Running

Categories: Blog Feb 22, 2015

Have you ever seen people "run" through your neighborhood? If you envision them running now, what do you see in your mind's eye? What are their arms doing? Often times you will see people running without using their arms; their arms will be glued to their torso, or they will be lifeless cords that bounce and jerk around without rhythm do the pounding of the legs. Many times what we see people doing - "running" - is not running. I guess, too, what we often see people do as "walking" is not walking either.

Running is a reset - it is intended to be a reset. When a person runs, the shoulders should move to match the movement of the hips. Another way to look at this is that running is a progression to crawling. Crawling is the foundation of our gait, and running is an extension of our gait built off that foundation. We are designed to be contra-lateral limb movers, and it is this contra-lateral limb movement that keeps us tied together; it keeps us healthy and strong. Not using our gait pattern as it is intended is to not keep the body strong and tied together.

Look at running from an upside down point of view. If a person is running with their legs only, and they are not using their arms, what would it look like if this pattern were brought down to crawling? They would get floor burn on their arms and face because they would be crawling with their legs only and not using their arms. This would not only be painful, but it would also be ineffective as far as tying the body together. Our gait pattern is the movement that is to keep us operating and functioning to the utmost of our design. Running should be a rhythmic, graceful, and powerful extension of it's foundation: crawling.

It is the swinging of the shoulders, along with the movement of the hips, that keeps our brains healthy and our bodies healthy. When we walk and run we should be moving our arms. This physically renews the nervous system as well as keeps the center of our X (our body) tied together. This is truly the way we were designed. AND, it is efficient. It actually takes more energy to run and walk without moving the arms than it does to move the arms in coordination with our hips.

If you enjoy running, or walking even, make sure you are using your shoulders. If you are not, it may be very worth your while to spend some time crawling to reestablish and restore those wonderful reflexive connections between the brain and the body that walking and running were to be built on top of. After all, running is just crawling standing up. At least it is supposed to be. We were actually designed to press reset all the time, through our gait pattern. In other words, you were designed to always be strong, healthy and resilient! Run along and be strong....

---