Physics...Physiology...Physical Therapy

Running Form Drill: Overhead Zombie

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It’s no secret that your running form is important to your success and happiness as a runner. While proper running form can seem like an elusive carrot, it’s important to find ways to progress on a regular basis.

Today’s video covers one of my favorite running form drills. It not only will help your form, but will help you engage your core and glutes more effectively…win/win/win!

It’s super easy to perform, but also very effective. Don’t let the name fool you, there are more zombie drills to come that all have their special place in developing different parts of our form, and addressing the common inefficiencies we can tend to display.

So, what’s the point of performing this drill? Simply put, our upper bodies work to counter-balance our legs as we run. When we change the action of the levers (your arms), then it will have an affect on your legs as well.

By raising your arms overhead, that creates a longer lever arm. Your core and hips have to work harder when there is a longer lever arm above.

Use this drill as part of your warm up, as well as sprinkled into your runs for ten seconds at a time, and let it serve as a reminder of how your posture and core/glute engagement should be going.

I think you’ll find that your landing-to-push-off sequence will be faster and more efficient as you get comfortable with this drill.

As always, holler with any questions or to let me know it goes for you. Run Fast Friends!

Please check out my book ‘Runner’s Fix’ on Amazon. I wrote it as a resource for all runners to help take care of nagging issues that we face. If you’ve ever had trouble keeping it together for your marathon training cycle, or for an entire cross country season, the stretches and strengthening exercises contained in the book could make the all the difference to you.

The link above is an affiliate link for Amazon.

Video: ‘A Skips’ for Faster Feet and More Efficiency

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Want to run faster and more efficiently? We all do.

What are the nuts and bolts of making it happen? Simply put, faster feet and quicker push-off is a great start.

What is a way to develop faster feet and a quicker push-off? I’m glad you asked.

Today’s video covers one of the best drills out there for developing quicker feet and more efficiency with your leg swing for running. Too often we spend too much time with our foot on the ground, which means we spend too much energy fighting gravity. If we can teach our feet to be lighter and more deft, this will make life happier for our hips, core, and garmin.

In order to do this drill properly, you simply need to be able to skip. Hopefully you had that one mastered in elementary school. To turn this into a full-fledged running drill, you simply drive your knee upward as quickly as possible, and quickly transition to the other foot, while driving with your opposite arm.

It’s better to actually watch the video!

Incorporate this into your warm-up routine as you’re heading out for a run and see how much it helps with running more gracefully.

As always, please holler with any questions or suggestions for future blog posts.

Struggling with a nagging pain? Or interested in avoiding issues from arising in the first place? Check out Runner’s Fix to keep your running body tuned up and ready to run.

Full disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate, which means any purchase you make after clicking the link gives me a few pennies of commission at no extra cost to you.

Video: Plyometrics Routine to increase your efficiency

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We all want to run more efficiently. Essentially, getting from point A to point B as quickly as possibly, using the least amount of energy possible. How quickly we can transition from landing to pushing off with every step is a critical determinant of our ability to run well and ability to avoid injuries.

A great way to develop efficiency in this way is to sprinkle plyometric exercises into your weekly routine. This will help you develop power more quickly as you run. Today’s video covers a handful of running specific plyometric exercises that you can do anywhere, anytime.

The slower you are to push off, the slower you run and more injury-prone you will likely be. These exercises are an excellent way to injury proof your season! Please share this with your running group or any other friends who will find it helpful. Run fast friends!

Video: Are your arms tattling on a bad habit somewhere else?

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You’ve heard it said that ‘the hips don’t lie’ — which I’m sure is true in it’s context! But today we’re talking about the movement of your arms when running. In order to run efficiently, we use our arms to help drive our legs forward and properly engage our core muscles.

Essentially, our arms counter-balance our legs, and because of this, any bad habits we have in our feet, hips, core, etc, will often show up as poor movement of our arms. So, if you’re suspicious that your arm swing could be more of an asset to you, first try to address any weakness of your bottom half. There are plenty of videos on runphys.com that can help with that!

But the cool thing, is that we can use our arms to help fix bad habits in our hips and core as well! Check out today’s video for simple suggestions on how to gain better efficiency using the zombie drills mentioned.

As always, fire away any questions you have and please share this with a friend!

Video: Should You Forefoot Strike While Running?

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What part of your foot should hit the ground first when running? The question has been asked exponentially more frequently over recent years. For many years, a heavy heel strike was the normal acceptable way to run, which is a big reason why traditional running shoes have typically had a high heel stack height (around 12mm higher than the toes). This was done to provide cushioning for heel thumpers before the whole minimalist shoe craze.

The attention to foot strike patterns is a good one, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all for everyone. Rather, when considering your feet, it’s most important to consider them in the context of your whole body movement patterns. In other words, don’t sacrifice hip and spinal posture just to attain some ‘ideal’ position of your feet.

Still, I frequently hear the arguments for a forefoot strike being the best way to go for everyone, so I felt the need to chime in with today’s video. Hopefully you find this helpful when considering whether it’s the right thing for you. Please check out the Facebook page for a recent live video on the same topic. Please also share this with a friend who will find it helpful. Run fast friends!