Part 2 : The counterbalance effect:
Connecting the hips, knees and shoulders

By now you will be settling into the discipline of running every alternative day.
It is helpful, as your fitness level improves, to do some “cross training” in between your running sessions. This ensures that you do not overuse certain muscles, and also to allow other muscle groups benefit from being exercised more regularly. Examples of cross training are bike riding, and swimming. Swimming has the added advantage of requiring flexibility in the ankles and legs, and placing greater responsibility on using the upper body. So it is an ideal balance to running.

If you run well, it can be one of the best forms of exercise for you. If you watch an expert runner, their movements will be fluid and graceful. It will look ( and feel ) easy.
When running, it is not the individual motion of a runners feet, legs, shoulders or arms that matters. It is the connections between them. When this connection is felt and understood, it will make an enormous difference to how well you can run.
Afterall, knee pain is just as likely to be a symptom of poor arm movement as it is of foot problems. Over the next few weeks , we will be examining different connections.

This understanding is best achieved by listening to your body as you allow your moving mind to just explore, so spend 15-20 minutes following these instructions, and then occasionally, when running, check out how the new connection is. While following these instructions, do the movements slowly, and gently, and in a small range. Your nervous system responds to tiny small movements ( you can feel a fly land on your skin, yet you would not know when you are loaded up, if an extra kilo was added). Repeat the movement many times and each time sense something different about it. You are looking for how to do it more easily. Always keep your breathing easy, as this assists your ability to absorb new information.

Connecting the feet, hips and shoulders Find a place where you can walk for a hundred meters or so on flat ground in a straight line. Pay attention to your right hip and foot, and discover what your right hip does as your right foot moves forward. Keep doing it until you can easily feel the motion of the right hip joint. ( the exact motion is different from one individual to another).
Most of the movement will be forward. Now notice what your right shoulder is doing.
You may feel it is easier to notice your hand, then follow up to the shoulder. You should notice that as the right hip moves forward, the right shoulder moves backward.

Now try locking your right hip and shoulder together by gluing your right arm down the side of your body as you walk. Notice what you feel. You may feel right away how awkward this makes you. Notice the effect on your feet. After walking like this for a few minutes, go back and walk with an exaggerated arm swing opposite the hip swing so that you can feel how this provides balance and power. Pay particular attention to the connection of movement through your torso, and the gentle twisting that should be happening throughout. Repeat this on the left side. You may find it quite different to observe on the other side, and this is to be expected as the right and left sides of the brain are different. ( e.g. we have a dominant hand ).
It will make a noticeable difference to the balance of your walk if you carry a bag in one hand, or on one shoulder, or walk with a dog on a lead. It will be worth making immediate changes to such habits to gain more ease and comfort as you walk.

Many a runner has become injured by not ensuring a clear “ counter balance” between the hips and shoulders. So work on this concept for the coming week.