Sunday morning coffee

Sunday, October 13, 2013 · Mike Davis

Good morning running world! Seven days without running is starting to wear on my psyche! Anyone willing to listen to me yesterday as I road my bike during our half marathon training run heard how much I dislike riding a bike! It's not that I dislike riding a bike, but more that given a choice I would much rather run. My hip appears to be getting better and it's probably not by accident that the healing coincides with rest, strength training and foam rolling. I guess there's a lesson to be learned there. Today will be more foam rolling and tomorrow will again require some discipline to stay off the road. Tuesday is my target. Yesterday while biking along side a couple that runs in the training group, I once again mentioned to John that he needed to pull his shoulders back which is a trigger for getting his arm swing going more north and south (straight) as I put it. Unfortunately I told his finance Cassie that she needed to remind John and I quickly found out that there was no need to ask for her help as she has been consistently on John about it already! Hmm... Anyhow, Cassie opined that John needs to get video tapped so that he can see himself and this may help him to improve his arm swing. Funny how Cassie is spot on with my thinking and our latest addition to NFLR. Arm swing may be the least focused area of most runners and yet it has far more effect than one might think. Watching various runners arm swings, I see so many different swings I couldn't list them all. John for example swings his arms tightly close to his body, nearly crossing his chest. Another I see often by woman in particular is an arm swing that crosses the bellybutton line considerably. Some arm swings are very tight, while others don't even swing at all, the arms hang down and kind of move like they do when they walk. One other common arm swing I have seen is; one arm swing is different than the other. I could go on and on... Does your arms swing make a difference? Yes indeed it does and in many cases it also exposes problems areas in your gait. Let's start with the ideal arm swing: - Stand with your arms and fingers hanging loose to your side. - Bend your elbow to a 90 degree angle (keep your shoulders loose) - Cup your hands as if you are holding a potato chip that you don't want to break. Do not squeeze or clench! - Your hands should be able to sweep across your pants pockets - Much like our legs, our arm swing should be like pendulums in that they should swing freely forward and backward at an even distance. - As you move forward focus on the following: - Loose shoulders, arms and hands. - Relax - Pendulum, forward and back - The forward swing should commence at an invisible line out from your bellybutton. Swinging your arms close to your body, sweeping your hands across your pocket line and touching that invisible bellybutton at the pinnacle of your forward swing. Back and forth evenly and loose. You might believe your arm swing is just your unique gait, but in reality an arm swing is a muscle memory motion that has great value. The right arm control the left adductor and the left controls the right, so the arm swing has significance that are far more reaching than propelling you. A swing that is too tight will lead to restricting lower extremities and it can work in reverse; tightness in our adductors may be exposed by our arms swing. Also, a stiffer arm swing tends to mean we're tighter moving upward as well and our shoulders become stiff and sore as we run longer distances. A few years back that was me, I would finish a run of 10 miles or more and my shoulders were so stiff I couldn't raise my arms. I had to change the muscle memory. Seeing ourselves as Cassie suggested is by far the best way to make corrections to our gait. Our arm swing is just one of many functions that is critical to healthy and efficient running. Sometimes correcting arm swing is nothing more than an awareness but other times it might be another part of the running gait that needs to be addressed. Without slowing down the gait and looking at it step by step we really can't determine which comes first the chicken or the egg? One other arm swing thing to consider; as we tire we start to bring our shoulders up to our ears and every thing raises. Once in a while it's good to release our arms and shake them out and then reset ourselves. How is your arm swing? I hope you have a great Sunday and happy Columbus Day! mike