Over the course of this week I’ve told you my story of learning how to run—complete with some real dunderhead moments. Through that, you saw how learning to move better is critical to realizing the dream of smooth, flowing, easy running. Not exercise, not pushing, not shoes, but a really effective learning process targeting the … Read more
Have you been struggling with an injury for what seems like forever? Or are you worried that’s what’s going to happen? If you’re like a lot of my clients, you’ve already been to a doctor, physical therapist, massage therapist, Pilates teacher, yoga class, acupuncturist, and you’re foam rolling religiously. And still your problem lingers. This … Read more
When you read about how to fix your running technique, a few recommendations pop up over and over again. This makes it seem like there is overwhelming agreement on these points, but in reality it just indicates that people are repeating the things they’ve been told without examining them critically. Most of my clients come … Read more
Here are The Keys to Becoming a Balanced Runner, the 10 interrelating elements of healthy, flowing, free running. I wrote one or two blog posts about each of them over the past year, but here they are all in one place for you to read through and experiment with during the holidays. Over the next few weeks I’ll be … Read more
Have you ever had a running injury that wouldn’t heal, that defied diagnosis and treatment and seemed incurable… and then when a source of stress in your life eased, suddenly your pain was gone? This experience is so common – and not just for runners – that a man named John Sarno wrote a book … Read more
The magazines, your coach or physio, a multitude of books and, yes, even bloggers are telling you your problems will be solved by improving your running technique. You’ll be faster, you won’t be injured as much, and you’ll become the runner you dream of being. Maybe you feel yourself moving in the right direction, slow … Read more
Did you catch the 2015 Chicago Marathon last weekend? I did, because Letsrun.com and NBC kindly arranged for a live stream on www.lestrun.com. Thank you for that! Unfortunately I cannot now find any publicly available video of the full race, which makes it pretty difficult for me to share my running technique analysis with you — you’ll have … Read more
I talk all the time on this blog about what we loosely call “natural running form,” or how to run barefoot or in minimalist footwear, regardless of what’s actually on your feet. Hopefully my work has been helping your running feel better and maybe even faster. But now let me ask you another question: how … Read more
Last week I shared a video from Feldenkrais practitioner Annie Thoe of Sensing Vitality to help you improve the coordination of your ankle, knee, and hip joints. I hope you tried it a few times. Good running form depends not on being able to execute the movements of running with robotic correctness, but rather on … Read more
After injury are you uncertain what to do to get back to running? Do you wonder how much discomfort is okay, what kinds of exercises help you heal, and how can you tell when you’re overdoing it? And ultimately what can you do to keep the knock-on effects of the injury–the changes in your movement habits to … Read more
If you’ve ever been injured and gone to a physiotherapist for treatment, odds are good they gave you some stretches to do. Maybe they helped, maybe they didn’t… maybe they caused other problems in ways you never suspected. The fact about static stretching – the kinds of stretches you hold for a while – is … Read more
During my July Core Action online training camp some of the runners tried my tip for dealing with problems mid-run and told me they loved it. So I’m sharing it with you today. Every runner experiences a midrun niggle or discomfort–or even a manageable pain–on occasion. You’ll find my guidelines on when to keep running here. … Read more
Today I’m excited to share with you a podcast created by Brooke Thomas of Liberated Being, interviewing Todd Hargrove of www.bettermovement.org. If you follow me on social media you know I’m a huge fan of Brooke’s podcast and recommend it for anyone who wants to delve into the cutting edge of movement education and therapy. … Read more
My jumping-off point for this post is a quote in the title, from Moshe Feldenkrais, creator of the Feldenkrais Method of Movement Education®. It is particularly relevant for runners working on their form and has a nice zing to it. However, I could simply have started from the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition, seen above. The … Read more
