DO YOU NEED TO USE A METRONOME IN YOUR RUNNING?

We have been discussing this topic for a while on the forum, but, I guess, for many runners the importance of using this device for the improvement of their running technique and running performance is still not clear. So I have to get back to this topic to bring more light and understanding to this matter.

Let's start from far away, from a general notion that all our life contains some rhythm or many different rhythms such as heart beats, breathing, work and rest, day and night, a moon cycle, a year, etc. Our running is just a small part of this tremendous design, one kind of our life performance. We have to understand and accept the reality that we live in an ocean of rhythms, and by being part of this environment we have to obey these rhythms in whatever form they appear in us and around us. Living in sync with our surrounding is a harmony, which we have to execute in every single moment of our existence.

Taking this philosophical approach as our guidance, we need to see this logic and perform it in everything we do. Running is not an exception, but is a part of this big picture. Where is this specific rhythm of running that we have to hone and perfect? It is not in a muscle contraction and pushing the body forward. Not at all. It is in changing of support. Our body movement in running is an alternation of supports, because our support is the place where we are falling from and engage with gravity for the forward movement.

All anatomical, physiological, psychological and mental functions are tuned up with the rhythm of gravity work, which coincides with the body weight moving from one support to another. So our muscle and nervous system react to our body weight being on support and off support. When the body is on support all systems get engaged into one support system. On the opposite, when the body is off support, the same systems are off or disengaged.

There is an obvious rhythmical pattern, which goes completely in sync with the rhythm of the body being on support. There exists a strict time line governing which muscles are supposed to perform and when in order to allow the body to continue its falling process from one support to another. Therefore improving one's running skill or technique means perfecting his rhythmical structure of changing support, which in the Pose Method appears as the action of pulling the foot from the ground.

As our experience shows, it is the most difficult part of learning the Pose Method. First of all, it is because the rhythm itself is an alien feature for most people. It is not their fault, but just a lack of education, and could be compared to a lack of dancing or singing skills. The second reason is that this rhythm should be applied to a certain action, such as pulling the foot from the ground. Unfortunately the conventional theories of running do not operate with this action, but on the opposite, they require to do a muscle work by pushing off the ground.

So why should we use a metronome in running?

Because it helps us to sustain the rhythm of:

• Changing support.
• Pulling the foot from the ground.
• Keeping minimum 180 steps per minute or 3 steps per second.
• Concentrating on pulling, but not on the efforts.
• Running by maintaining this action, no matter the fatigue or stress, length or speed of distance.

And it is a metronome that can help you bring this rhythm into your running.

Dr.Romanov