rifrev article how moving less and relaxing more can make us faster runners

7/27/2019 RIFREV Article How Moving Less and Relaxing More Can Make Us Faster Runners

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Running Injury Free Revolution (RIF REV):

“How moving less and relaxing more can make you a faster

runner!” By William Wragg

As you may know, Wilson Kipsang recently broke the World Record for the Full Marathon in

Berlin (2013) with a time of 2:03 Hours and 23 seconds. When you break that down in

terms of average speed, that’s a speed of pretty much 20.6 Kilometres/ hour for the

entire distance!

HAVE YOU EVER RUN AT SPEED FOR A SINGLE MINUTE?? IT’S HARD!

When you look at Wilson Kipsang or the fellow Ultra-elite Marathoners and distance

runners, do you think they achieve those average speeds over such distances because of power and brawn?? Absolutely not.

SO HOW DO MARATHONERS RUN WITH SUCH SPEEDS OVER SUCH A

TIME FRAME AND STILL LOOK FRESH AT THE FINISH LINE?



There’s not one single answer to this question – it’s not purely conditioning or genetics or

their upbringing and environment or genes, it’s a combination of many things. But I’m going

to talk through certain elements that explain their success and maybe provide a better

understanding as to how speeds can be maintained over long distances without being

reduced. Also, explain how you can run like them (at maybe a slightly slower pace) too!

WHAT ARE WESTERN RUNNERS DOING TO CAUSE SUCH INJURIES,

FIRST OF ALL!?

Again, there’s no single answer but significantly, a lot of what we find to slow down Western

runners and cause such a plethora of injuries is the basic initiation of movement.

What do I mean by the initiation of movement??

Its simple Physics: Newton’s First law of Motion states ‘ An object will remain at rest until acted upon by an external force ’



RELATING THIS TO OUR BODIES AS WE RUN :

We are held down by a centre of gravity

Our Hips are our Centre of mass and our feet are our contact point with the ground

If your body is upright (straight) you do not create movement unless a force is used

to create movement

So, if the body is Straight/ Upright we rely on creating movement using our lower

body in three ways, each of which cause injuries and make for great inefficiencies.

These are:

1. Overstriding (please refer to the image below); commonly associated with

heel-striking (landig in front of our hips!)

2. We “ Push” off – over-working our Calves (Gastrocnemius and soleus) and

Achilles

3. And we tend to also “Pull” ourselves along – over-working and often over-

stretching and straining/ pulling our Gluteal Muscles and Hamstrings

The below image displays a serious over-stride!

HOW CAN THESE THREE MISTAKES MAKE US SO MUCH SLOWER AND

SO INJURED ALL OF THE TIME??



Over-striding - Planting in front of the hips (over-striding) causes us to lose alignment, it

acts as a brake (SLOWING US DOWN) and makes us jar at the knee. This pressure causes

the knee to hyper-flex (the knee often sinks to around 120 degrees!) and “lock” and the

knee moves forwards as the hips sink; increasing inflammation.

The impact (of the knee hyper-flexing) also increases the pressures in the foot; increasing

the prevalence of ankle injuries (such as pain referring from the peroneus tendon) and

increases symptoms in the metatarsals, such as Morton’s Neuroma and Metatarsalgia.

Trauma in the shin also increases, as runners tend to activate the muscles in their feet and

shins to brace for contact – increasing the trauma in the connective tissues around the tibia and the prevalence of shin splints. Runners also tend to become louder runners when over-

striding (particularly as they tire) and you know what has been said – “ The best runners

leave no tracks! ”

As we sink in to our lower body and hips, we then also require additional force/ power to be

used to generate the next phase of movement whilst losing alignment through the hips/

pelvis; impinging upon the nerves within base of the spine (in the sacral plexus) in the

Lumbar Vertebrae; causing an ache within the lower body and seriously limiting blood flow to

our muscles, tendons and ligaments. Running becomes uncomfortable.

We also tend to “ Push ” – This refers to a runner needing to create movement by pushing

(shortening and then lengthening) through the calves. The need to put this extra work in the

lower leg is from not creating movement using our body so we rely of muscular force and

power. This causes a build-up of stress/ tension in the calves. It can also cause severe

tightening in the Achilles which can refer down in to the foot, causing various injuries, such

as plantar fasciitis.

“ Pulling ” – Our legs are brought back using our hamstrings and gluteal muscles. If we plant in front of our hips and the knees and hips sink down, we then have to really work hard to

pull ourselves forwards. Sinking as a runner contributes to a serious overuse of the

hamstrings and gluteal muscles and runners that are frequently gaining tightness in those

areas (and pulls) are often the runners that over-stride and sink in to their body and really

rely on creating movement using power from a low centre of gravity.

Relying on power = extra pull on muscles (increased chance of injury),

burns through energy stores faster (such as glycogen, fats, proteins in



the muscles and liver) and increases chances of hitting the wall,increases our need of oxygen (making it harder for us to remain in a

comfortable aerobic state) and increases the onset of lactate =

soreness = bad technique = have to stop or take the pain and hobble

over the line!

When we use these techniques above, this is what is referred to as ‘upright running’ or

‘power running’ and is a huge, considerable factor for why westerners don’t run as fast (in

general - on the World scene) and why we tend to get injured more.

WHEN DID WE START RELYING ON POWER FOR RUNNING??

As mentioned in a previous article looking at barefoot running, one of the major reasons for

the reliance and obsession on power in Western nations is the development of shoe/

footwear engineering. The below shoe is the Nike Cortez, released in 1972 and seen is a

fairly well known film called “Forrest Gump”.

Significantly, the Nike Cortez was produced, and was the first shoe to be manufactured, for

the simple reason of increasing stride length. The comfortable sole was to enable runners to

land on their heel, for a heel to mid-foot strike without causing significant physical impact.

All I can say is, well, there was a time when people thought smoking was good for you. We

know how that turned out……



Studies have been conducted since this time over the past 40+ years to show a directly

proportional rise in injuries; spiking ever since to change in philosophies with reference to

speed and the perfect stride! Namely shin splints, ITB, Achilles tears and Hamstring issues.

Theorists are starting the realise this trend and we are starting to revert back to original

techniques, and away from the majority of things you were most likely to have been taught

i n School: “Lift those knees”, “Increase your stride”, “Pump those arms!”…..

SO WHAT ARE THE IDEAL TECHNIQUES AND WHAT ARE THE MAIN

TRAITS AMONGST THE BEST IN THE WORLD? What you’ll see are some real similarities between the World elites include many of the

below techniques:

- Forward lean

- Contact below the hips (close under the body, under the centre of gravity)

- Compact technique

- Landing in the Mid-foot

- No Trailing legs - Relaxed Thighs

- Driving the knees forwards (without them lifting!!)

- No Braking!

- High Cadence (Strides per minute)

- Quick steps

- Reduced time in contact with the ground



WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN??

To run fast for long you need to work the body as little as possible. You don’t want the

muscles to be shortening and lengthening too much, you don’t want to rely on power, you

don’t want to sink and put a lot of pressure on the body!

You want to create movement naturally using your body (Gravity), you need to disengage and

relax the lower body and limit the range of movement through the middle part of your body

and with the arms. You also want to straighten through the body to maximise efficiency and

reduce the pressures when contacting the ground and to maximise your movement lever arm

to move easier, without working as hard!

Starting point

The starting point is always learning how to create movement by maintaining a forward lean;

remaining straight from your feet to the top of your head, leaning from the ankles

(MOVEMENT IS CREATED USING GRAVITY, SO WE DON’T HAVE TO USE POWER)

Then, if you relax your lower-body, but plant your feet either below or slightly behind the

hips, your feet (legs) will move back naturally in a cyclic motion purely because of friction!

(Due to you landing below you centre of gravity)

Th ere’s a confus ing viewpoint that the “KICK” you see with an elite runner is practised and

that it is using muscular force. IT IS NOT!

Separate the upper-body and lower-body:



THE UPPER-BODY IS CREATING MOVEMENT AND ONLY MOVING THE FORWARDS, THE

LOWER-BODY IS ONLY MOVING BACKWARDS AND THESE TWO ACTIONS TOGETHER (IN

UNISON) CREATE OPTIMAL EFFICIENCY!

WHY AND HOW DO THE ELITE RUNNER ’ S HEELS KICK TOWARDS

THEIR BUMS??

As explained above, if you ’ re creating movement naturally using your body and lower body

(your kicks) are moving (kicking) back naturally because of friction as speed increases, as

do the frictional forces. This triggers to legs to kick higher at this point! If a runner ’ s body is straight and upright as they do this, the legs kick away from their body however, if they

maintain a slight forwards lean, then that is why the leg kicks up towards the bum!

WHAT MOVEMENT HELPS US TO CREATE SPEED?

A misunderstanding amongst runners is that speed and movement is created by moving the

legs forwards and lifting the knees. Those sorts of techniques are witnessed more in

sprinting, when acceleration is needed to be created. The difference is, in those explosive

events requiring great power, is that they ’ re anaerobic; you create movement and your muscles work in the absence of oxygen and you don ’ t need to maintain a supply of oxygen to

meet the level of activity.

You do however need to require a constant oxygen supply for longer distances (anything

really beyond 400 metres) and therefore it is so crucial for those distances to:

Maintain alignment

To not over-stride

NOT RELY ON POWER!



SO WHAT MOVEMENT CREATES SPEED AND MOMENTUM? The majority of movement occurs behind your body! In front of your body, as speed

increases your knees may drive forwards (WITHOUT LIFTING) slightly (whilst still

contacting the ground below/ behind your hips) but as speed increases, the movement that

is developed all occurs behind your body. Those legs "kick up ” higher! But what is the

purpose of it??

RUNNING, AND THE “ KICK ” IS A LOT LIKE GOLF!

What I mean is, in Golf, you need a good follow-through for increased accuracy. In running

the natural kick you develop as speed increases helps to maintain accuracy and efficiency. It

ensures that any of the limited energy you ’ re using (if creating movement using your body

naturally) is helping you to move forwards. The foot SHOULD NOT COME FORWARDS AT

ALL and ensuring a cyclic motion is occurring, with the feet only moving backwards, helps to

ensure that your technique remains super-efficient at all times!

THE IMPORTANCE OF INITIATING MOVEMENT HIGHER UP THE BODY

If the body is upright, you rely on your legs and “ power ” to move forwards. In this instance,

movement is really only created from the waist down. That ’ s a small lever arm and makes

for reduced efficiency and it makes running more difficult.

Torque = Force x Lever Arm (Considering, Mathematically, Torque is ‘ the rate of change of angular momentum of an object ’ ).



For example, If you ’ re un-doing a screw with a wrench; the bigger the length of the wrench,

the greater the force, and the easy it is to turn the screw.

So as the runner, the same laws are applied: The greater the movement lever, the greater

the torque about your fulcrum (your fulcrum being your ankles). With this said, the initiation

of movement is considerably more efficient when creating movement about a longer lever

arm.

TO CREATE MOVEMENT HIGHER UP THE BODY (and therefore increase your lever arm) it

is crucial to lengthen through the hips in order to reduce those pressures through the lower

body and to increase the efficiency of your cadence. If helps too, to reduce the time in

contact with the ground and the pressures with the initial contact. You can achieve this by

attempting to lift from the bottom of the ribcage by roughly a couple of centimetres. You

immediately straighten through the hips (instead of “ slouching ” ) and straight away you feel

“ lighter ” as a runner.

This can be further increased by lifting the chest by a centimetre or so. If you put your

index finger and thumb on your collar bone (clavicle) and lift by the cm. You ’ ll feel your

chest lift and as well as improving the aerobic capacity, probably more importantly is it helps to improve posture and helps you to lengthen through your body to become a lighter and

more efficient runner.

Do this two points in combination whilst creating movement using your body (using gravity)

and planting behind the hips will allow for movement to be initiated from the top of your

chest instead of from the waist down, only! Running will feel way better and easier!

CONCLUSION

In conclusion - the keys to remaining effortless and to run efficiently over a longer distance

without increasing the heart rate and breathing rate too high (to meet the supply/ need for

oxygen and to flush out carbon dioxide and other waste products) and to prevent the burn

out of glycogen and other energy stores needed to maintain an activity, the key is FOR THE

BODY TO WORK AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.

To work as little as possible SPEED HAS TO BE CREATED USING BODY POSITION

(CREATING MOVEMENT USING GRAVITY). If the Upper-body is creating movement naturally,

the lower body can start to be relaxed. In combination with planting below/ behind the hips (under your centre of gravity) your legs will start to move back naturally BECAUSE OF



FRICTION without having to PUSH or PULL yourself forwards. The muscles do not,

therefore, have to work as hard; meaning they ’ re not shortening and lengthening as much,

so the demand of oxygen and breakdown of those energy stores is reduced.

Maintaining these points during a run along with good alignment and posture means that you

can maintain good speed without your heart rate and breathing rate increasing too

significantly; allowing you to remain in a low aerobic and physiological state. Running

becomes more comfortable and even running a marathon distance with a respectable time

can, with practise, start to be achieved without a capitulation of technique, without becoming

too sore, and making running way more fun. I hope these tips help you to run better, faster and more effortlessly, cause that what helps us to take more out of our running!

Yours Sincerely

William Wragg

RIF REV

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rifrev article how moving less and relaxing more can make us faster runners

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