Run Tall Run Easy: The Ultimate Guide to Better Running Mechanics
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About this ebook
Using his many years of expertise training athletes, Coach GP breaks down the running form from a bio-mechanical perspective, providing invaluable tips on proper technique, enhanced strength training and nutrition for better endurance. With over 79 photographs, you can follow along and practice as you read. In an easy, informative and engaging manner, Coach GP will take your running to a much higher level, whether you are a high school athlete, preparing for your first marathon, running to keep in shape, or a veteran marathoner looking for improved form and less time with your physiotherapists.
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Run Tall Run Easy - Gerard Pearlberg
project.
Introduction
In a wonderfully written book called Racing the Antelope, by Professor Bernd Heinrich, the reader is challenged to consider the antelope as the ultimate long-distance running machine. Possessing an abundance of grace and effortless athleticism, this animal thrives on its natural instincts of survival and its ability to continue to run as an adult with the same wonderful mechanics that it was blessed with as a fawn.
As a child growing up in England in the late 1960s and 1970s, I lived in a society not yet suffering the affliction of music videos, computers, and video games. My natural instinct after returning home from school was to get outside and play football (soccer). Of course, my parents were trying very hard to get me to do my homework, but who had time for that? So, there I was calling up my friends and arranging very serious games of pickup soccer or hide-and-seek. We would be outside for hours, running around like crazy, having the time of our young lives … and in the south of England, it should be added, we played in all types of weather.
Biologically speaking, a child at play represents nature’s natural order. It is the method we human beings use to develop our agility, coordination, and awareness of our surroundings.
Of course, the last thing I thought about at 8 years old was that 30 years later I would be writing a book, discussing how as a child playing soccer, I was really developing my sense of movement. Back then all I wanted to do was win the game; go home cold, wet, and happy; then sit down to a great grub up (supper) and tell my dad all about it.
As children, we benefit from not having had to fight gravity for very long. Over a period of years, however, this same fight takes its toll on the body, and as you can see from observing older generations, it contributes to compromised posture.
As children, we physically run around at our maximum height. If we are 4 feet, 2 inches, we play to the height of 4 feet, 2 inches, with our spinal discs evenly spaced, our upper-leg muscles developing and flexible, and our gluteus muscles (buttocks) strong. Also, for the most part (although there are exceptions), active children do not carry excessive amounts of body fat, compared to adults. This means that for many people, their power-to-weight ratios are better at this early stage in their lives than in any subsequent stage. From a runner’s perspective in particular, this is not good news.
As runners, whether recreational or competitive, we are inundated with information regarding heart rate training. Indeed, cardiovascular workouts and performance represent a key component to success in any runner’s training and racing program. However, there is another component that until now has been largely overlooked: the runner’s biomechanical form. As a runner, you may have always suspected this was important, but perhaps didn’t know exactly what you could do about it and so let your suspicions pass. But there is something you can do! In fact, as I have discovered through my coaching and my continued research, you can do many things to change and improve the way you run. So it is now my mission, through the writing of this book, to help you improve your running biomechanics so that you are always running to your full ability. We are going to take a look at how you actually run.
In the chapters to come, I will attempt to unravel the mysteries of poor biomechanics and show how they may be overcome. I will strive to provide you with sometimes humorous but always useful information. I will give you the knowledge that will enable you to return to playful running—relaxed running with good posture. I will focus on several changes that you can make that will have an immediate and permanent positive effect on your running.
My Fab Four will become tools you use during every run, but they will also help you get out of difficulties such as fatigue, shortness of breath, and mental anguish.
Remember, as runners, we are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Coach GP’s Basic Laws of Running
1. Establish a rhythm.
2. Run under control/within yourself.
3. Establish good biomechanics (foot strike, heel recovery, flight phase, support phase, arm/carriage).
4. Maintain good range of motion and flexibility in the joints and muscles through active isolated stretching.
5. Do not go too fast/far too soon.
6. Establish accurate, obtainable goals.
7. Wear good shoes.
Coach GP’s Philosophy of Running
1. Running is the oldest, purest sport known to mankind.
2. No apparatus or machinery is required.
3. It’s the anytime, anywhere, put-on-your-shoes-and-head-out-the-door kind of sport, a natural blend of art and science.
4. Running, when performed properly, is poetry in motion. It is the simple task of moving your body across the face of the earth as efficiently and effortlessly as possible.
5. Running brings improved health and quality of life, an endorphin-induced natural high.
CHAPTER 1
Run Tall
The older we get, the longer we have been fighting gravity just to remain upright. As can plainly be seen in older generations, this challenge can take its toll over time. In later years, it can single-handedly lead to poor posture, with flexion in the shoulders and rounding in the back. In effect, we’ll have gotten closer to the planet.
Runners are prone to the very same phenomenon. The closer we become to the planet relative to our own height, the worse things become in our running form and efficiency. Conversely, the taller we remain relative to our height, the better our body will fare and the more efficient we will be.
Forward Lean
One of the first characteristics in the breakdown of running form is the tendency to lean forward. Why should this be? Well, let’s examine this more closely.
There are 206 bones in the human body. These bones are at their most efficient in the fight against gravity when they are perfectly stacked upon one another, much as you would find on a skeletal diagram. Remember as a child, trying to balance mom’s broomstick or mop on one finger? It was a fun thing to do and of much annoyance to your poor old mom. When you held the broomstick perpendicular to the ground, very little effort was required to maintain the position (see figure 1.1).
Did you happen to notice how much more energy it took to try to hold that broom in place if the broomstick moved from its upright position and you tried to stop it from hitting the ground?
The same holds true with running. The more forward lean you establish, especially if that lean is established from the waist, the greater the additional stress that will be applied to the area of support and stability (that is, the low back and pelvic area, the foundation of your torso). When leaning forward, you are basically spending more energy than is necessary during the course of your run. See figure 1.2 for proper body positioning.
FIGURE 1.1: The upright position of The Stick is more efficient in fighting the forces of gravity.
FIGURE 1.2: The proper alignment of the shoulders over the hips and the hips over the lower body.
Pelvic Rotation
That is not all. If you are leaning forward, you will soon have a second problem to deal with—restricted hip movement. When you lean too far forward, either from the hip or the waist (waist is worse), you will almost certainly experience too much anterior rotation of your pelvis.
To simplify matters, think of the pelvis as a bucket of water. Now imagine holding that bucket of water out in front of you nice and steady. Anterior rotation could be imagined as pouring that bucket of water away from you in a forward fashion (the front of the bucket dropping and the back of the bucket rising closer to you). Conversely, posterior rotation could be imagined as pouring the bucket of water over yourself.
Now, if your hips are in anterior rotation, you are restricting the upper leg’s (knee to hip) ability to swing forward and through because your torso is in the way. This then prevents the lower half of the same leg from reaching out and maximizing flight time. By leaning too far forward, you are no longer running to your full height.
Logically speaking, if you’re not running to your maximum height, then your hips must be lower than ideal. If your hips are lower than ideal, your body will now have to rise up and over your foot after it lands (see figure 1.3).
During the running cycle, your leg swings through and your foot lands. Then your torso moves over that foot and the foot pushes off, thus starting the cycle all over again. However, if, once the foot lands, the lead or front leg is overly bent and too far out in front of the body, your trunk and hips will sink unnecessarily low before starting the next leg cycle. This causes you to have to lift up
against gravity at the same time as you are trying to propel your body forward. Consider this: over the course of a 5K race, if you have employed just five centimeters of excess vertical movement per stride, in terms of wasted energy, you will have added the equivalent of a run up a five-story building to the end of your run.
Remember that with too much lean you are already restricting your travel in the air. Not only are you now wasting precious energy in forward motion (through running too low for your height), but you are also not going as far because of restricted leg motion due to anterior rotation of the hips caused by your forward lean. As your form deteriorates, you will go through this up and over
process using excessive energy and losing ground with each step. If you multiply these two factors by your volume of foot strikes over distance, such as a mile, they become significant indeed.¹
FIGURE 1.3: The inefficient position of the hips being set too low.
Shoulders and Arms
If your hips are set too low, your body will naturally compensate through the raising of your shoulders and arms. Basically, your body will be doing its best to raise its center of gravity and your shoulders will be creeping up closer to your ears. If you observe runners as frequently as I do, this trait becomes very easy to spot and is more bad news for the poor old runner. Just why is it that this particular breakdown in form is such a negative? Again, we’ll look at this a little further.
Some of the major back muscles that play an integral role in running and forward locomotion are the large latissimus dorsi muscles that sit on either side of the spine. Sometimes referred to as the wings of the back,
these muscles are extremely powerful. The human muscular network tends to work on the big-brother principle, whereby given the opportunity to be engaged, the larger muscles will win out in the fight to perform a given task.
To clarify this point, let’s move away from running for a moment and into a gym setting. If a runner is in a gym to perform a strength workout, one of the popular back exercises is the One-Arm Row. This is usually completed with one hand resting on a bench along with the knee of the corresponding side. The other leg stands straight on the floor and slightly out to the side for better balance and a more stable platform from which to lift the weight. The runner will now lift the weight, usually a dumbbell, with the exercising arm. To maximally engage the latissimus dorsi (lats,
or back muscles), thereby strengthening the back, the weight should be lifted in the direction of the hip (see figure 1.4a). However, countless times I have seen this exercise performed incorrectly by athletes, lifting the weight too high up their bodies and more in line with their shoulders (see figure 1.4b). This then almost entirely excludes the much more powerful lat muscles from assisting in the movement and generating power, leaving the task for the much smaller and weaker deltoids (shoulders) to complete.
Why include the explanation of the One-Arm Row exercise at this point? Well, this exercise happens to parallel almost exactly what occurs when we runners raise our arms up too high along our torso and our shoulders creep closer to our ears. We end up losing the sustained power of the large back muscles, replacing it with that of smaller, weaker muscles. These slow-twitch muscles, though enduring, cannot assist as much in locomotion over a long period of time and will restrict our ability to run over distance in a relaxed and efficient manner. So,