Part 4
We are designed to run… now learn to
This is Run by Design: part 4 by Stephen Kleiser – a running specialist we have the pleasure of working with at 180 Degrees, Sandbanks. Today we share with you Part 4 of his Run by Design blog.
Our Sixth Sense
When we stop and think about it, we are incredible good at moving.
With little conscious thought, we spend our lives sitting down, standing up, reaching down, picking things up, jumping, skipping, running; and the endless list goes on. The reason we can do all these unconscious movements is due to proprioception.
Proprioception
Our body’s sense of its own position, balance and movement.
Proprioception is our ‘body awareness’ and people often see it as our “sixth sense”.
The proprioceptive system has stretch and pressure receptors in our muscles, joints and skin and these inform our brain of how we are interacting with our physical environment.
With our feet being the part of body in most contact with our physical environment, it is no surprise to find out that this where a large percentage of these receptors are found.
When we reduce the sensory feedback from our feet, the brain has less information to work with, reducing the quality of our movement patterns,
We are designed to run… now learn to, limiting its potential and risking injury throughout the body.
Although a masterpiece of evolutionary engineering, the human foot does have serious design flaw: a lack of protection from the environment.
As our feet were originally designed to grasp and climb, they are covered in proprioceptors, sweat glands and soft skin. Over time, the other specialist running animals evolved hooves or pads to protect there feet, but our feet were not exposed in the same way and so did not evolve these covers. This was because we had evolved an intelligence that allowed us to solve the problem of migration from the warm, hard, flat ground of the Savanna to harsher, environments, like rainforests, deserts or the arctic.
We worked out that we could insulate and protect our human feet with the invention of the shoe. So footwear is very much a part of our evolutionary history.
It was footwear that protected us from the environment and very Importantly
this footwear still allowed for the proprioceptive feedback!
Modern ‘normal’ footwear is not designed for proprioceptive feedback. In fact, modern trainers are designed to cushion and stabilize the foot…or, you could say, reduce feedback.
Our day to day shoes, again do little to allow proprioceptive feedback.
Wearing these ‘normal’ shoes the majority of the time means your barefoot running muscles will be weak and this will be evident in your posture…and in your Form.
This is why when the book ‘Born to Run’ was released, and so may people were inspired to change to a natural barefoot running style; we also saw an increase in barefoot running injury…the body needs time to adapt…time to unfold from the years of compensated movement.
Run byDesign sessions help these compensations to unfold and allow the rebuilding of natural movement.
As we allow the unfolding the compensations we start to see dramatic changes in are form…we literally fall into ‘good posture’ effortlessly.
So, although natural…Running is a skill!
Learn the skill = Function byDesign = release your Form
