Want to Get to the Next Level with Running? : Target Front Chain Muscles

Hey Running Mums,

Been a big week getting ready for Gold Coast. I know a lot of you RMA crew are champing at the bit and I can’t wait to see you guys on the day. Most of you are pretty much done with your long runs and are now tapering. We have seen some sore bodies! Worth the short term pain for the fun come race day guys no matter what your goals are. With the pointy end of the running season on us, I wanted to talk about body positioning and it’s really important to be aware of your own structure and how that relates to speed, endurance and staying injury free. For speed and endurance you want to be stacked perfectly, head over shoulders, shoulders over hips, hips over feet. Same thing for injury prevention (they are linked) but running, work, strength, even family can make you tight in key areas and mechanics change. Your stacking can get out of whack, classically head forward and the real speed killer is the tightness through the middle, hip flexors but also abs and quads.

If you watch the top of the top elite runners whether it be 5k, 10k, half or full marathons, they will be long through their middle and they actually initiate movement subtly from higher in their body. Mere mortals like you and I will struggle to replicate that action, we will often run initiating movement more from just the hips which shortens our levers and puts a cap on performance. So it’s really important as runner to understand the link between tightness and technique that has a flow on effect down to endurance and SPEED…the holy grail guys!

So that front chain of your mechanics is your ability to be positioned efficiently and more upright so you can then lean from ankles into your run to let gravity do half the work for you. Without real length you will leak time on course like a boat with a hession bag hull! So one of the real secrets to getting to the next level with your running no matter what level you are at is to incorporate length strategy for your anterior chain mechanics as part of your training routine. Some core strength workouts for running are going to want to shorten you, no biggie…just be aware and look at your length as part of your program. I’ve done a couple of videos looking at really useful ways we use for our runners in the clinic to target this area when we are chasing performance as well as injury prevention goals. Probably good to check them out as part of your taper this week. Have a play. Look forward to seeing a bunch of you guys in a couple of weeks.

http://www.rifrev.com/running-injury-free/target_hip_flexors

http://www.rifrev.com/running-injury-free/hipflexorstretch

Have fun out there!

Paul Trevethan

For more excellent advice go and visit. www.rifrev.com .