Preface:
DONT’ READ FURTHER UNTIL YOU READ THIS, I DON’T WANT YOU TO HATE ME TOO MUCH. I hope the take away from this isn’t that I hate running and that I hate runners. I hope this gets you thinking about respecting your sport and ways that you can not only get better at the sport you love but ways you can do this that will keep you pain-free. I have high regard for those individuals that respect their sport and pay every day with sweat equity to get better at what they love doing. Please, respect your sport as much as I do so that you can run fast and run far and not have to slow down to run to the doctors’ office. I want you to run until you’re content and then I want you to stop running because you want to, not because you have to. Running might cause a lot of mental and emotional pain, but it shouldn’t be physically painful.
A BAD RAP
Somehow, I’ve gotten labeled as the guy that hates running. This is a mystery to me because I don’t hate running, I just dislike crazy people that run. But in all fairness, I pretty much dislike most people in general. In regards to running, I actually have a lot of respect for the act of running – in fact I probably respect running more than most runners. Why do I say that? Because if you are going to run, you need to treat it like every other skill out there. What I truly hate is how running has been bastardized. The entire concept of running to “get into shape” is broken.
The dichotomy of running is actually pretty amazing. How can something that is a defining characteristic of mankind be so bad for most people? If you look at the anthropological data the act of running is one of the defining “things” that made us human, and several changes in our anatomy occurred to support this:
- The development of bipedal gait.
- Long, thin legs.
- Adaptations of our foot structure to be both rigid and absorbing.
- Our ability to sweat and maintain constant body temperature.
The human body is literally designed to run, and without argument, running allowed humans to thrive when we lived in nature. But, running is not what made us human – running WELL is. When we were a part of nature, if you didn’t run well there were negative consequences that often resulted in your genetic line stopping (you became lunch, you couldn’t gather enough food, your tribe left you behind, etc.)
But look at the act of running today. If “running well” was what determined survival, statistics say that there is a >90% chance you would be the period at the end of your genetic line. Statistics show that >90% of all people that participate in running will have an injury that sidelines them for more than 2 weeks each year. Rewind to when we lived in nature, and that is 2 weeks where your odds of getting eaten are higher, two weeks where your ability to get food has been decreased, and two weeks where keeping up with your tribe has been impaired. But, today that is 2 weeks where nothing happens. Literally.
Running well requires 3 things: the physiology to run, the efficient biomechanics to run, and the lactate threshold to run. Interestingly, running will cause improvements in both the physiology and lactate threshold needed to run. BUT, if you suck at running, running more won’t fix that.
RUNNING IS A SKILL AND NEEDS TO BE RESPECTED AS SUCH
Could you go out today and pick up a tennis racket and tennis ball and play a game of tennis? Could you pick up a basketball and play a game of basketball? And by ‘Play’ I don’t mean get on the court and have fun, I mean hit a forehand, hit a backhand, serve the ball, hit a lob, and do all that while keeping the ball in between the lines. Could you grab a basketball and dribble it. While running. While zig-zagging around defenders. Then finish with a layup. That is likely a lot of “No’s.” But, you could get up and go out and run, and in a very short time be running distances that are ‘elite.’ Running is accessible to all people, and that is part of the problem. The skill of running is rarely addressed, so people go on about their running with a mediocre skill set that anywhere else would limit their training volume (if you suck a basketball, your not going to get selected after the first pick-up game at the park).
If you stuck around this long, there has been a lot of negatives. Here is what I do like – people that respect running, approach running as a skill and train to run. To be able to run, you have to be strong enough to run. This is the first area where people get it wrong. If you run, and you have a sedentary job (which is most of us), then you need to get strong enough to run. We forget that when we lived in nature running was only one part of a very active and robust lifestyle; today that is not the case – running is often our only activity. If you cannot do strict pushups, cannot deadlift your body weight, and cannot do a pull-up, your physical weakness is having a negative impact on your running. If you do not work on improving your running skill (this isn’t measured in miles, and often involves minimal actual running) your lack of skill is having a negative impact on your running. If all you do to improve your fitness level is run, this lack of variety is hurting your running.
Running is a skill that I respect very much – in fact, I believe everyone should be able to run well. Please treat it as a skill; running better and running farther are not the same thing. How do you get better at running? GREAT QUESTION!
- Strength Training. And I don’t mean the strength training that endurance athletes typically want to do – low weight for a lot of reps to get “toned.” No, just..No. You need to get strong. Until you can deadlift your body weight, do 5+ strict pull-ups, and do 10+ strict push up’s you need to spend more time getting strong than you spend running. Age and gender don’t matter – 60 seconds of running has the same requirements for everyone. Every time your foot strikes the ground you have to be able to buffer 3-5 times your bodyweight no matter if you are a boy/girl, 5 years old or 75 years old. Get strong!
- Improve your running skill. This could get really complicated, but we are going to keep it simple. The first step in this process is making sure you have the range of motion to be able to run. Your ankles need to move symmetrically, well, and far enough. Same goes for your knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, pelvis, and spine. How can you figure that out – you have to get assessed. You can pay to get a movement assessment, or you can start by looking at 3 things.
- First, lay flat on your back and press your low back into the ground (and keep it there). Now raise your arms all the way overhead until they both are resting flat on the ground. If you can’t do this, we’ve already found something.
- Second, lay on your belly. Take your hands and place them on the floor like you are going to do a push-up – now slide those hands to where your thumb is touching the outside of your chest and make sure your hands aren’t turned out. If you can’t do this, we’ve found something. Before you get up, there is one more thing: put your feet together and keep them on the ground. Now, straighten your knees out all the way. If you can’t do these, we’ve found something else.
- Finally, and I did save the best for last, get into this position:
How you get here doesn’t matter. The question is can you get here and are both heels flat on the ground. Then do the same thing on the other side. If the answer is no, we’ve found something. - These three simple positions look at the most basic rage of motions needed for running: should flexion, shoulder extension, elbow flexion, hip flexion, hip extension, knee flexion, knee extension, and ankle dorsiflexion. All of those ranges should be full and equal on both sides. If one or more of them are not, that is going to be a problem for you when you run. Reality check – if these were a problem for you, the next layer of running skill will be even more problematic.
- Don’t just run. The human body needs variety, and that doesn’t mean a variety of routes. We need training variety. Start simple. Go on a trail run instead of a road run. Find a hill and run up it, then walk down and repeat until you are done. Or, get into the grass and run barefoot. Or, instead of running go rock climbing, or play a game of soccer, or ride a bike, or play a game of racquetball, or go for a swim. All of these will have a positive carryover to running and because of the variety will have several other benefits to you.
(If you don’t like what I just outlined, don’t disregard the message about training to run. There is a book by Kelly Starrett called Ready to Run. Get a copy of that and listen to his message. He says thins in a much nicer manner than me and has a slightly different message that will move you down the path of running better.)
So now we are at a point where several of you are probably saying “I can’t do any of that stuff, but I can run just fine.” That is a valid point. My next question will be “give me a list of your injuries over the past year.” The fact is you CAN run without being able to do anything that I just described, but you shouldn’t run if you can’t complete the entire list. Not being able to do everything listed only means that you are running on borrowed time and that you will be a part of the >90% of people that have to stop running because of an injury. Not being able to do these things will catch up with you, and when it does that grim reaper is a jerk: he will leave you in pain, and with an expensive medical bill (would you rather have to enter the broken health care system and pay to see the doctor or go to the gym and get stronger?)