For most people, understanding nature goes one of two ways. You can either succumb to it, and then develop a decision based off of the experience (think of a bear attacking you, or getting smashed by a wave), or you can fight it by making erratic decisions with the intention of forcing your way through it (think about fighting a bear without a weapon, or trying to climb through the whitewash of a 20ft wave). Both can have dire consequences, but one usually lends itself to you making your way out. What does this have to do with “Falling”? Everything. Even though falling, in the context of running, may not have dire consequences all the time, it has consequences that should never be ignored.
Any forward moving object is using gravity. When our bodies make contact with the ground during running, we are slowing or stopping ourselves. Newton’s Third Law lays a foundation for this. It states that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. We also must include Newton’s First Law here too, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” In our case, the object is you, and your foot, because it lands in front of your body, having to absorb Earth’s reaction to putting energy in front of it, creates a slowing or stopping reaction. This requires lots of effort to keep moving. In a perfect world we would land directly underneath ourselves with each and every step, allowing for just enough of Earth’s energy to absorb and then return to us to continue moving forward. While this still requires energy, it is a dramatically less amount than that required when landing in front of our bodies with each and every step. Landing directly beneath the body requires us to fall. In order to fall properly, we must first have an understanding of our position, and moving from a stable position to a dynamic position. Falling from the hip (hip passing the support foot) requires us to pull the support foot from the ground, while allowing the next foot to land under the general center of mass (gcm). Watch any child under the age of 5 and you will get a great understanding of this as they move forward. Unfortunately, sitting, and the decision to wear shoes, causes us to default to poor mechanical positions. Mobility also becomes a problem because it lends itself to unorthodox strides, which, in turn, keeps you from doing the above.
Learn how to start incorporating falling (gravity) into your running via the posts below.
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