FAST RUNNING with Pose Method
When we think about fast running or how to run faster our common sense image is about muscle power, efforts, stride length, strong push off, full leg extension, some kind of huffing and puffing. These are all "symptoms", which we are familiar with and easily associate with fast running. So when we are getting into a necessity or desire to run fast we are trying to replicate these "symptoms". In layman terms, just copy them.
But it is very strange to do this because looking on running of elite athletes we are observing just the opposite. There is no huffing and puffing, but effortlessness and easiness. There is no muscle tension, but there is an impression of power. There is no obvious application of muscle strength because of quick turnover and short time of support, but certainly it is related with application of muscle force.
So how does it happen to have a fast and powerful run without visible muscle work? Where and how is muscle power hiding? Why can't fast running be produced by muscle tension? Who and what allows us to be light, effortless, quick and light on support? These are not useless questions, because they lead us to proper answers allowing us to understand the essence of fast running.
In order to get a proper answer we have to start from a proper question. The first one will be, "Where does fast running come from"? By our common sense it would be a work done by muscles. That's right, muscles will be present there as a very important component, but not the most important one, not the cornerstone of our movement. Muscle performance can be compared to a car's transmission, delivering power from the engine. But where is the engine? It is gravity! Certainly we can't do anything without transmission (muscles) - otherwise the power of gravity would never reach our legs and body. But the question is who is the primary mover and where does this energy come from?
In the Pose Method® the concept of gravity plays a prime role to make us run fast. It works just through different angles of deviation of the general center of mass from the point of support. If we want to run faster, the first thing we have to do is to lean forward more in each step. Obviously, it is not as simple and easy as it was said, but that's the main idea. In order to do this an athlete has to have quite a high level of skill, which includes pulling the foot from the ground coinciding with falling in space and time, and muscle efforts enough to make this pull, but not more than this in order to avoid muscular tension.
At this point we are talking about high perception of the athlete allowing him to recognize all these nuances of the body leaning forward, pulling efforts and its timing happening in a fraction of a second. If this cycle of falling and pulling is stopped or broken at any point then muscle tension appears in order to "compensate" for this loss of coordination and flow of movement. When muscle efforts are just on the level of only necessity to assist the body to fall and then pull the foot from the ground in order to reproduce the next fall, then muscle efforts are not on a "front row", but are hidden behind the movement of the body. This kind of movement is what impresses us as effortless, because we are catching (perceiving) only the body movement, but not the muscles work. Another factor is short time of interaction with support, which is taking our attention away from muscle work, as well. Just compare good running with good dancing, where behind very skillful movement you don't see any muscle work, but only skilful movement coming from intelligent use of the body weight. Each body turn, rotation, move, jump allows the body to fall in a desirable direction. In fast running it is easier, as there is only one desirable direction.
Dr. Romanov
