COMMON FORM FAULTS and their
corrections. [ ‘If the cap fits, wear it.’ ]
Even the most fluid of runners generally have some kind of form fault:
energy-draining imbalances and idiosyncrasies that hold them back and worse,
often lead to injuries when the pace picks up.
Greater awareness, through ‘Body Checks’ and more effective breathing,
will help work wonders. Be objective, find the faults and then work
to eliminate them.
This article, as a follow up to ‘Running Technique: use the laws of physics
to your advantage’, and ‘Running: Key-Elements’, is to further
aid you in achieving that gazelle like form that by now should be firmly
fixed in your mind.
To that end let us look at some of the more common form faults and
methods to help correct/retrain those, in all too many cases, well formed
neurological pathways that hold us back from perfection!
Encourage your running partners to critique your form and to let you know
when you’re moving well and when you are falling back into your old bad
habits. Their comments, along with your awareness through an ever
increasing ‘associative’ mind set, and a little more emphasis on ‘Core Trunk
Muscle Exercises’, Flexibility, and Weight Work, I know will work wonders
in eradicating, or at least minimizing those ‘little’ form faults that separate
the actual you from that magnificent creature that you have in your mind’s
eye.
Here are the most common problems, and some hints on correcting them:
‘Sitting in the bucket’
Many runners never stand up straight, or for that matter sit up straight.
Whatever, the problem is compounded by sitting back as they run. Their shoulders
are rounded, chests concaved and their centre of gravity is somewhere behind
their heels. The restriction in the chest does nothing to help oxygen intake,
and the pelvis position hinders stride.
Firstly get as much air into the lungs as possible: use both ‘belly’ and
‘chest’ breathing at all times. Look up and keep your eyes focused on the
road ahead, scanning near and far. Trail running, because of the nature
of the terrain, tends to encourage this problem. Be warned! Chin level,
eyes forward, and ‘keeping tall’, will automatically bring your pelvis
forward, raise your diaphragm and bring the shoulders back. Work at
this, especially when you are getting tired. It will become ‘second nature’.
Remember: ‘Drive the hips forward’.
Problem is not only lack of awareness, but weakness in abs. and lower
back. Do ‘crunches’ and ‘reverse sit-ups’. They will develop all kinds of
strength to bring your hips forward, straighten your spine and eradicate
that form destroying slouch. When you do the crunches, lie with your hands
stretched to the ceiling. Raise your shoulder off the ground, then try to
lift your trunk six inches. Repeat 20 times and then gradually work towards
sixty. The sit-ups ... lie on your back, keeping your legs together and bent
at the knees and feet flat on the floor. Bring your knees to your chest and
do not put your feet on the floor until you have finished. Again work steadily
from twenty up to sixty. Remember that runners can never be too strong in
the core area.
‘Twisting’
Excessive upper body rotation, more common among women, I believe, than
men. Energy is wasted by twisting the spine back and forth on top of the hips,
causing the body to go in partial circular motion instead of straight
down the road. This problem is usually directly related to an ineffective
arm action ... excessive crossing of hands and arms over the body’s mid-line.
Often accompanied by elbows held bent at a low angle. Not only is this a
waste of energy in the upper body, but any action in this area is often initated
by the feet that often swing across the mid-line before they are planted.
In bad cases the knees are cooperating to make this fault even worse, as
they try to swing across the mid-line! This occurs because your body’s biomechanics
are trying to keep you on a straight course rather than allowing you to
veer off in the direction that your upper body is angling. In addition to
wasting precious energy, this extra motion can strain your adductor muscles
and illiotibial bands. It can also irritate the nerves in your lower back.
To keep the shoulders relaxed and minimize rotation, allow the inside of
your wrists to brush the side of your short, at about waist band level,
as it swings back and forth with the elbows tucked in. Remember ... ‘Gunslinger’.
Point the hands down the road moving the arms in a slightly diagonal action
as opposed to excessive arc across the body.
Arm, chest and upper back strengthening exercises do much to help this
problem. Everything from push-ups to lat. pull downs in front of, and behind
the neck. Bench presses, arm and wrist curls. Stand in front of a mirror
and practice the correct action. Then try it while walking.
‘Overstride’
If this is your problem, every time your foot strikes the ground, energy
is wasted by literally putting on the breaks. This is caused by the leading
foot landing in front of your centre of gravity, often with a fairly straight
leg and the knee locked. Forward momentum is less affective than landing
over the strike. This jarring effect can place anything from one and a half
to three times your body weight, depending on the speed that you are traveling,
on the limb in question.
Shorten the stride so the foot touches down more directly beneath your
centre of gravity. The secret of touching down with less heel is to relax
your shin muscles so that the forefoot can drop. This lifts the heel and
encourages you to land more on the midfoot. Concentrate on a faster turnover
to increase speed as opposed to an exaggerated stride. Land with bent knee.
Overstriding is more of a problem when you run close to top speed. Ironically
that is when it does most damage.
Work at speeding up turnover rate to 180 or more strides per minute. Prior
to this, however, practise running on the spot. You will instantly
realize what it feels like, not to land on your heels. It is impossible
not to land on your toes while doing this drill. After a while of running
on the spot gradually increase the stride until you are running down the
road. You will come down off your toes and begin to land on the midfoot as
opposed to your heels. When you feel the heels banging into the ground, stop
immediately and repeat the drill. Keep doing this until you begin to experience
less jarring.
‘Runner’s Shuffle’
This is the runner who hammers down the road but goes nowhere fast. For
all their efforts, their stride appears very confined. The knees barely lift
and the feet hardly come off the ground before they are back down again.
If this is you, join the classic understriders! Runners that exhibit these
symptoms have poor muscle strength in those essential points of flexion at
the upper thigh and ankle, and flexibility in the upper hamstring has diminished,
or was never evident. The result a shuffling gait that calls for all kinds
of effort and makes minimal headway. This person often exhibits an excessive
arm swing and hip rotation to attempt to compensate for diminished range
of motion below the waist.
Stretch your upper hamstrings by squatting as much as possible. Squat with
your heels on the ground about a foot apart. Lean against a wall if necessary.
Do this as frequently and for as long as possible. This will also stretch
your calf muscles, Achilles tendons and lower back. Along with this it is
important that you strengthen your upper thigh muscles. Try knee raises.
Stand next to wall for support and raise one knee to waist level thirty times,
repeat with the other leg. Gradually increasing to fifty reps. When this
gets easy do the same with ankle weights. This develops the iliopsoas muscles
that many distance runners ignore, but are vital for lifting the thighs and
bringing them forward on each stride. Also practice those ‘A-skips’ and ‘B-skips’.
Frequently in runs do fast strides, ‘Pick-Ups’, while concentrating on pushing
off the toes. Not an exaggerated motion, just a powerful toe-off. This will
strengthen the your calves and increase flexibility in the ankles and the
hips. Remember running at speed is a form of stretching! Be always cognizant
of the ‘Four Drives’. This simple routine of exercises will open your stride,
make some crucial leg muscles stronger and more flexible, and transform
you into a more efficient running machine.
‘Tilt, Hunch, and Punch’
What is it? Arms start to rise until you are almost punching yourself in
the chin. Your shoulders hunch so that they almost touch your ears, and
head often starts to list to one side. This leads to all sorts of tension
and wasted energy in the upper body, and at a time when energy is a precious
commodity, toward the end of a race, or a hard training session. The raised
arms leading to excessive shoulder rotation as well as other problems noted
are the catalyst for the whole chain reaction. This usually occurs owing
to a simple lack of upper body strength.
For a permanent cure, do lots of shoulder and upper back strengthening
activities. Push-ups are a good start. Try twenty and work up to fifty.
Do this three to four times a week. Weight workouts are always beneficial.
Two to three times per week in the base building phase works well for me.
For this particular problem try ‘Shoulder Shrugs’, ‘Arm Curls’ and ‘Bench
Press’, just to mention a few.
Remember: a runner can never be too strong in the shoulders and core area.
Be warned as the pace picks up, in your training, do not get sloppy formwise!
I can never over emphasis the importance of carrying good form and
staying relaxed while running fast.
On most of my training runs I now take two or three walking breaks of anything
from 30 secs to 2 mins. Not because I’m running too hard, but to spend a
few moments thinking about and visualizing the perfect form. That way there
is less chance that I will continue, unwittingly, to reinforce poor habits.
Whatever level you’re at ... Work on it.
Steve