When a person decides to exercise regularly, the most common is to choose between two options: go to the gym or go for a run. It is true that football is the king sport and it is also very popular and is thought of as a way to get in shape, it is not the first option because it is a team sport and requires teaming up with other people, with friends or colleagues, get organized and have a game field, such as a sports center or similar area.
However, running is an activity that anyone can undertake simply by going outside and does not require large expenditures on equipment, such as clothing or shoes, and does not use other accessories as are needed in other sports, such as rackets in tennis., balls in soccer or basketball, skis in snow sports…
But although running is a simple activity to practice, it happens as in all sports exercises, it has its techniques to do it well and obtain the desired result of getting in athletic shape, and avoiding problems such as accidents, overloads, fractures or pain after practice. Of the career.
Therefore, we show you below five techniques to run well, so you can enjoy your favorite sport and achieve the best physical shape.
The warm-up
Preparing your muscles to run before you start is an essential technique for running well. It is about not just running after leaving the house through the door, putting the lower limbs and in fact the whole body to work in a matter of seconds, going from a state of rest and stop to suddenly tensing and stretching and contract. This can only result in all kinds of discomfort and pain, such as strains and contractures, or even a more serious injury.
For this reason, you have to do gentle stretching before starting to run, and there are several exercises of this type, but above all it is about stretching your legs, bending your knees and ankles, lifting your legs, and bending and stretching your arms, in alternative and coordinated way, while seeking to match the breath with the various movements, always progressively, from soft movements to more intense ones, noticing the increase in effort, preparing the body for the lengthened and stronger exercise that will come later.
In the warm-up you can also include some easy jogging, for a few meters, in a relaxed plan and with the sole idea of starting to move the muscles, particularly those of the legs, and for a few minutes only, so that they become more flexible.
Instructions
1. The tread
After warming up, we start with our running exercise. And the first technique that we must learn to run well is to execute a good step. Although running seems to be something that is done in only one way, and that this is the natural way in which our body runs, according to our physiognomy, in reality this is not the case. What we call the natural way of running is the result of the patterns that we have acquired since childhood to walk and run, as well as to move all the members of the body. For example, sometimes there are boys or girls who turn their feet inwards, and we try to teach them how to step and walk so that they do not grow up with deformed feet. Thus, although we have always run in a way, we must learn to move legs and feet, arms and hands, when we run,
When running, we must step on the ball that is under the big toe, trying not to stick it on the ground, but rather quickly and lightly, seeking to make the contact as short as possible, so that we have the sensation of “flying”. “On the terrain. At the same time, the toes should be pointed forward and not curved downward. And we must complete this good running step not only touching the heel on the ground, but with the entire sole of the foot.
2. The stride
When running, when taking the stride, the knee should be slightly flexed at the moment the foot touches the ground, which should be done under the center point of gravity, at the hips, so that the heel is located behind the body and not forward.
For its part, the waist together with the hips should move as little as possible, without turning or twisting to the sides, and the back should always be straight but relaxed, so it should not fall into a very common vice such as bending it forward. Ahead as if we were going further. We will also have relaxed shoulders, and the forearms will be bent ninety degrees with respect to the vertical of the body. Another important fact is that the impulse when taking the stride should not come from the forearms but from the shoulders.
You also have to place your hands correctly, and also educate yourself with this part of the body as with the others to be able to run in the best way. The hands will not be down, instead they will be palms inwards, as if holding an egg, even touching the thumb with the index finger. To achieve this, it can be done literally, that is, run with a boiled egg in each hand, and check when we finish running if any part of the shell is broken, which will be a sign that we have to practice more until we can run with hands cupped in a relaxed way and with the palms facing the body.
3. The head
You have to keep your head up, not looking at the ground or the space just in front of your legs, but looking at least several meters beyond your point on the path you are running on. The best thing is to look towards the horizon, while you place your head without bending it backwards or forwards so that the muscles in the shoulders do not tense, and not to bend you’re back forming a hump. Relax your shoulders and take a slightly forward posture so that all the weight of your effort in the race falls on the exercise of the legs.
4. The arms and elbows
With your arms you have to help yourself to gain constant momentum while running, while with them you maintain body stability in the repeated impacts of your strides. You have to keep your arms separated from the body, so that they do not rub against the trunk and force the spinal column to remain in a rigid posture, when the correct thing is for it to sway according to the progress of the whole body while running, either to the left or right.
The elbows, on the other hand, should not be far from the body, although they should be loose, so that not much tension accumulates in the biceps muscles as well as in the forearms. Wear them at an angle of about 120 degrees, but in a relaxed way.
5. The knees
And another technique that will help us run well is the one we apply to the way we bend our knees, something we should always do without raising them too much. Especially runners who start to exercise by running, running, should pay close attention to this, since it is essential to bend the knees when running, when stepping on the ground at the start of the stride, in order to avoid injuries that can reach be of importance.
To achieve a good flexion of the knees it is necessary to have a good cadence in the strides, in the steps. Experts measure it in steps or strides per minute, and advise that it be about 180 steps per minute, which will force us to lighten the race somewhat, since the usual thing is that such a cadence is not reached and only reaches 150 or 160 steps for each minute of running.