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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library | 796.42 YU | 31330008940359 | Searching... Unknown |
| Book | Searching... Burlington Public Library | 796.42 YU | 32116003735905 | Searching... Unknown |
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| Book | Searching... Tewksbury Public Library | SPORTS / RUNNING / YU | 32132003205112 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Why is it that trying harder to run faster can become an exercise in nothing more than futility? When the tips, hacks, tricks, and "expert advice" lead to more frustration than improvement, it's time for runners who are looking to take their practice to the next level to seek out a new philosophy and approach.
Despite training harder, running further, and pushing on for longer, the messaging serious runners receive doesn't always lead to the results they want. Drawing from Feldenkrais, Bagua, and Tai chi, Edward Yu--a trainer and former competitive runner and triathlete himself--offers an innovative approach to the art of running. Power, speed, coordination, and agility are all key components to achieving maximum performance, but in myopically neglecting the sense and sense-abilities of our bodies--how they move, what they feel like--runners have a tendency to over-rely on biomechanics, reductionism, and grit. Centering the art of running as an explorative, creative, and somatic-based practice, Yu shows runners how they can be better and run faster through sense and systematic, playful movement.
Slowing Down to Run Faster highlights our over-reliance on and misuse of biomechanics; underscores that running is a sensorimotor skill that can be fundamentally and profoundly improved through piecemeal and meticulous exploration; describes the pitfalls of imitation and "quick fixes" instead of sensing from their own bodies; uncovers harmful reductionism that underlies most popular training approaches; and contradicts popular assumptions about how to most effectively improve efficiency. With bold creativity, insight, and humor, Yu illuminates a path forward for runners ready to try a new way.
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rehab specialist and former triathlete Yu debuts with a thoughtful treatise on running intended to help readers achieve "sense-ability," the human mind's potential ability "to sense and feel at extraordinarily subtle levels and in the process direct your movement with the precision of an Olympic athlete." Yu believes that the modern world is defined by a "get it done" culture of "not feeling, not knowing and not being." In running, this lack of awareness can lead to injury. He credits experience with the martial arts Bagua and Taichi and the Feldenkrais method of movement with leading him toward greater awareness of bodily movement, and in particular, with enabling him to achieve more graceful, powerful, and enjoyable running. Yu asks runners to try out various bodily motions--for instance, the "common dictum among track coaches, 'Lift your knees higher' "--for themselves, and to concentrate on how much effort these actions require, and how good they feel. Twenty-seven exercise sets, such as "Downward Spiral" and "Salsa Hips," are included, with accompanying photographs, for readers to practice as part of their program. In redefining running as a time for "wonder and exploration," Yu's instructive and inviting text will appeal to fitness enthusiasts eager to shake up their exercise regimen. (June)
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Part 1 Life | |
| 1 Running (and Other Things We Want to Get Over With) | p. 7 |
| 2 The Hurried Runner (a.k.a. "The Bulldozer") | p. 11 |
| 3 What Does It Mean to "Slow Down"? | p. 19 |
| 4 The Art of Learning: You Already Have Everything You Need | p. 23 |
| 5 Intention | p. 29 |
| 6 Have You Lost Your Senses? | p. 35 |
| 7 To Be or Not to Be | p. 47 |
| Part 2 Practical Matters | |
| 8 Imitation: Why Trying to Run Like an Olympian Keeps You from Running Like an Olympian | p. 61 |
| 9 Who Turned Up the Gravity? | p. 77 |
| 10 Following Instructions: Where Do My Knees Begin? | p. 85 |
| 11 There Are No Shortcuts, No Secrets, No Magic Pills | p. 93 |
| 12 Running with Your Rear End | p. 101 |
| 13 Running with Both Ends | p. 109 |
| 14 Running with Shoes | p. 113 |
| Part 3 More Life | |
| 15 Compulsion | p. 123 |
| 16 Fear | p. 131 |
| 17 Certainty | p. 139 |
| Epilogue: The Rest of Your Life | p. 147 |
| Postscript: A Final Word (or Ten Thousand) on Running | p. 159 |
| Appendix A The Feldenkrais Method | p. 181 |
| Appendix B The Lessons | p. 183 |
| What's in the Lessons? | p. 183 |
| Lessons 1-9: "Throwing the Ball" Series | |
| 1 Posing Questions | p. 189 |
| 2 Screwing Foot into Wall | p. 191 |
| 3 Flexing/Extending While Throwing | p. 198 |
| 4 Stabilizing Your Front Leg While Lying Down | p. 201 |
| 5 Flexing/Extending While Throwing in Sitting | p. 206 |
| 6 Screwing Foot into Floor | p. 211 |
| 7 Downward Spiral | p. 215 |
| 8 Stabilizing Your Front Leg While-Throwing | p. 219 |
| 9 Reaching Up While Throwing | p. 222 |
| Lessons 10-17 | |
| 10 Standing Tall Without Trying to Stand Tall | p. 225 |
| 11 Lift Your Knees (On Your Back, Raising Your Knee toward Your Chest and the Ceiling) | p. 228 |
| 12 Mobilizing Your Rib Cage | p. 234 |
| 13 Behind Your Behind | p. 242 |
| 14 Water Jugs, Furniture, and Other Things to Carry on Your Head | p. 245 |
| 15 Reaching Up | p. 248 |
| 16 Salsa Hips | p. 252 |
| 17 Reach and Roll on Your Back | p. 256 |
| Lessons 18-19: "Boxer's Shuffle" Series | |
| 18 Getting Down | p. 264 |
| 19 Staying Level-Headed | p. 269 |
| Lesson 20 | |
| 20 Making Your Head Lighter | p. 272 |
| Lessons 21-26: "Metatarsals to Metacarpals" Series | |
| 21 Walking While Sitting | p. 278 |
| 22 Driving Your Knees | p. 282 |
| 23 Driving Your Knees with a Twist (or Spiral) | p. 289 |
| 24 Rodin's Spiral | p. 296 |
| 25 Resistance as a Learning Tool | p. 304 |
| 26 Improving Circulation | p. 310 |
| Lesson 27 | |
| 27 Where Does My Arm Begin? (Reach and Roll on Your Side) | p. 317 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 323 |
| Attributions for Quotations | p. 327 |
| Bibliography | p. 329 |
| Index | p. 333 |
| About the Author | p. 343 |