WFR #4: Arm Swing | Wed 20th May, 7:30pm | Prospect Park Weekly Form Run

[Alen Shapiro]

When: Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (run leaves at 7:37 abouts).

Where: Find The Big Red Pointer(TM) (center of the map, click here).

Distance: A single figure 8 lap of Prospect Park, ~4.6139 miles.

Optional Distance Sub-group: 3 miles or less if that's helpful (please let Run Leaders know).

Today's Direction:  Right as you face the park at startup.

Pace: Welcome to all. Fun.

AQI: We're monitoring Air Quality Index here and have been asked to not run if the local index exceeds 125.

Where this week's topic fits in:

I dragged this week's bubble ("Arm Swing") to the top of the topics hierarchy and gave it a good shake. The result was this diagram. "Arm Swing" is mutually supported by, and aids "Breathing" and "Forward Tilt". "Arm Swing" supports "Bended Knee", "Kneesles", "Head Bob", "Short Strides", "Recovery", and "Quiet Feet". While "Arm Swing" is supported by: "Run Tall", "Hands", "Shoulders Back", "Unplug", and "Hips".

Just in case you'd like to explore, here's a pretty QR Code for Week #19:

Towards the end of Week #19 Notes (below "The Mantra"TM) there are links to all the WFR weekly topics.

This week's focus: Arm Swing (efficiency [and who doesn't need a little more of that in their life])

TL;DR: Stay on the rails. Channel Thomas the Train (pretend he has a back pocket!)

Arm swing is mission critical to speed production and maintaining cadence. KEEP READING! If you run with your arms bent around a 90 degree angle at their lowest point, with your elbow-angle opening to 110 degrees as your hands (one at a time, please or you'll get all tangled up) reach your back pocket, closing up by a similar amount as each hand reaches chest height in front of you, without straying across your body, and keeping your shoulders relatively still (independent of your arm movement), you will actually be able to levitate like Hermes (well almost... honestly). With your shoulders back and down (shoulder blades in your back pockets), treat your arms like pendulums. The more your average arms bend, the shorter your arm length. The shorter your arm length, the easier it is to make them swing faster - the less energy it takes make them swing with a higher cadence (re: resonance frequency). When you want to increase your cadence, shorten your arm length by bending them more around the 90 degree (mid-point) angle. Similarly, taller people might shorten their arm length more at their swing-extremes when they want to support (and drive) a faster cadence. Here's a link to an illustrative article. 

(We should critique Hermes - especially on his left-arm swing)

You may get more tired and feel tightness in your shoulders and neck by holding your arms up high by your chest - and who the hell needs to be more tired? 

It has been demonstrated in a lab that eliminating arm swing increases the energy cost of running. Conversely, a proper arm swing, operating fluidly with your running stride, reduces the energy needed to run. It has also been demonstrated in a lab that binge drinking is good for you. You should take lab experiments seriously. 

Linking up arm and leg movements produces far more power than if done OUT OF SYNCH. Proper arm swing is critical to reducing Head Bob and body torsion.

So I know you're all thinking (between steins of egg nog) - What should a runner's arm swing look like? Well that's easy: "Your arms should swing back and forth from your shoulder and not your elbow, no criss-crossing, sideways crap and mirror the movement of your legs. Your body is a unit. Avoid sticking your elbows out (like chicken wings), and no shoulder rolling." Like this (well mostly):

Related WFR Topics

This week's "Arm Swing", is strongly related to a previous WFR, "Head Bob" #1, linked here (for more light biomechanics reading :-) ). If you'd like to improve your racing finish, at the end of a race rotate your hands to face behind you (swimming position) and push the world behind you with your hands. Once you have integrated the "Arm Swing" technique, you'll discover that "Arm Swing" drives *everything* and, in answer to some questions, "Unplug" allows you to hear the asymmetries in the things your arms drive.

"Head Bob" #1 (bubbles), "Bended Knee" #2 (bubbles), "Short Strides" #3 (bubbles), "Quiet Feet" #6 (bubbles), "Forward Tilt" #8 (bubbles), "Hips" #9 (bubbles), "Breathing" #11 (bubbles), "Shoulders Back" #13 (bubbles), "Run Tall" #14 (bubbles), “Avoid Kneesles” #15 (bubbles), "Unplug!" #16 (bubbles), "Recovery" #17 (bubbles), "Hands" #18 (bubbles).

Reading Bubble Diagrams:

Bubbles in the pictures are individually linked to the most recent notes. They are now no longer pictures (hooray), they're auto-generated scalable vector drawings.

Topics are related to each other. Some more or less directly than others. Bubble Diagrams (e.g. this week's topic bubble diagram) illustrate how they are related. Bubbles nearest the top are more directly related to this week's topic. The path to the top illustrates a chain of related topics. Topic bubbles are expanded once in their highest position (most closely related to this week's topic) and are colored blue (or colored black if this is a topic's only appearance). Duplicated bubbles are colored green, which is no less important than a blue colored bubble at the same vertical distance from the root.

Lines that join topic bubbles have been colored. Blue connecting lines illustrate a child topic (lower) supported by its parent topic (upper... think waterfall). Purple connecting lines illustrate the child topic supporting its parent topic. Black connecting lines indicate bi-directional (mutual) topic support. Lightly colored connecting lines indicate topics that are pulled out of the way, as the level they occupy is too crowded. One day 3D (AV) will allow us to walk through bubble diagrams (like tinkling mobiles hanging from your ceilings) and currently lightly-connected bubbles will just be viewable at a different angle (by spinning the view) and not colored differently. One Day... ahhh... One Day.

📢 ANNOUNCEMENTS 📢

We’re looking for volunteers! Volunteer at the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge May 28 at 5PM! Signup: https://shorturl.at/4tZUR

Wednesday Night Road Run (WNRR) is looking for additional run leaders. WNRR starts at 7:30 PM at McCarren and is generally 4-6 miles with paces from 7:30-10:30mm. Email Run Coordinators at training at northbrooklynrunners.org 

with your conversational pace and a brief intro by EOD, Saturday, 05/02 (oops).

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📢 Weekly Daddy Joke 📢

The Genie granted my wish for longer arms, but he warned me my wish would have far reaching consequences (including messing up my running cadence).