Running is so often a love or hate relationship. I’ve not met too many people who are casually lukewarm about the prospect of lacing up the running shoes and hitting the pavement.
That being said, now that the bike path is clear and the weather is getting warmer, we will be working on running technique and mobility. Running isn’t so bad if we can learn to be more efficient at it!
Every movement in CrossFit has an ideal and most efficient way of performing that movement. Whether it is the squat, deadlift, muscle up, double under, Olympic lifts – everything has a standard and best practice start and finish position. In addition, there is also a best way to perform the movement from the start to the finish – and we like to try and do that efficiently!
You’ll notice us coaching you on cues from setting up your beginning position, how to better end your movement, and things to make your movement technically improved during the movement. Running is no different!
Let that sink in a bit. Most of us, unless trained formally for a run-specific sport, have never broached the idea that running has an ideal form and position.
As kids, we basically learn to control our neck, roll over, crawl, walk, and then baby deer run. This spring and summer, we are converting some of our old baby deer bad habits into efficient positions and techniques that should make running easier, safer, and more in line with doing less work for greater gain!
There is so much amazing information about efficient running technique as it relates to using gravitational force, muscle elasticity, proper torque, and stride cadence (you know – science stuff…)
We will cover many of these, but for the sake of time we are going to focus primarily on the following three things that you should definitely keep in mind and always focus on with running: Posture, The Lean (or Fall), and The Pull.
Posture
- Much like double unders, we are looking for a quiet body when we run. This means we want the things that should be moving to move in the way we want, but minimize everything else that doesn’t translate to the overall movement. (Easier said than done!)
- Head should be set up so that it is neutral and aligned with the spine. A neutral spine is always the best position to be in.
- Shoulders should be down and relaxed (relaxation translates to a more quiet body than contraction does.)
- Elbows next to our sides, with elbows bent at slightly less than 90 degrees. This will help prevent over-rotation or cross-rotation (meaning the left arm crosses over the center line of body to the right plane during the stride, a no-no).
The Lean (Fall)
Running is really just the art of controlled falling – over and over again. Utilizing gravity, our muscle elasticity, and proper form to keep resetting ourselves to safely continue to fall.
- Lean should be generated from ankles – not torso or hips.Try to keep all other joints above the knees stacked (so no bend at waist or torso leaning forward).
- Speed is governed by lean, meaning that if we want to go faster, we lean more (but ONLY if we can maintain proper body position and mechanics!)
- You don’t need a lot of lean to go fast, but you do need control and consistency with lean and body. For example, in an ideal and constant situation, a 5 degree lean constitutes a 4:08 mile time. How many of us run that fast? I didn’t think so, that’s because we start doing all sorts of things with our bodies that create fatigue, undue exertion, or deceleration (many of us fight against ourselves and gravity when we run.)
Pull
- Use mid foot strike with quick ground contact under center of mass as it passes over (no landing in front or heel striking.)
- Use hamstrings to quickly pull leg straight up into “Figure 4” position.
- Ideally, ground reaction and muscle elasticity is used instead of muscular energy.
- The Lean is the gas, The Pull is the exhaust.
Don’t worry, we’ve got lots of drills to work on all of these points – from basic concepts to advanced skills. All of this is just to get everyone up to speed as you will start to see running in the workouts as the weather continues to get better (fingers crossed!)
As always, we’re here for questions as they come up. We are excited to help you fall in love with running! Or at least despise running a little bit less…