Running & Being: The Total Experience by Sheehan George

Author:Sheehan, George [Sheehan, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodale Books
Published: 2013-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

10. training

Nature, as T. H. Huxley had told us, never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.

If you want to run a marathon you must train six miles a day. If you are looking for that natural high that distance runners talk about, you must do the same. And if you would prefer to die of something other than a heart attack, the daily six miles is physiological magic.

But know this: Disaster will pursue you to the very gates of heaven unless you do the Magic Six. These are exercises designed to counteract the bad effects of daily training—the muscle imbalance that contributes to overuse syndromes of foot, leg, knee, and low back. Without the Magic Six you will soon become an ex-runner, no longer able to accept 5,000 foot strikes an hour on a hard, flat surface with a foot constructed for sand or dirt.

Training overdevelops the prime movers, the muscles along the back of the leg, the thigh, and the low back; they become short and inflexible. The antagonists, the muscles on the front of the leg, the thigh, and the abdomen become relatively weak. The Magic Six are necessary to correct this strength-flexibility imbalance. Three stretch the prime movers; three strengthen the antagonists.

The first stretching exercise is the wall push-up for the calf muscles. Stand flat-footed and three feet from the wall. Lean in until it hurts to keep the knees locked, the legs straight and the feet flat. Hold for ten “elephants.” (The time it takes to say “One elephant” is about one second.) Relax. Continue for one minute.

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