It’s quite a dramatic opening line, however looking at our physiology, we are actually the most efficient running animal on the planet. I’m not talking about speed; your neighborhood squirrel will beat you in a race to catch the bus, I’m talking about running efficiency and endurance. Over a long enough distance a trained runner will beat any animal on the planet, horses, cheetahs, anything.
So why do we struggle so much with running?
Why does it feel so tiring, and why do we get so many injuries from running?
The answer is simple and it governs many aspects of our physiology and tissue adaptability. All of the structures in our body (bone, ligament, muscle, tendons and even our brain!) respond to the stresses and loads placed on them. Reduce the load, we lose strength and endurance; increase the load to a certain point, our bodies get stronger; if it’s too much load, we get injured. It’s quite simple really!
So it comes down to our bodies’ tissues ability to absorb load and forces. The fact is that most of us spend a lot of our days doing what I’m doing right now which is sitting down in front of a computer and typing away. Or texting and spending time on apps in a posture that our bodies hate spending prolonged time in, a posture that weakens our physiology in so many ways it’s not funny.
Our bodies become de-conditioned and lose its ability to respond in a positive way to exercise. Essentially it comes down to one of my favorite sayings (running sayings that is), “We need to get fit to run, not run to get fit”. I’m not saying we need to be an athlete before we start running. We just need to ensure that we are doing the right exercises to condition our body to avoid overloading our tissues, and this can be for a seasoned runner or someone looking to start running.
It also doesn’t have to be a complicated and difficult exercise program. Doing a few simple (fun!) exercises will not only help improve your running efficiency and decrease your chance of injury, it will also improve your posture, energy level and general quality of life. You might actually get to benefit from one of the most amazing forms of exercise, before you get injured!
While we have our regular Running Conditioning classes each week (Tues 7.30pm, Thurs 7.30am), I will be conducting a special 2-hour Running Conditioning workshop in April 2019 and more in-depth course in May 2019. The 2-hour workshop is fun and engaging and you will learn many great exercises, in fact if you don’t have a good time (not normally what you might associate with a running workshop), I’ll be happy to give you a refund on the workshop fees! It’s a movement based workshop so anyone can join, regardless if you are an existing runner or thinking you might like to start at some point.
Daniel Dittmar, Asia First Runity Master Trainer and Exercise Physiologist
Workshop Details
Date & Time: 6th April, 4pm-6pm
Fee: $65 (20% off if you sign up with 2 friends/colleagues)
Runity Running Conditioning Course
Date: 24-26 May
Click here for more details.
