Hands free?

Image by Kmeron

Unfortunately as a runner I am not always as carefree and unburdened as I would love to be.  The dream is just throw on shorts, t-shirt & trainers and head out into the great outdoors with not a care in the world (until I find myself in an exciting new place, but realise I no longer know where I live… but that has yet to prove fatally disastrous).

Sadly that minimalist kit is rarely all I, or most of us, head out with.  Drinks, phone, keys and ipods are amongst the more common clutter we find ourselves with.  I am not a big fan of carrying all this stuff as I love just being out, unencumbered in the big wide world, but I get why people want to listen to music; and phone, keys and drink are practical essentials for most.

This is where the trouble starts – what do you do with this stuff?

Some of my shorts have pockets, but not everything fits in, and this means they them uncomfortably swing about.  Most girls kit has even less pocket options as well, so the option isn’t available in the first place.  So, if you only have a couple of bits, why not just carry them?

I see so many people carrying phones, especially running through cities, and usually I can see that they are carrying something long before I can see the item they are holding.  It seems such a small thing, but has a very telling impact on running form.

So, how can something so small and light change how you run?

To make a fist, you only need to engage the muscles in your forearm which don’t play any part in running, so on first sight it appears that it should be fine.  However, try and make a fist now, while you are sitting down… not only will you notice the muscles in your forearm engage, but to support this muscles in the upper arm and shoulder will also tense, and these are what cause the tell tale signs.

As the shoulder tightens, your arm can no longer swing to act as a counter weight to your legs, and so your torso will twist, and typically your tensed arms will punch across the midline of your body (like an irate t-rex).   A twisting torso will then compress your lungs reducing capacity.

The real problem comes with developing the muscle memory though.  If you regularly run like this, tensing through your shoulders and torso become the natural running state and letting your arms swing in a free and relaxed way starts to feel unnatural and uncomfortable… habit becomes a characteristic.

So load your clutter into a bag, or strap a phone onto your arms to free your hands and keep your shoulders loose, and run free and easy!