One day I was running while listening to music. I remember it was Led Zeppelin. I remember this because, in their case, John Bonham’s drumming is-as well as perfect and brutal-very noticeable. What does Led Zeppelin have to do with it? They fit in for one simple reason: at one point in my training I realized that I was going perfectly in time with the drums. When Bonham lowered his battering ram, my foot touched the ground.
“Okay Martino, why are you telling me all this?” I feel like you are wondering, but the reason is very simple: when we run, we very often care little about technique. We just do it, because we think that running is just a slightly accelerated walk at the end of the day i. When-as in my case that day-we realize what our body is doing, the perception of the act we are doing also changes. In other words, “we take notice.”
Taking care of running form is crucial: the more precisely you do it, the less energy you spend moving and the more you also minimize the risk of injury.
You can train yourself to do that
If you focus too much on movement, you risk getting stuck. Think about when you ride a bike: if you thought about the miracle of being able to balance on that bike you would probably end up falling off, but instead you just don’t think about it. And pedals. You have internalized the movement.
These technique exercises proposed by coach Britany Moran are aimed precisely at improving the quality of your movement, refining the economy of the athletic gesture.
They require very little space (even 20 meters is enough) and equally little time to perform: no more than five minutes, to be done at least once a week. These are very simple routines based on marching technique. If the gestures seem exaggerated or emphatic to you, there is a good reason: their purpose is to teach your body to do them unconsciously, kind of like when you learned that the bike balances if it moves, and that you don’t have to worry about it.
A few more specifics before we see what this is all about:
- Running is an evolution of marching, and that is why it is important to perfect the underlying technique, which is … marching!
- Don’t worry if the movements seem exaggerated-they are but the purpose is to make them automatic for your body. It is a bit like when a pianist learns a new piece and performs it very slowly: he is learning a movement, and doing it slowly and “exaggeratedly” helps the learning process
- Before each workout warm up for a few minutes
Enough, there is nothing more to say. Now all you have to do is watch how it is done and memorize the exercises. The more frequently you practice them, the more you will improve your running technique and, at the same time, the more you will minimize the possibility of injury.
Not bad for one of the shortest technique trainings in the world!
(Main image credits: Dmyrto_Z on DepositPhotos.com – Via Running Magazine)