The Lost Art of Running: A Journey to Rediscover the Forgotten Essence of Human Movement

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Running technique has to be one of the most subjective issues out there: 10 minutes' investigation on the internet will generally confuse rather than confirm what you should or should not be doing. Mother Nature gave us some amazing gifts as runners – if we rediscover them and use them, we can transform our dynamic and everyday movement.' Shane Benzie I've read many books on running technique, I'm also a certified running technique coach. Shane's book is quite different from all the others. In quite a refreshing way. It doesn't simply focus on running technique and talk about angles, forces or vectors and go into great depths about the human anatomy and which muscles do what at every point in the running cycle.

Lost Art of Running, The: A Journey to Rediscover the Lost Art of Running, The: A Journey to Rediscover the

The Lost Art of Running is an opportunity to join running technique analyst coach and movement guru Shane Benzie on his journey across five continents as he trains with and analyses the running style of some of the most gifted athletes on the planet.

He has also done quite a lot of work with elite ultra runners. Many of who's experiences are included in the book - like for example: Instead it's more of a potted history or a memoir of sorts of how he became interested in running technique/human movement. Plus it gives an insight into his travels around the world to study the best most fluid naturally talented runners on the planet. As far as I’m concerned, if you have truly lived - if you have truly connected with what you are and where you are in the world - it’s because you run.” Fartlek No. 2, Week 2—After a warm-up, perform four to five surges lasting 3 to 5 minutes each with a 1- to 2-minute jog in between. Your effort should be slightly faster than 10K race pace effort but not as fast as in Fartlek No. 1. Most runners find this to be at about 80 to 85 percent of full effort. Research indicates that running at this intensity for a total of 15 to 20 minutes results in a higher lactate threshold—the balance point between the production of lactic acid and your ability to keep it from building up. What about those who do look for education on proper running form and practice? As the author puts it, "Running technique has to be one of the most subjective issues out there: 10 minutes of investigation on the internet will generally confuse rather than confirm what you should or should not be doing."

‎The Lost Art of Running: A Journey to Rediscover the

After almost a year of trying to put some of the advice into practice (mostly stopping heel striking, and paying better attention to my posture), I did find that the occasional ankle or knee discomforts went away. Fartlek No. 3, Week 3—After a warm-up, perform five to six surges lasting 2 minutes, with a 1-minute jog between each hard effort. Your effort should be very similar to 5K race pace effort. This workout stimulates your VO2 max but also helps you become more comfortable at 5K race pace. You’ll find this helpful in your first races where many runners start too fast and fade in the end. Part narrative, part practical, this adventure takes you to the foothills of Ethiopia and the 'town of runners'; to the training grounds of world record holding marathon runners in Kenya; racing across the Arctic Circle and the mountains of Europe, through the sweltering sands of the Sahara and the hostility of a winter traverse of the Pennine Way, to witness the incredible natural movement of runners in these environments. He has literally travelled all over the planet to work with athletes and indigenous people in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya & Morocco), South America (Peru) & North America, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, India, Nepal, Bahrain, France and the United Kingdom. The storytelling and writing was pretty average at best. That, and my hesitancy surrounding the "science," has me torn between 3 and 4 stars. I'm going with 4 for the very simple reason that this book made me want to run. Not wanting to be done running, but actually run - and I hate the actual running part of running. In the end, I think that says quite a lot ...Shane Benzie is a very interesting character. I've met and received some training from Shane and I can say that he really knows his onions with regards to running technique. But, he's also interested in other human movement and has worked with the UK diving squad too. Hi, I'm Dave. I'm a UK Athletics qualified and licensed Coach in Running Fitness (CiRF), Endurance Event Group Coach and Certified Running Technique Coach. I coach groups and individuals of all abilities both online and in person. And what is most important to me is that I have less to no pain. And that for me this says it all. For now I am cautiously positive about the techniques explained by Shane Benzie. But from the first try outs and my own experience, I feel he is onto something real! I am sure he will learn much more through research about the fascia and its use in the human body. Part narrative, part practical, this adventure takes you to the foothills of Ethiopia and the ‘town of runners’; to the training grounds of world-record-holding marathon runners in Kenya; racing across the Arctic Circle and the mountains of Europe, through the sweltering sands of the Sahara and the hostility of a winter traverse of the Pennine Way, to witness the incredible natural movement of runners in these environments. Fartlek No. 1, Week 1—After a warm-up, perform 10 to 12 surges lasting 1 minute with a 1-minute jog rest in between. Your effort should be slightly faster than 5K race pace effort. Most runners find this to be at about 90 to 95 percent of full effort. Research indicates that running at this intensity for a total of 10 to 12 minutes results in a higher VO2 max—your ability to consume and utilize oxygen.

Lost Art of Running, The: A Journey to Rediscover the

Running technique has to be one of the most subjective issues out 10 minutes' investigation on the internet will generally confuse rather than confirm what you should or should not be doing. Mother Nature gave us some amazing gifts as runners – if we rediscover them and use them, we can transform our dynamic and everyday movement.' Shane Benzie As a 'travelogue' it doesn't really work as there is scant description, often just a couple of paragraphs, of the many exotic and exciting places the author visits, unfortunately instead of enriching the book as they should they just become meaningless window dressing. An engaging and interesting read, with an excellent practical section on how to make our running movement more 'natural'. I'm sure I'll revisit that over and over as I seek to improve my running. I think it’s because we don’t think of running as a movement skill. We see it as a try hard skill. It’s an innate ability. All humans can do it. So we do it. We lace up our trainers, walk out of the front door and start into the actions of us running. We don’t have any real perception of how we are moving or whether it might be the most efficient or effective way. We just presume that if we work hard and put maximum effort in, then we will move forwards as well as we physically can. If we want to improve, we run further or harder. The rest is on autopilot. Running beautifully doesn’t really enter the equation." This book is about the author's theory without any scientific basis, eg control group, about running/training. It's full of stories about his athletes and race reports from his athletes which have very little to do with the theory. I looked up his firth athlete, his performance (eg timing for the same race), did not even get any faster (actually slightly slower).

Running technique has to be one of the most subjective issues out there: 10 minutes' investigation on the internet will generally confuse rather than confirm what you should or should not be doing. Mother Nature gave us some amazing gifts as runners - if we rediscover them and use them, we can transform our dynamic and everyday movement.' (Shane Benzie) The book starts well, and I was pleasantly surprised, as it was a lot better than Born to Run, which was a hyperbolic, driveling yawn fest, that reminded me of a badly written magazine article. The Lost Art of Running" is a book about, well, running. Not your average grudging stumble or persevering putting one foot in front of the other; No, proud, bouncy, floating on air, pure joy running. The basis of the book or his theory is that we should utilising the fascia system, basically to run with more bounce and elasticity in our strides, run tall, run like the Kenyan, land in the tripod of the feet(midfoot). Our training should be focusing on forms, rather than efforts, eg less training time but more quality in terms of focusing on forms (not efforts such as pushing hard paces). He also advocates for videoing ourselves when we run. The story of Shane Benzie's quest to discover the secrets of the most fluid/natural born runners on the planet.