Forward Lean

As with what we’ve done in the swimming, posture and core control is key to running efficiently, fast and importantly injury free. Most of us are aware of the need to work on our core – but very few know how to put it to any use.

Why Do It:

By keeping a straight back, from shoulders to hips – and on to your foot that is toeing off, you create a powerful kinetic chain that you can easily develop the strength in. By having a straight line running through your chain, everything works more effectively as well as being more balanced.

How To Do It:

1. Set your core. To do this, pull your belly button toward your spine, and squeeze your glutes – imagine you have that £50 note between your cheeks. This will help lengthen your spine, make you taller!

2. Lean forward from your ankles. A lot of people read about leaning forward and start to hinge at the waist.This then undoes all the work doing core strength.

3. By leaning forwards from the ankle, your centre of gravity shifts forwards and give you that momentum. All that you need to do is lift your knees up then drive your feet down into the ground, you won’t require much energy to push yourself along.

The Finer Points:

Like any drill, this accentuates the form that we are after, so when you go to run “normally” afterward, you take the focus of it… So you won’t lean right forward when you run like they do in the video above, but you will gain the benefits of a stronger, straighter posture.

In addition, by working well through your core and keeping your glutes, back and stomach muscles engaged, you will be more stable, minimising knee and hip movement and therefore lessening the chance of niggles.

See what’s up next week for our #RunFormFriday tip! For more in depth understanding on how to put this into practise, get in touch and we’ll see how we can help!