Feeling stiff and slow after the winter. Wake up the Springs this Spring!
Here are some safe and simple drills I do almost daily at the end of a run. Drills maintain the spring in your step, your coordination, and speed.
I so 4 to 6 sets of each. Takes about 10 minutes but a worthy investment instead of 10 more minutes of running.
No need to do them all. Mix it up and add others you have learned over the years.
A key to doing correctly and progressing is the simultaneously firing “left shoulder/right glut” and “right shoulder/left glut” rhythm. This gets the body working in harmony and loads the natural springs correctly. Think like a march in place where the arm opposite the leg you are sending to the ground fires down and back. Its all a relaxed coordinated rhythm and can be learned on a TrueForm Runner.
Bottom line just do drills!
Thanks to my friend Brot Coburn for the iphone footage.
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Running Backwards
Single Leg Run
Strides!
Lateral Jumping Jacks
ABCD skips. For more specifics on ABCD drills go here http://www.healthyrunning.org/videos.html
Slow Jogging. This is not really a drill but something to incorporate as often as you can. Start every run with this. Use for recovery. Train the body balance, spring, relaxation. Recover from injury. Jog after joint replacement. Yes it is safe if you do it correctly and likely will strengthen the bone around the prostetic joint. We need load to stimulate bone remodeling. Stuck in an airport on a layover? Slow jog to the gate and arrive at you destination with less stiffness. Read the book by my friend Dr Hiro Tanaka
Extra Credit….Do These at Least 3 times a week
Burpees….Hurt so good
Mountain Climbers
Now to incorporate spring in your running review our Principles of Natural Running Video. Getting close to a million views 🙂