Friday, January 20, 2012

What? Teach an old dog new tricks?

Oh yeah - so I promised to talk a bit on improving running technique. Actually, around 2 years ago I did an effort, watched some YouTube and figured that land forefoot was more efficient than landing on the heel, which indeed is very true - and to some extend that got me slightly faster.

However, filming a bit with coach Aleksandar, made him burst into stuff like "Your technique really stinks - I mean, that is really bad". I was absolutely still hitting the ground somewhat in front of my center of gravity, I pushed my chest forward as if I tried to get to some imaginary finish line first - but worst of all was that my lagging leg (the one behind) was really hanging way behind me, which got me completely our of balance.

Not how my lagging leg (right) is hanging way behind me at impact



With a good, or at least better, running technique your point of impact should be right below or slightly behind your center of gravity. Which means that you basically needs to move less mass (yes your body weight) over the point of impact and hence, forward movement will be need less effort, which again means that you move faster - I guess that´s what we are all looking for.
You seek to eliminate all movements or activity in each running step, that does not support forward propulsion.

So - Aleksandar has developed these 9 steps to better running technique, somewhat inspired (though he will probably refuse) by the Pose Running Techniques. The idea is to get from one pose to the next pose, as fast as possible, which means you need to pick up your lagging leg faster or earlier.

Here - at impact (right foot), my lagging leg (left) is in a much better position to fire again and already moving forward














 

 After a few weeks of implementing this, the results have been astonishing. I am surpsied how these 9 steps actually starts being a natural part of my run. And I frankly feel I run much easier, slightly faster (this of course takes a bit more than a few weeks)  - my legs are not so "banged-out" after longer runs. It´s well worth the effort- trust me on that!

If you are in Denmark, Aleksandar offers these free Shoot Out sessions, where he takes people through the techniques. In most other mayor cities you can find Pose Running coaches who can teach you the techniques. And of course, are you in Barcelona - let´s just go running :D

Thanks Aleksandar for the great advice here - this will sure have a big impact on how I will run further on, avoiding injuries and hopefully keep me running for many more years!  Cheers 


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