Evolutionary biology professor Daniel Lieberman gives five tips on how he thinks you can run long distances better and injury-free.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript below.
I think there's a number of (1) ... elements to good running form. The first is not to overstride. Overstriding is when you stick your leg out in front of you and you land with your foot in front of your (2) ... and really way in front of your hip. A lot of people think that they're running hard when they do that. You know why? Because they are running hard. Because when you stick your leg out in front of you, you actually (3) ... from the time it takes for the center of mass of your body to get over your foot, you're actually losing energy. The other thing that happens when you overstride is that when you stick your foot out in front of you and make your leg stiffer and you have this, what's called an impact peak, and this shock (4) ... that ripples up your body. But when you land without an overstride, you don't have that jolt of force and you're much less likely to get injured. It's just a better way to run.
Another key element to running is to run with a pretty flat foot. I think that most good runners tend to land on the (5) ... of their foot. It just happens naturally. If you don't stick your leg out in front of you, you will not land hard on your heel. You'll land on the (6) ... of your foot or your mid foot stride, there's a general landing.
Don't lean. A lot of runners lean forward at the hips. That's another total (7) ... . Be vertical from the hips up.
If you can hear your feet, if your feet are landing really hard, if you’re thumping as we call it in my lab, then you're running poorly. That thump is the sound of the (8) ... of your body hitting the ground. Running should be light and gentle and collision-free so if you're making a lot of noise, you're running poorly.
And then finally, the most important thing is if you're learning to run properly and you haven't been doing this for a long time, listen to pain. Don't (9) ... it. Transition really slowly and gradually. Your body is not just designed for this instantly. If you transition to learning to run properly too fast, you are guaranteed to (10) ... yourself. You have to adapt your body. I think everybody can learn to run this way, or most people can learn to run this way, but you can't do it (11) ... .
Key:
1 key 2 knee 3 decelerate 4 wave 5 ball 6 ball 7 evil 8 collision 9 overdo 10 injure 11 overnight
