By Elizabeth Towe
Where is the spring in your running gait? This exercise will help build a soft landing and springy forward push in running.
To do this we use forward hopping while alternating legs. The key point is to find a soft and balanced landing of your foot under your body that easily creates a quick forward push.
Exercise:
- Find an open flat surface a minimum of 40 feet long
- Assume a partial squat balanced on one leg in a running stance
- Hop forward onto the opposite leg focusing on a soft, quiet landing.
- Pause just long enough to find your balance and arrest your momentum, then spring forward to the other leg.
- Repeat 10-20 hops, pause, turn around and do the same number back the way you came.
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Elizabeth Towe is a runner and a cyclist and the owner of Balanced Movement Studio in Carrboro. She graduated from East Carolina with a degree in exercise and sports science and has been personal training for over 20 years. Her ultimate goal for all of her clients is to help them realize and achieve the optimal quality in their life – and to remember to have fun doing it.
