DO YOU NEED TO KNOW HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY TO BE THE BEST RUNNER?

There's been a need to write on this topic for quite some time now. It is a pity to witness so many lost in a maze of tibias, femurs, gluteus maximus, etc. In an applaudable attempt to understand the movement of the human body, some unwittingly cross into a very specialized territory of human anatomy and physiology. Yes, it is very interesting and fascinating, but dissecting your body is completely unnecessary if your only goal is to be a better athlete. And more often then not, it brings more confusion than clarity and understanding.

There are different kinds of runners. Some run to get away and relax, some run to compete, some run to later enjoy dwelling on their experience. They go to great length to use as many professional terms as possible to describe in incredible detail every muscle movement. Do they run any better as a result? No.

How many people take apart and put back together their car's engine every Sunday afternoon? Does the car drive any better after that? It doesn't make a difference. What does? Knowing how to drive the car! Does the piano player learn about every bone in their hands and arms to play better? No. They learn what to do and how to do it, they learn the technique of playing the piano and they focus on delivering their amazing performances.

Knowledge is power, but when does it over-power you? When it takes you nowhere or in the wrong direction. Simply knowing something does not give us anything. We have to be able to apply that knowledge and preferably in a beneficial way. Lots of material published on running technique to date, has shown to be pointless, incorrect, lots of other material published got ignored because the audience was not ready to accept the facts presented. Case in point - the THE EXTENSOR PARADOX IN RUNNING published in a Biomechanics of Distance Running in 1990. 18 years later these facts are still ignored because while looking at them nobody seems to understand what they really mean. If the facts were understood there would be no room for "push-off" theory because it is physically impossible.

So, the answer to the title question of this article is no, you don't need to know anything other than how to run and for that we give you the Pose Method of Running technique, the most well put together methodology of teaching how to run.

If you want to know how to run - learn how to run. If you want to know everything about your body - by all means, acquire that information. But when you find yourself deeply thinking of what your body parts are doing, while other runners are flying by you, remember that things are simpler than you make them to be. The magic formula pose-fall-pull is yours, if you want it.

Article by Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Composed by L. Romanov