Running byDesign : part two from Stephen Kleiser

www.180degreesgym brings you part two of our guest blogs from Stephen Kleiser, more food for thought for you runners and guys and girls who want to start running bydesign.

Have we forgotten how to run?

runbydesign“You can determine a objects function simply by looking at its form.

Two and a half million years of evolution have moulded the human design to be the most efficient endurance running animal on the planet!

Endurance running was the major evolutionary stimulus in shaping human anatomy and physiology. The moment we started to move further and more efficiently than anything else on the planet, was the moment we leapt ahead of the competition.

Nature has literally engineered us to run!

But now we reach a bit of a conundrum: if humans have evolved as endurance running specialists, why do about 80% of us injure ourselves every year?

Why haven’t injuries such as ‘runners knee’, ‘shin splints’ and ‘plantar fasciitis’ become rare and unfortunate occurrences, like scurvy and TB, banished to those parts of the world without access to the latest advances in technology and biomedical science?

The answer is simple.

We have forgotten how to run!!

Physical activity is fundamental for a healthy life. It is a more powerful remedy than any drug you can take for modern day epidemics like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Of all types of exercise, walking and running are the most natural, effective and accessible.

LEARNING THE SKILL OF RUNNING TAKES TIME!!

run

Our modern, busy and mostly sedentary lifestyles put an enormous amount of unnatural stress & strain on our bodies. This prolonged and unnatural environment means muscles & tendons are shortened or lengthened, tightened or weakened. Ligaments & joints are put under unnatural tension and our facsial system moves away from balance and harmony causing restriction or weakness in our natural tensegrity.

We need time to allow our muscles to adapt and strengthen and we need time to learn how to relax and find our natural rhythm.

Form is determined by function and function by design.

We are designed to run now learn to

runbydesign