1. What is Natural Running?

• Natural Running isn’t barefoot running, although it can be done barefoot. It is the way the human body is meant to run in its purest form and the way human beings have run since we first existed. Natural Running means running with efficient biomechanics, centered around landing lightly on the forefoot, falling forward with gravity, then pulling your foot off the ground, instead of pushing off with muscular force. Practicing Natural Running is simple, but you must unlearn old habits, learn proper technique, and allow the lower legs and feet to re-adapt to a correct human running style. Ultimately, Natural Running can help make any runner more robust, more efficient, and less prone to injury. There are a few different ways to learn and practice Natural Running. I teach the POSE Method of Running since it’s a straightforward and replicable process for teaching someone to run physiologically correctly.

2. Can anyone learn Natural Running?

• There is a very small percentage of people that have extreme damage to their ankles, knees or back that might have trouble with Natural Running but the overwhelming majority of people will do just fine with it and will probably even learn to love running again. People who haven’t run in years have gone back to running 5Ks and 10Ks once they learned how to run correctly and without pain. Those people that can’t do Natural Running will still benefit form learning a modified version called Natural Walking. Believe it or not, most people don’t even know how to walk right.

3. I already know how to run, or at least I think I do, why would Natural Running be beneficial for me?

• You probably think you know how to run but unless you’ve actually taken the time to compare foot and lower leg physiology with different styles of running and tested them out for yourself, you probably don’t. Learning the correct way to run can decrease already-existing ankle, knee and foot pain caused by running incorrectly or may prevent it entirely if you’ve never experienced pain from running. Natural Running also greatly increases lower body proprioception and kinesthesia.

4. Proprioception and kinesthesia? What the heck are those?

• Proprioception is the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium. Even if a person is blindfolded, he or she knows through proprioception if an arm is above the head or hanging by the side of the body.
• Kinesthesia, or “movement sense”, is the awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs in the muscles and joints.
• Click on this sentence to check out a video for more detailed information. 

5. Yes but WHY should I care about proprioception and kinesthesia?

• You should only care about these things if you find efficiently walking, running and otherwise moving your body through space to be valuable. Our culture is very sedentary and most people don’t do anything to really give these systems a work out to keep them in tip-top shape.
• The more finely tuned these two sensory systems are the less likely you are to break your hip at 70 and end up in a nursing home. For younger people, the more finely tuned these systems are the better you’ll be at sports and pretty much everything that involves your body.

6. What is Natural Movement?

• Natural Movement is a health & fitness discipline based on the practice of ancestral human movement skills. It encompasses the skills of breathing, ground movement, walking, running, jumping, vaulting, balancing, crawling, climbing, swimming, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, and self-defense skills such as striking and grappling. Humans no longer live in the natural ancestral setting; we have lost the rich diversity of movement previously enjoyed by wild humans and are reduced to a few commonly overused movement patterns. Some of the patterns we’re all familiar with are standing in line at the store, sitting behind a desk, sitting behind a car steering wheel, walking to the mailbox, and sitting on the couch watching television at night. If you’re an athlete, you could add linear running and linear weightlifting as additional habitual movement patterns. Being stuck in these limited consistent movement patterns eventually casts your body into unnatural postures leading to health problems, physical dysfunction, and pain. Natural Movement training aims to regain diverse evolutionary and biological movement patterns to foster, restore, and/or maintain health, fitness, well-being, happiness and even a sense of freedom. Developing a Natural Movement practice sets a healthy baseline of agility, mobility, and flexibility to support a healthy lifestyle or additional athletic endeavors. The type of Natural Movement training taught by Coach D is called MOVNAT.

7. Why should I take Natural Movement training?

• Because you don’t want to fall down and break your hip when you’re 70 years old. See FAQ #5.