Minnesotans are exceptionally good at taking advantage of nice weather. If it’s a sunny, 75° degree day you can go for a drive and see dozens of people running around the lakes, especially in Uptown where my gym is located. As someone whose eyes are finely tuned to observing movement, this can be a bit like someone with hyperacusis going to an amateur music festival.

This is what it seems like most people are doing:

I could probably write a half a dozen posts on what I observe with the vast majority of runners, but I want to focus on the very basics for this one. These tips are for the person running 10+ minute miles, not 20 minute 5ks.

#1 – Move Forward

This seems awfully obvious, doesn’t it? The goal of running is to create locomotion to move you from point A to point B. Why, then, are so many runners moving up and down more than they are forward? Or swinging their arms out to the side more than in the direction they’re moving?

There are probably dozens of reasons, all distinct to each person, but they don’t matter as much as the solution. Move as much as possible in the direction you’re going.

This may involve speeding up, or slowing down your pace. Try changing how you strike the ground with your feet, or how much you reach forward with each stride. Experiment with how much you “lean” forward into your stride.

The direction of arm swing is a big one. If your arms are not moving at all, that is a major inefficiency that is sucking up energy in NOT moving them. Think of the arms as a counter-balance to the movement of the legs and hips. As your left leg travels back into extension, your right arm should be moving backwards with it.

#2 – Don’t Run with Stupid Asymmetries

If you’ve been reading my work for any length of time, you’ll know that I am an enormous proponent of asymmetrical training. You are not symmetrical, and you’re  never going to be no matter how many movement screens, corrective exercises, or perfect reps you do.

That being said, running with a heavy water bottle in one hand is stupid. Or a dog leash. Running with your dog is awesome, so get the appropriate equipment for it.

If you test it and it tests well – awesome! Keep it up, just make sure you keep testing because it will change. It could even improve your function. But if you’re doing stuff like this in an untested fashion it will jack you up.

#3 – Run, Don’t Stumble

Most of the running I see can barely be called running. Stumbling repeatedly is probably more accurate. I don’t mean to be condescending to people who aren’t already amazing runners, but the fact is you’re doing something, often for the wrong reason, that isn’t good for you. With a few changes, you could be making progress at getting better and better.

The single biggest change I have people who run like this make is to run faster. Certainly, if you’re a 10-minute-miler they will be forced to take more breaks because they aren’t going to be able to sustain a pace that is minutes faster than what you’re accustomed to. That’s fine! No one is going to step out onto the trail and hand you a citation for walking instead of running. It doesn’t make you less of a runner, and in fact you’re going to get better quickly.

Running faster, for a variety of reasons, is also likely to reduce the incidence of injury. If you run fewer miles because running faster is more taxing, then so be it. That is another reason you’re less likely to become injured – you’re running less!

To put this into perspective, one of my Movement Minneapolis members qualified for the Boston Marathon this year with 8 minutes to spare. I had her run fast in her training, running an average of only 17 miles per week. At first her runs were shorter, but she quickly adapted and became faster and faster.

Last Word

Big picture, I want more runners to stop settling for plodding along at the same pace for the same distance over and over again. You’re already doing it anyway, get better at it! These tips are simple and effective ways to get more improvement and more enjoyment out of your running.

I think you can end up looking like this:

Should you ever add weight to a movement, before you can achieve full range of motion in it?

The answer is easy, right? Absolutely not.

I’m going to skip right to the punchline and say maybe the answer isn’t so absolute and it depends.

If you ask 10 trainers, you’ll get 10 answers that say you should always achieve full range of motion before you add weight. If you don’t, you’ll reinforce the pattern and make it even harder to achieve full range of motion.

However, borrowing from an article Bret Contreras published on T-Nation: “Research shows that strength training is as effective as stretching at building flexibility, due to several factors (Aquino et al. 2010, Simao et al. 2010; Morton et al. 2011, Nelson & Bandy 2004).”

If strength training, aka adding weight to a movement, increases flexiblity (range of motion) then it can not then be automatically true that adding weight to a movement will reinforce a limited range of motion.

Sometimes you will need weight in order to be able to increase the range of motion.

How do you know which to do? Test both. Test the greatest range of motion you can easily do without added weight. Then test adding weight, but subtracting whatever range of motion is necessary (if any at all) to accomplish it without weight. Whichever tests the best will get you to both greater strength and greater range of motion quickly.

Here are 3 example scenarios:

Squatting

Squat depth is often limited due to a variety of limiting factors. Here are two positions to test:

1. With no added weight, squat to the most depth you can easily achieve while maintaining the same relationship between hips and shoulders. Once the shoulders start to drop, you’re going too far.
2. Set up a box to a height an inch above where you can’t squat any longer. Add weight, and squat.

Deadlifting

Like the squat, the deadlift can be limited in accessible range of motion for many different reasons. Since deadlifting with no weight is impractical, the comparison will be between less weight and more weight.

1. Set a bar in a rack to the height you can easily deadlift it from. This may be the standard ~9″ that 45s place the bar, or higher. The position you’re generally looking to maintain is a good, strong alignment with minimal bending at the spine. Using an appropriate amount of weight, test.
2. Raise the rack height several inches, and add 10-15% more weight. Test again.

Push-Up

The push-up is a good example of a bodyweight exercise that is often too hard for people to perform with full range of motion immediately. At my facility, we scale it using a variety of implements to change the leverage. Here are two things to test:

1. Setup a bar or box at a height where you can perform a perfect push-up with a nice solid plank body position and lowering yourself all the way to your chest touching the bar or box. Test.
2. Lower the height a bit, so that you can still maintain a good plank position, but you can’t easily lower chest to touching the box. Keep it within the range you can easily perform. Test this.

As is always the case, the better testing option will net you better results. These examples are just starting points to get you thinking. Play with this idea, and you’ll see for yourself how much your results improve.

If you want to perform well and look better eating good food is not optional.

This is a meal that you can whip up in literally 8 minutes. Not that 8 minutes that the TV chef says it will take but it really takes 35 minutes, but actually 8 minutes. I know this because I can make this in the time it takes to cook pasta, which is about 8 minutes. I don’t recommend pasta as an always-meal if your goal is fat loss, but it can be a great post-workout meal or you can turn it into an anytime meal by skipping the pasta and subbing steamed vegetables.

Sugo al’arrabbiata is a popular sauce due to its simplicity and fantastic taste when high quality and fresh ingredients are used. Meaning literally “angry sauce” the amount of anger in it can be adjusted to suit taste based on how much red pepper and garlic you add.

Here’s what you need:

• A can of tuna
• A can of whole tomatoes
• [optional] Any kind of pasta, penne work well
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Oregano
• Red chili pepper
• Basil (dried or fresh)
• Pepper
• Salt

I don’t specify specific amounts for a reason – you are going to quickly eyeball the amounts and this recipe doubles or triples easily. You can assume that this base recipe is for one person.

1. Put a pot of water on to boil. Make it a small pot if this is a single person meal.
2. Put some olive oil in the bottom of a small pan. I like about a donut sized circle of oil. Turn it on medium-low.
3. Chop or slice some garlic into the oil.
4. Sprinkle in some oregano, basil, and red chili pepper to taste and add a pinch each of pepper and salt.
5. As the garlic and seasonings become fragrant, open a can of whole tomatoes. Dump out the liquid part, reserving the whole tomatoes. Dump the whole can into a Magic Bullet cup, and blend it for a couple seconds just until smooth. Don’t overdo it and turn it into tomato juice.
6. Turn the heat off the oil for a second, and then add the tomato. If you do it too quickly, you will be rewarded with a thin layer of oil and tomato droplets on your counter.
7. At this point the water is probably boiling, add your pasta to the water.
8. Turn up the heat on the tomato sauce, and let it simmer for a few minutes. Then add your can(s) of tuna and stir it up.
9. When the pasta is done, drain it and add the sauce.

At this point, you can add a little parmesan to your pasta if you like breaking traditions (adding cheese to fish is frowned upon in Italy.) As I mentioned before, this makes a great meal without pasta. A half a head of steamed broccoli works very well as a fat loss friendly meal. Doubling the tuna per serving works well for those trying to get some gainnns.