can I cheat with my movement ?

I had a patient who had a pain in the front of her hip from running. She is a mature runner who had just finished a 50km race. In the lead up to the race she had a hip flexor problem. Your hip flexor muscle is active in every stride that you take in running. Hence it can be a problem during running training due to the volume of training that you do. We helped her through the training and she completed it. Yay.. In the lead up to the race we had asked her to complete a little hip flexor strength ex. I justify this as we want to signal to hip flexor muscle that it needs to be stronger. However the strength work we do with the hip flexor is relatively light due to muscle morphology. (yes, that is a complex word. but in this instance I just going to say, the hip flexor is not designed to too heavy work..). But what I really want the body to do, I is find an easier way to complete the work. "to find a cheat". The hip flexor should be getting support from the pelvis and abdominals. The hip flexors should have a little reflex to help. The hip flexor should be using momentum to help the movement.

Let me try to demonstrate using this video.

Watch this. What do you see.

What am I hoping that you see with the passive walker model? I am hoping you see a simplified version of a human walking. I am hoping that you see momentum, and transfer of energy. I am hoping that you see a flexion movement at the hip, without an active muscle...

Now, I want to clarify. Walking is not running. It has similarities but it is not the same. I wanted to show the video to demonstrate the importance of passive structures in the running movement. That the art of moving is to find the "cheats in you body" to make the best use of those passive structures. As if you can co-ordinate your body better to make the most of those passive structures. Then you don't have to use some of the muscles in your body to create movement. You can use the structures of your body to their maximum with as little effort as possible. And for that to happen you have to find those little cheats.

Running is a joy to see when done well. For some this happens without any conscious effort. For those of you that can, I congratulate you. For the others, I want to say that this can be taught. We need to teach you. We need the right environment and guidance to help you find those cheats.

Running is a skill, that can be taught....