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Are you working on your hamstrings or your hip flexors to help prevent injuries and improve your performance? If so, you might be disappointed with the results you get from all that time stretching and strengthening.
What looks like just flexion and extension of the hips when running is actually much more, and when you understand that you can find much more effective ways to improve your form, running health, and performance.
The fact is, because your pelvis actually moves when you run, your thighbones need to both rotate and move inwards and outwards in order to appear to move just forward and back.
I can hear you going, “wha….?”
Here’s a video I made this week to explain the phenomenon:
If you work on all those directions of movement, your legs will work much better and your running will feel much easier!
I’m recommending my popular lesson Free Your Feet to help with this, even though we’re talking about hips rather than feet. The lesson helps you find the full range of hip joint motion while connecting this with your pelvis and spine.
Get it here:
The video is one of the daily Stuck-at-Home Running Form Tips videos I’ve been doing live on YouTube since the Bay Area went on shelter-in-place due to coronavirus.
Here’s the playlist so you can catch up on all of them.
You can watch live here weekdays at 11 am Pacific time at least through April 3, 2020, and be part of the excitement. 🙂
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Jae Gruenke, GCFP, is a running technique expert and Feldenkrais Practitioner. Known as a “running form guru,” she is the Founder and CEO of The Balanced Runner™ in New York City and The Balanced Runner UK. She has helped runners from beginner to Olympian improve their form to become pain-free, economical, and fast.
