Read Video Text Below:
Hi, David Weck here. Today, I want to share with you a strategy for using the hands to run better.
First thing you need to understand is hands are critical for running because they govern the tension in the shoulders. When you do it incorrectly with the hands, it has a negative effect on the shoulders and that makes you run less efficiently. For example, if I clench these conventional fists, I restrict the shoulders, burn more energy, I'm tight, and I can't run well.
Good runners use a strategy: they want relaxation through the hands. Beyond relaxing them, very few runners have a strategy for exactly what they want to do with every single finger. With WeckMethod, we want to scrutinize it to that level to create the absolute best internal balance to optimize strength and power. We're going to teach you a technique we call the B Fist.
The key to this is the middle finger: We're going to bring the middle finger down to the center of the palm and we're not going to bend that last digit the way we would in a fist so its straight. You can do it by slow-motion snap it, slide it, spread it and spread it all the way to the line, don't let it stop at the base of the thumb. Get it spread, use your other hand if necessary. Park your ring finger over the top and try to get your pinky over the top. If you can't, just put it at the side. Index finger and thumb are nice and relaxed together.
To align the B Fist, you want to think of the middle finger here is perfectly aligned with the tip of the elbow here. Notice how it creates a little notch in the wrists. That represents our fundamental neutral where the bone structure, the alignment of the bones, is going to create this internal circuit that the soft tissue (muscles, tendon, fascia) is going to be able to reorient and organize around a bone structure that is fundamentally stronger and that results in better balance, strength and power.
You just find the posture here in the B Fist, the best you possibly can. Use your other hand to help set that middle finger right. Now, simple strategy: you're just going to hold that position and the next time you go for your run, particularly distance running, find that position and see what the effect is through your body as you run with that.
The more you practice this and the more you get accustomed to this fundamental neutral alignment where the forces are transmitting with the greatest efficiency, the better you're going to be able to assimilate and make your whole body benefit from the minor, but profound difference that the hand to the shoulder to spine, hips, feet, everything gets better. The gains may be small, but they can be profound; even on a one percent improvement in efficiency with set you on a whole new trajectory for more significant gains down the road. Even a small change here can lead to profound differences a year from today.
Let's review it: you get that middle finger into position, you arrange yourself into what we call the B Fist, you use the other hand if necessary, get the other hand in that position, go for a run holding that position, nice and relaxed while thinking 'loose and fluid, wide expanded, low and relaxed through the shoulders'; the hands are going to help govern that action. See if that makes and improvement for you.
Tune in to WeckMethod.com for more functional training information and to deepen and improve your movement skills.
