This post is about proprioception*.
Proprioception is the ability to know, even with your eyes closed, that you do or do not have a foot. Or that your arm is raised higher than your shoulder. It's quite an important ability in the scheme of things.
Yoga apparently improves proprioception, in that yoga assists practitioners in concentrating on their bodies, such that they are able to isolate different parts of their body, or to consider various different parts as a whole.
At first this feels like just pretend (the teacher says: "Breathe into your left leg", and half the class is thinking: "Did this guy study basic anatomy, like where the lungs are positioned?") but after a while you notice that physical things are actually happening from these things you thought were just in your head. It's a bit like when you ride into a telegraph pole on your bicycle just because you were looking at it.
So how does this connect to jogging? Well, on my recent jog, I noticed that for many years I had not internalised a simple principle, which is this: You run with your legs.
It sounds funny, but I found that whenever I was running in the past, and wanted to increase my speed, I would start bouncing my torso up and down. This was exhausting and convinced me that running was not fun - just exhausting.
What I discovered on this jog was a continuation of my thought on a previous jog - that breath, posture and speed are interconnected, and that the only way to properly increase speed without losing breath and posture is to develop strength. Specifically in this case, the strength of those same groin muscles I mentioned before. Basically, I've got two heavy legs dangling from those muscles, and rather than compensate and lift my legs using muscles from my upper body, I need to develop those muscles so that they can do it alone.
This realisation made for a faster run (under 30 minutes) and the ability to maintain a running speed (a relatively slow one, but a running speed nonetheless) the whole four point whatever kilometres.
Thanks proprioception, you made the whole thing much easier.
* Got to be one of my favourite words. Thanks, Oliver Sacks.
Proprioception is the ability to know, even with your eyes closed, that you do or do not have a foot. Or that your arm is raised higher than your shoulder. It's quite an important ability in the scheme of things.
Yoga apparently improves proprioception, in that yoga assists practitioners in concentrating on their bodies, such that they are able to isolate different parts of their body, or to consider various different parts as a whole.
At first this feels like just pretend (the teacher says: "Breathe into your left leg", and half the class is thinking: "Did this guy study basic anatomy, like where the lungs are positioned?") but after a while you notice that physical things are actually happening from these things you thought were just in your head. It's a bit like when you ride into a telegraph pole on your bicycle just because you were looking at it.
So how does this connect to jogging? Well, on my recent jog, I noticed that for many years I had not internalised a simple principle, which is this: You run with your legs.
It sounds funny, but I found that whenever I was running in the past, and wanted to increase my speed, I would start bouncing my torso up and down. This was exhausting and convinced me that running was not fun - just exhausting.
What I discovered on this jog was a continuation of my thought on a previous jog - that breath, posture and speed are interconnected, and that the only way to properly increase speed without losing breath and posture is to develop strength. Specifically in this case, the strength of those same groin muscles I mentioned before. Basically, I've got two heavy legs dangling from those muscles, and rather than compensate and lift my legs using muscles from my upper body, I need to develop those muscles so that they can do it alone.
This realisation made for a faster run (under 30 minutes) and the ability to maintain a running speed (a relatively slow one, but a running speed nonetheless) the whole four point whatever kilometres.
Thanks proprioception, you made the whole thing much easier.
* Got to be one of my favourite words. Thanks, Oliver Sacks.
