June 2017 Natural Running Weekend Course

Natural running course

SATURDAY am

Introduction: a Force of Nature?

For the duration of the 4 three-hour blocks of exploration on the weekend course you were invited to regard yourself as a Force of Nature. For some years now this invitation forms the beginning of every Natural Running course. Many years ago when I first started to make this invitation, I regarded it as a cool thing to say to start a natural running course. I have now matured somewhat with this. Now I regard this invitation much less flippantly. Forces of Nature from birth and death, from terrifying hurricanes to magnificent sunsets inspire human awe and wonder. To fully enter into the wonders of the moving body invites a reverential awe and a deep curiosity at some extraordinary cosmic complexities. Just consider for a moment the exquisite cascades and sequencing of nerve impulses and muscle coordination in the movement and balance involved in taking a single walking or running step!

 My body and THE BODY

I have recently come to consider how as human beings we occupy two entities: my body and THE BODY. We come to regard it as somewhat like a donkey that we have you come to own. You only have a temporary stewardship of the Donkey that is my body. We bribe the donkey with carrots and beat it with sticks, we subject it to strict training regimes and rigorous diets. A moment’s thought however reveals that you did not always have possession of my body. Up until around the age of two years old you had not yet developed a sense of my body but nonetheless THE BODY existed. Back then you were purely a Force of Nature!

A special deep form of attention

You can perhaps appreciate a sense of the depth and power of these Natural Running courses in terms of the application of a special deep form of attention. It can take you on an adventure to the interface between my body and THE BODY. THE BODY alone contains the deep ancestral wisdom of our natural moving ancestors. It is this specially focused deep attention that further accompanies us on the Great Adventure of crossing the boundary between my body and THE BODY. This effort of attention is entirely focused on release and on letting go. This makes for a radically different approach and running philosophy. It is not trying to make anything happen. It is not trying do anything at all. The central shaft of this form of attention is a sense of deep curiosity and wonder and it can connect us to our ancient ancestry and to our heritage of natural movement. For example: when we explore the different aspects of the natural stride cycle we are not aiming to put in more effort. On the contrary, key questions explore the possibility of achieving the same what with less effort. This deep effort of attention is continuously curious about the possibility of achieving more by doing less!

Practical Implications

There are some deeply practical implications of this Force of Nature invitation and they determine how the course is taught and structured. I like to think that what we explore and the ways that we explore it, would be much the same as what might have happened 10,000 years ago in a small group of our natural living hunter gatherers ancestors. The one major exception to this is the use of video. Video is such a valuable tool to establish what we are doing and to check whether the changes we want to see and think that we have made are really happening!

The “Force of Nature” invitation means that on the course there will be no PowerPoint presentations, no flip-charts. I hope you found this refreshing! I also make the suggestion that it is not such a great idea to record or write down what is happening during each block of three hour work together. This invitation not to pull yourself away from a deep focussed form of attention in order to record or write things down, also has a developing evolution on these Natural Running courses. At the moment I now consider this request not to write or record things as a precondition that can open up the most powerful ways into natural movement. I hope you do not find not writing things down too frustrating. Please bear in mind that it is only in an eye-blink of evolutionary time (7,000 years) that we have entered into a literate mindscape. While this has transformative potential for recording human experience, it may also block us from the rapid and powerful ways ways of refining and learning used by our ancient ancestors who survived and thrived for millions of years in a preliterate mindscape.

Another important assumption that might help you to make sense of the unconventional nature of these courses is that throughout I am making the assumption that you have within you everything that you need to know with regard to natural movement. We are not trying to put knowledge into the mind of “my body” but instead attempting to unlock it from the ancestral wisdom of THE BODY. This has a very important practical application: we are always working from the base, or the bottom upwards at all levels. If for example we operate in the type of mind-set that involves whipping and bribing the donkey of “my body” into shape, then we will mean we are coming at this from the top-down. It is interesting how contemporary neuroscience is developing a framework of understanding of how the shift from top down to bottom operates in the human brain.

Session 1: Running on the spot. Stepping and stamping

The key thing to notice here is how your foot behaves when it lands under the centre of gravity of your body. We are simply playing with how the foot lifts off the floor. We are warming up and we explore lots of variety while running on the spot. You have no problem lifting your foot from the floor. We explore the subtle changes that happen to change from a step to a stamp. This forms the beginning of a whole sequence of explorations on the theme of heel and toe. Here we are literally working from the floor or ground upwards. We key into the sensations coming from the actions of the feet. Attention is guided not to the fact that you can achieve lifting the foot from the floor but to the process or the way that this is happening.

This create a complex shifting changing set of rhythms as we share a common sense of the vibrations from the support of the floor. It is a wet and windy day. I sing a song “Even on a Raining Day” recently made up with the help of a  five-year-old genius. It contains a lot of whooping that young kids do a lot and it’s a great way to free the diaphragm.

Session 2: Poised Integrity. The  natural stride introduced

The natural stride looks and is remarkably light easy and simple. Over 25 years it has been refined to become economical and energy-efficient because it is passed through a Non-doing prism. The “lens” separates the stride into a sequence of seven moments-of-not-quite-yet: that is the moment just before the next phase unfolds – just before the muscle action happens. Each of the seven phases generates a stand-alone base-move that forms the firm foundation upon which to build layer upon layer of progressive challenge. The unique process is based on poised integrity. The neuro-systems that create poise and integrity do so by the efficient management of weight that is organized by the ingenious use of opposing forces. This extraordinary level of complexity requires the whole brain and not just the cortex! You need to get out of your head and into your feet!

A Summary of the Natural Stride demonstration: The seven Phases

1. Aligned support over the back-foot

2. Pre-action, Transfer of weight forward and the preparation or lead up to change of support. (In this action the back foot rolls up lifting the heel from the floor.)

3. Change of support. (This completes the action by raising the foot from off the floor as it moves from heel-to- rump.)

4. Forward lunge: in which the centre of gravity leads the hip joint and forward leg-swing

5. Leg swing

6. Foot-Fall

7. Propulsion

Each segment processed through the Non-doing lens or prism ensures that the freely available energy of gravity is fully used to achieve the action wherever possible.

The walking or running stance

The natural stride begins in the running or walking stance. One foot is set about a foot’s length ahead of the other. The feet are about hip-width apart and parallel to one another. Think of your head positioned in the walking and running stance in such a way that it aligns directly over the support of your back foot. From the head to heel length of this starting point you can then move into Phase 2: You ease off the “parking-brake”. This begins with a loosening around the head and neck as you start to move your weight forward. You release into this move because the body above the knee is arranged to be topple-heavy. Your topple-heavy head begins the process in a head-to-toe progression. It is like a toppling tower falling forward. This initiates Phase 2 of the seven segments of the natural stride in which the foot rolls lifting the heel from the floor.

A key base move

Phases 1 and 2 create a base move which ends in a pose that you see in most statues posed in which:
•    The weight is on the advancing leg.
•    The rear leg is bent at the knee.
•    The heel is raised and most of the foot has lifted from the floor.

I refer to this as the statute pose. In the statue pose the foot is poised on the ball of the foot preparatory to Phase 3 that will complete the action that lifts the foot off the floor. I reckon that such a high proportion of statues are created in his posture because it’s a position of poise and it brings life and movement to the stone or bronze statue.
The key importance of the foot knuckle or MTPJ in the foot is explored. This easy, poised and simple non-doing base-move achieves the following:

•    It allows the hip joint to remain centred as it swivels forward.
•    It allows the knee to freely swing to catch up with the advancing knee without a push.
•    It articulates the hinge of the ankle joint freely (dorsi-flexion)
•    It engages the toes so that the forefoot becomes the broadest possible surface area as it spreads and lengthens out into a supportive rocker-like surface.

And all for virtually zero energy. And all very dependent on the free articulation of the foot-knuckle!

Session 3. A contemplative walk

It is hard to read the print on a fast-moving bus! Sometimes we need to slow down the action order to quicken perception. The simple rule in this quite meditative procedure is that you never take two consecutive forward steps together. After each forward step you drop back and take a slow, measured back-step. You may repeat this back-step action as many times as you like. Our aim in this procedure is to fully enter the process and in particular, to focus on the action of the foot.The back-step becomes a great way to bring attention to the length of the back of oneself and to the space behind and to either side of the body. It is also a way to strengthen the foot and to work with a head to toe balance, stability and support.

Session 4. A “shake down” run over the Duddon Estuary

Variety is the main theme of the run that ended in the morning. We encouraged  running and walking steps to match to changing under foot terrain. We explored the smoothness of transitions from a walk to a run in the magnificent wilderness setting of the Duddon Estuary. We emphasised how listening to your feet is a great way of making a head to toe my connection and integrity. We also explored the subtleties of moving at just the right pace at which we could maintain an expansive and spacious awareness of all that was around in the Estuary. Whenever we drive the heart to work at a fight or flight pace there is a closing down of sensory awareness and an end-focused tunnel-vision takes over. We aim to notice such key changes.

SATURDAY pm

Trapped in the “10%” zoo-cage?

Recently I have been massively heartened and encouraged by a research project that compared the bodies and the lifestyles of natural living peoples to modern-living humans. The main conclusion of the research suggests that modern humans have settled into a limitation that engages only 10% of our natural living heritage. What I am about to suggest is not the researcher’s conclusion but mine: but perhaps we have become like hand-reared zoo animals. We are fed, watered and safe and we are well looked after but we have lost 90% that alert wily-sinewed litheness and agility of our wild ancestors. This research suggests that compared to our natural living counterparts we now have on average, a limited 10% of the range of movement in the key joints throughout the modern body. Many times I have suggested from my own area of expertise: the foot, that modern feet use under 10 percent of the full 100% capacity of a natural foot. I have not contemplated that this 10% figure went through the entire modern body like a stick of Blackpool Rock.

During the afternoon we explore the intriguing possibility of what we need to let go of in order to enter into the relatively unexplored wilderness of the 90% more latent natural moving potential. It makes total sense to begin this process with the foundation of the feet which forms the base for all of our standing walking activities. The Base Move that was introduced in morning is now used to delve into some very great detail in how to engage the whole foot and spring it out of its 10% prison!

Session 1: FOOT COMPETENCE

 Foot Competence 1:

Using a golf ball and a step to free the full knuckle

A handy step and or a golf-ball can be used to bring ‘the string of pearls’ that forms the MTPJ into the light of day.

Toe-push-ups on the Step

Placing the sharp edge of a step underneath this key MTPJ joint while giving a clear instruction to lift and then lower the toes while straight is quite revealing. You can relay a direction but your toes may have no idea how to achieve this!

One reason for this is that they are probably caught up in habitual flexion. Only when they break out of this habitual and limiting compensation can they begin to deliver an experience of the key articulation necessary for a natural stride.

The golf ball:

The gold golf ball is particularly helpful in continuing to help to free each individual “Pearl” of the foot knuckle. At this stage we simply want to win back a freedom in a key joint that has become like a rusty hinge. There is much more to come as we build endurance, strength and agility on top of this freedom.
We emphasized how the action that lifts the toes straight into extension is so crucial because it is the action that presents the front two prongs of the foot tripod.The heel is of course the rear prong of the tripod. The conventional two-dimensions usually referred to as pronation and supination are really a part of a third spiral dimension. This magnificent double helically opposed spiral works to wind and unwind the natural foot giving it an astonishing flexibility and adaptability and also the rigidity necessary to support the Big Toe (first metatarsal).

Foot Competence 2: Breaking up the adhesions

This procedure is really ‘layered-up’ on top of the dropping heel procedure, where we worked the eccentric contraction through the calf and leg. There is an important difference here however, in that this procedure involves actively lifting the toes and maintaining a powerful toe lift, while pushing or driving the heel downwards. In the earlier morning procedure the heel was simply dropping, now it is been pushed downwards. This procedure works against the action that is lifting the toes. It is the toe-lift that fully forms the rocker like surface of the toes. The toes at this stage are held stiff and quite rigid. It is this kind of strength and support from the fully supinated foot that enables the MTPJ to carry the weight of the body over its rocker-like surface with such ease. Powerfully driving the heel down while maintaining a toe-lift, will powerfully pull through the shin in front and through the calf muscles and tendons at the back. This may well create a “burn” effect as various adhesions are broken up through this procedure.

Foot Competence 3: The foot ABCD

This procedure begins at the point in the previous procedure where the toes have lifted and the heel has been driven down. When the heel can contacts the floor you then have full engagement of the three “prongs” that constitute the Foot Tripod. The raised toes will push the fifth and particularly the first metatarsal into the ground. Joints 2, 3 and 4 in “the string of pearls” that constitute the metatarsal joint are drawn up from the floor to form the Transverse arch. The foot maintains a flexible stiffness in this position. You then take a back step so that the foot with the toes raised is in front and you are ready to begin:
A) You lift the toes long and straight-up until the point that you feel the fifth metatarsal – the big toe joint, press into the ground.
B) In this phase you will raise the whole length of the foot while maintaining raised straight toes. The foot pivots back on the heel.
C) Here you lower the raised toes slowly back down to the same point that they were at the end of A) with the first metatarsal/big toe joint pushing into the ground. There is a slow long lowering of your raised toes ground.

D) In this phase there is a slow, long lowering and straightening of your toes while maintaining a focused attention to maintaining the height and full integrity of the medial arch. This phase develops the important capacity to lower the toes without collapsing that medial arch.

 

Session 2: RUNNING PROCEDURE

Elastic Drill 1: Phase 4 of the Natural Stride Sequence

In this gait drill we experience a deeper sense of the centre of gravity by positioning a belt so that it catches the top of the hipbones. Then the belt-buckle will be approximately where the centre of gravity of your body lies that is 5 to 6 cm below the belly button. The great advantage of this configuration of elastic pull is that it will enable you to really slow down the Phase 4 of the natural stride in which the centre of gravity fractionally leads and goes ahead of the action of the legs and hip. The elastic is really helpful in the process of easing out of an ingrained patterns associated with a shod gate: that is the tendency to stick the leg out in front order to present the heel as the first point of contact. The elastic enables you to do it slowly enough for the brain to “nail” a new pattern.

If you repeat the procedure a few times then, after the elastic is removed there will be that brief re-adaptation phase. What an extraordinary turnaround of the way in which your energies are being used! Instead of your own energies being used in putting the leg out in front, the re-patterned version of this forward movement uses gravity. The centre of gravity now initiates the movement of the legs as it eases forward! In this way you begin to experience a movement towards the freedom of a natural stride.

Elastic Drill 2

In this procedure we used an ankle strap with the elastic attached to the front of the ankle. Now you go through the sequence of the natural stride and include the Phase 4: you actually lift your foot from off of the floor. But now when you raise the foot, the clever and adaptable proprioceptive sense has to work out how to achieve this, and at the same time counter the pull of the elastic. This will help to bring into your awareness the key muscles that pick the heel on its efficient continued arc up towards the rump. The hamstring muscles that attach to the seat bones are the key players in this action. Once you’re unhooked from the elastic and enter into the readjustment phase, you will appreciate how efficiently these muscles can work to organize the change of support phase in a really efficient natural stride.

The effect of the elastic drills is to make the running stride feel much more compact. A key change is the way it seems to work to tidy-up the running action. What is happening is now much more directly underneath you.

The final run of the day

We have been employing the exercise elastic as a very effective form of kinaesthetic retraining. Once this retraining is complete we then progress to more effectively using the elastic as a way to  progressively challenge and strengthen the bodies integrity and coordination in the walking and running movement.

In the final run of the day we “shook down” some of the focussed elastic retraining by adding even more playful variety. In particular we explored lifting one leg slightly higher than the other. This creates a somewhat uneven beat action and a “skippy” feel that is surprisingly exhilarating.

It helps just to focus attention on one leg. The sense of “nailing” a way to move the legs in such a way that the central gravity goes fractionally before the leg-swing brings about a much more erect, open and upright upper  body.

We ended this final session of the day by becoming more deeply curious about the integrated action of the arms and shoulders and how this fits into the integrating alignment of the erect upper body action. This interest forms a great starting block for the next day of explorations of the Natural Running weekend course.