Today's modern running shoe
makes it possible for anyone
just throw on a pair,
pound the pavement
and call themselves an athlete.
But with stats like this, "70%
of all the Australian runners will be injured
in any given 12-month period".
I believe that running is more a privilege
than a right
and that you should have to earn your
runner's license before
you start clocking up the K’s.
Today, my best tips and tricks
to help you avoid becoming another statistic.
Now the thing with running beautifully
is you don't have to be in a barefoot
or minimalist or toe shoe
to get a beautiful result.
Shoes like the Vivo, the Vibrams,
they are just tools to allow you to experience
the environment and to get a better result.
Today I will be running
in bare feet but if you are in a Nike,
if you are in Asics or Brooks,
you can still run nicely no matter what the shoe.
The first tip is to learn how to use your Achilles
properly as a spring.
Bouncing on the ball of your foot.
First, though, do some slow deliberate reps
and feel how hard your muscles
have to work to get that bounce.
Then,
do some light springy ones
and feel the difference.
The reason it’s so easy
for us to bounce quickly
as opposed to slowly
is that Achilles tendon,
it basically works like
a rubber band coiling up,
absorbing and then giving us back
kinetic and elastic energy from the ground.
That's why we are so good at running
and that's Achilles tendons,
it’s quite a specific feature in humans,
not many other animals have it.
It gives us back that elastic energy
making us effective and efficient
running machines.
One of the biggest problems with running
is people immediately think about being faster.
So what they think the answer to get faster
is to reach the stride longer
and cover more distance with less steps.
The problem with is that,
it leads to a heel strike,
meaning you reach out in front of the body
and it takes away that Achilles spring.
Instead of focusing on speed,
think about it being light and being easy.
Using that tendon as a spring,
conserving energy
and trying to be effortless and bouncy.
Good running should be silent
and effortless.
Once you’ve got light and easy mastered
and you're feeling bouncy and effortless,
the next thing is to focus on your posture
and thinking about being tall
and long through your body.
Being hunched and bunched up,
one it makes your breathing hard.
But second, it also ends into shuffly sort of
poky style of running
as opposed to being up on your mid foot.
Instead imagine there as a string
pulling the top of your head up and out.
You also want to have a slight forward lean
kind of like you falling into each stride.
Then the last thing to focus on
is increasing your cadence of your legs
and increasing your stride frequency.
Instead of lengthening out each stride,
just try to take more strides
to cover more ground
that keeps you on your mid-foot
and it keeps it bouncy.
Somewhere in the 120-180 mark,
as far as strides per minute
is a pretty good place to live.
Running is a pretty complex motor skill
and it’s pretty easy to stuff up if you do it wrong.
But if you focus on these tips,
being light and bouncy
and effortless on your feet
using your tendons to store
and use that kinetic energy,
then thinking it about being tall and long
instead of being hunched up on your posture
and then focusing on that fast cadence,
you won’t have to worry about running fast
because over time, it will take care of itself.
Once you got that speed down,
it’s the best feeling in the world.
Even if you don’t get to the point
where you're lighting fast,
running this way it's a
completely different thing
to the old heel-strike
running that you may or may not be used to.
A shout out to Chris McDougall
the author of Born to Run.
A lot of the advice and tips I had
come directly from that.
Really brilliant book if you're interested
in all in distance running.
Now, with all the shoes day videos,
a word of warning, don’t jump straight
into barefoot running.
You want to ease your way in slowly,
watch these videos linked around here,
to ease your way into your running
and into your new program.
It’s going to be a new stimulus,
it's a new footwear
and going to be working with new muscles
and new tendons in ways
they have never trained before.
So you want to ease your way in.
If you have any problems,
seek professional advice.
Don’t push through pain or injury,
seek some advice,
get help and look after your body.