FALL FORWARD FOR RUNNING SPEED

WHATS THE BEST POSITION TO BE IN WHEN YOU RUN

You’ve seen uneven rocks piled on top of each other looking like they might topple over but they stay perfectly balanced as if they are defying gravity. If you really think about it, we are this upright bag of uneven bones that are stacked on top of each other. Those bones can only move when the muscular system acts on them. If you push one of those rocks over, gravity will take over and it will fall.

Balancing your torso over your lower extremities is learned at a young age and we take our center of gravity for granted until we get injured and have to re-learn ways to move through space. It’s easy when you have motor patterns that are predictable (pre-injury and habitual) but not so easy when you are figuring out how to move in a new and improved way.

FALLING FORWARD IN THE RUNNING GAIT

This leads me to how important it is to learn how to “fall forward” when you are running. Running is nothing more than a string of movements where you move from one foot to the other. If you did not add the falling forward, you would just be marching in place! Speed is a result of your angle of fall. The more forward you fall, the faster you will go due to gravity.

The theory makes sense however practice is something different. We spend our entire infancy falling. Crawl to stand - fall. Stand to cruise - fall. Cruise to walk unassisted - fall. We spent a ton of time falling however through this unevenness we became more and more aware of our center of gravity and how to manipulate it to get us moving forward quickly. Why not do this when we run?

HOW FAR CAN YOU FALL FORWARD WHEN YOU RUN?

Here’s a test:

Stand on both feet and slowly sway back over your heels and forward over your toes.
See how far forward you can sway before you can no longer stand on two feet.
This is your angle of falling!
Stand next to a wall (or tree if you are outside) and practice shifting your center of gravity so far over your toes that you fall forward.
Practice this falling 5 x and then immediately run 20-30 feet.
Find another tree and do it again.