beginners are different, because imperfections in form and gait tend to be basic and obvious, and are often the cause of injury. It’s essential that beginners establish low-impact patterns early on. When looking at the gait of beginning runners, I ask that they start with slow jogging, then progress to a moderate pace. Then I have them alternate between running with and without shoes, to determine how footwear affects gait. (They can readily feel this, too.) By listening, watching, and using a video camera, I try to determine:
Is the posture tall and the head erect? Is the body squarely suspended under the head?
When each foot strikes the ground, does the core activate and the midsection stay aligned? Is there a gentle “push” by the glutes when trying to increase speed?
Are the abdominals, legs, and glutes awake and activated?
Think of propelling a skateboard forward.
In the forward leg, the hamstring works like a spring and activates the glutes (arrows), which drive downward, all in a stretch-contraction reflex, like a bungee cord.
Are the Achilles tendon, plantar fascia, and calf loaded elastically? There
should not be a thud with each footstep. If you’re on a treadmill, the room shouldn’t shake.
Elastic loading of the Achilles tendon and calf produces an optimal—quick and powerful—energy return.
Do the feet naturally pronate (roll inward) in a controlled way, and then supinate (roll outward) to create a stable platform and lever for toe-off?
Pronation and supination are normal, although excessive uncontrolled motion can lead to injury. There is a wide range of “normal,” however.
Overpronating is less common than most people think.
Contact, pronation at midstance, supination at propulsion, and toe-off
When the hip has fully extended, does the knee reflexively spring forward? You shouldn’t need to lift the leg with the hip flexors or pull with the hamstring. The action should be relaxed and automatic.
Run for Your Life Page 8