Many people seem to be taking advantage of their downtime these days by getting out for a run. That’s a great way to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ as the proverb states.
Also, with most races being cancelled in the coming weeks and months, many runners find themselves in an awkward spot. What better time to work on the things that get neglected while you’re in the middle of a training cycle for your big race?
In my opinion, now is a great time to keep running, but also put concentrated effort into honing your running form, as well as building strength.
Today’s video demonstrates a great way to dial in your running form.
Many of us are deficient in our hip and core strength. Even though this seems redundant or ‘old news’ I think it bears touching on for a few moments. With running, core and hip strength is critical to ensure we don’t have wasted movement. When we run, every ounce of energy should be used to propel us forward. In order to do that, there are subtle movements and forces all throughout our body in all planes of motion, that all contribute to each forward step we take.
Make sense so far? How our strengths and weaknesses manifest themselves is the thing to think about. Who cares if we can hold a plank for 5 minutes, but our form is still terrible?! Our muscles may be strong, but if they don’t work well together or fire when they are supposed to, then our strength is wasted.
Again, today’s drill is designed to force our hips and core to work together how they’re supposed to and when they’re supposed to.
It may seem a little too simple of a drill, but it’s very effective for creating awareness of form inefficiencies, as well as helping to correct them.
As we run, our arms are used as extensions of our core to counterbalance our legs and help propel them forward. If our hips are being lazy, then our upper body movements can become excessive with rotation. So, instead of keeping our arms as a short lever arm, what would happen if we created longer lever arms?
It forces our hips and lower core to dial in more quickly.
Check out the video and give this simple drill a try as part of your warm up and sprinkled in to your runs. I think you’ll be surprised at how challenging it is to keep your arms still and what this does to engage your hips and core.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Run Fast Friends!
Running Form Drill: Forward Zombie