Head Over Feet

Watch above as this proper running technique teaches you how to better align your body from head to feet to create a better internal balance allows for more efficient running.

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David Weck here and today I'm talking about the positioning of your head over your foot to run with the greatest balance and efficiency. Basically what we want to do is support the center line. The center line goes through the head and it goes to the foot. And it changes from the left to the right, every single step. If you break down footage of the world’s best runners, I don't care if it's sprint or distance footage frame by frame like the way I did it. What you'll see is that the head lines up with the foot.

Test it right now for yourself. Stand on one foot and see what it feels like to be on one foot without your head over that foot. put your head over here and feel what it feels like. Try not to bend and try to stand without your head over your foot. It's impossible to do. And if you can do it it's all sorts of extra compensation and extra effort that's being done, that doesn't make me better. It just waste energy and compromises my body.

So, here's the secret you have to know what to do in order to have a change at doing it. Took me a long time to discover this and I want to share it with you so you can get it fast. Now if you look at my hat here, the button here is not the top, the button here is the "military top". The "military top" is here, that's when my chin is up. So if i make the button the top of my head, my chin is up and that puts a little curve in my neck and it's not as long, and it's not as strong. So the real top of my head is actually about an inch behind the button on the hat. So that when I put the hat on, that's the top, the chin is tucked. If I had a tennis ball, it would sit right in here. That's the top. And I want to remember that. And I want to feel, imagine, visualize that I have a string elevating and lifting me up. It's creating length through my spine because that's the top, not that [motions to button]. Now that new top, and I want to position that , this is the underside of my shoe -the funny little shoes I wear- that spot right here, that spot right behind the ball of foot and right there, that point right there is where I want that top to line up. And it might feel a little like “where is it?” “where is it?” “I'm I right?” “I'm I right?” And what you have to learn to do is, you have to learn to feel it, trust what you feel.

And here's how you're going to start to apply this. First you need to know what it is and where it should be. And here's how you make it happen for real in your body. Is you find a step, you position one foot on the step and you're going to elevate up and going to put the head over that position right there, you're going to find that position and elevate up and come down. Maintain that head position best you can right over that position over your foot. Just like that. You'll know you have it, when it feels easy.

Your trainer at the gym has you do lunges like this, where the head is not lined up with the foot because he/or she is trying to get you to recruit muscles and make it a muscle training action. They're trying to make the muscle burn more. What we're trying to do is, we're trying to make it so it feels as easy as possible. I don't want to waste the muscle. I want to move my body with connective tissue and multiply my muscle force. That's coordination, balance, speed, power as opposed to just grinding exercise. There's a place for both, so one's not wrong or right, it's just if you want to move you need that efficiency.

So you line it up right here and feel it "oh okay that was easy"" "oh good that's easy". Practice it on this side, find the step. Line it up. "okay" BOOM.And if you're not in position, if it's too far back, you’re going to feel like you're doing extra work. So take the time to really drill that. Use staircase and just make it: on that staircase when I go upstairs to go to bed, I'm going to take my time and I'm going to line it up and I'm going to do it. If you practice it, you'll feel it, you'll find it, and then you'll be able to do it.

I once hiked up a mountain 8,000 feet with a wicked case of the flu and the only way I made it up and down that mountain in one day was every single step up that mountain, I found it, and then I wedged it up. I found it and then I wedged it up. And I made it all the way up with the flu. Guarantee if I didn't know that technique I wouldn't have made it up. Or even worse, I would made it half way up and then be stuck. So that's the key, find that.

And again a lot of the stuff I teach is very subtle and nuance. So ask me questions. If you're having trouble understanding it, If you don't feel it, ask me questions, send me comments. Contact us. Reach out. I want to help you get these techniques because you feeling it, and you doing it, is, that's my mission.

I want you to move more efficiently. I want you to move. I want you to move better. And then I want you to tell a friend. Alright so tune in, go to WeckMethod, and tune in again for more tips.

Have great training success!