Most
of us probably just need a little tinkering. When I realized
I needed help in this area about 10 years ago, I did some research
and eventually came up with a program of eight to 10 strength
exercises. As I combined or eliminated certain ones over the
years in my search for efficiency, I worked my program down
to two basic exercises. Call it Jeff Galloway's Posture Program,
and you don't have to go to a gym to do it.
Bent-knee
crunches. To do these, lie on your back with knees bent at about
a 90-degree angle. (Doing crunches with legs straight puts too
much stress on the lower back.) With each crunch, lift your
shoulder blades off the floor without "dropping" your
head forward. (Bringing your head forward puts too much strain
on the neck and shoulders.) Go up till your shoulder blades
are just a couple of inches off the floor. Come down slowly
each time, but not all the way down. Keeping your stomach tight
throughout the exercise will really work those abdominal muscles.
Try to do crunches every other day, working up to 40 or so per
session.
Arm
running. To balance abdominal strength, you need to build up
your back and sides, too. A great way to do this is by "arm
running" with hand-held weights. (If you don't have dumbbells
for this, you can always use water-filled plastic jugs or anything
else of appropriate weight that can be grasped.) To do the exercise,
stand erect, hold onto the weights and begin moving your arms
as you do during running, while keeping your feet firmly planted.
You might want to glance at a mirror while you do this, so you'll
be sure to stay in the proper posture. As with running, keep
your elbows bent at roughly 90 degrees as you pump your arms.
Continue until fatigue sets in. Try to do this exercise every
other day.
You'll
find that you don't need to do all that much work to improve
postural muscle strength. And once you get these muscles in
shape, it takes very little maintenance to keep them that way.
After a few weeks of diligent visualization and strengthening,
you'll be more efficient, and your running will feel easier.
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Having videotaped hundreds of runners over the years, I've seen
that those who lean too far forward (this is very common, by
the way) normally cut about an inch from each stride. In essence,
they do this in order to maintain balance. An inch per stride
might not sound like much, but it works out to almost 1,000
feet in a 10-K, and about 4,000 feet over the course of a marathon.
In other words, your upright self would out marathon your hunched-over
self by more than 3/4 of a mile. At 10-minute mile pace, this
means the upright you would finish the marathon more than 7
minutes faster-with no extra effort.
Subscribe
to RUNNER'S WORLD today ... and download your FREE screensaver
with your order! Just go to http://www.runnersworld.com/service/home.html
