You just heard the starting gun of the race, you're angled 45 degrees, driving your legs and doing great. Now what? After the first few strides, gradually lean up with your torso so there's a 5 degree lean. Your stride length and frequency should hit top gear. Your eyes should be focused straight ahead. Within 20 meters you should have some of these technique points:

• Minimal Ground Contact Time - Think like you're running across hot coals. You're applying as much force as possible down and back. Elite sprinters like Andre DeGrasse have contact times around 0.1 seconds on the ground!
• Leg Kick - The back leg (hip, knee, ankle) fully extend during propulsion. But then your knee should kick back up towards your butt as the leg swings through. This decreases the lever of the leg, making it easier to swing forward
• Posterior Pelvic Tilt - This point is really important. Posterior tilt is when the pelvis slightly tucks under. Having a bit of tilt allows the runner to drive the hip tighter. Why is this important? It allows you to apply more force down to the ground and can increase stride length by about 3cm!

If you look at the final stretch of an Olympic race in slow-motion, often the top runners are in posterior pelvic tilt. While the losers are in forward pelvic tilt!

Having a great start doesn't make or break a race. But it really helps. this is where muscle strength and power make a big difference. However technique is still key. The main points to accelerating quickly (in running or any sport):

• Body Angle - You want to aim for around 45 degrees. You want the chest and eyes angled to the ground, this relaxes your back and neck muscles
• Triple Extension - the back leg should have full extension of the hip, knee and ankle for the first strides, to maximize power generated
• Triple Flexion - the lead leg should have great flexion of the hip, knee, and ankle with foot contact (like a coiled spring)
• Arm Swing - you want big, powerful arm movements to counterbalance the opposite leg movements. Front arm should flex high with elbow 90 degrees, back arm should fully extend

All of these techniques work to convert energy horizontally and forward. If your arms aren't moving correctly you lose energy sideways. If your torso angle is too vertical you lose energy upwards. Counterbalance is key, because leg forces can be more than 1500 Newtons of force! Tomorrow I'll talk about accelerating and hitting maximum speed

Before we even get into testing flexibility, the question is: does it matter? The simple answer is yes, but as I'll explain it depends on what you need that flexibility for. To test it:

• Lie Flat on the Ground
• Start with both legs straight
• Raise your testing leg in the air
• Your testing knees should be bent 5-15 degrees
• Keep your pelvis neutral, opposite leg on the ground

A good level of flexibility is hitting around 90 degrees straight in the air. But I find it alright if someone gets to 80 degrees depending on their sport and activity.

But when I do this test what I really look for is on the opposite die. When the leg goes up , what's the pelvis doing? If there's a lot of tilting and bending happening, this is more my concern. It means in a functional task like a soccer kick or sprint you're probably compensating and don't have TRUE flexibility of that hamstring.

For movement geeks it means you have poor extension or tight hip flexors on the opposite side. It can also mean poor hip mobility on the same side.

Hamstring 'inflexibility' is related to injury (Clarke, 2008). But it depends on WHY inflexibility is happening. You can't just stretch your hamstrings forever, you have to address core stability issues, other muscle balances as well.

​Do this simple test yourself, do you have good active hamstring flexibility?

​Dead Bug Exercises For Core Control

Ok let's be honest, there are a thousand ways to train your abs and mid-section. But building off our most 2 weeks ago, we need to build a foundation of control for our low back and pelvis before progressing to dynamic movements.

'Dead Bug' exercises are an absolute staple of improving core control. It ensures proper activation of the local muscles like Multifidi and TrA (pictured above). This stabilizes each spinal segment so that when huge movements occur, shearing forces to the low back are limited.

Shown below is a basic dead bug exercise:

• Lie Supine
• Using your hands and knees, prop up an exercise ball without resting it on your stomach
• Tense up the muscles of your abdomen and low back (but don't suck in your stomach)
• SLOWLY bring a hand or knee off the ball
• Extend hand or knee away from the ball, making sure your low back stays neutral.

Notice my legs and arms move independently of my pelvis. Your back should not change position and your pelvis should not tilt when you move your limbs. It needs to be done SLOWLY to get the benefit. You can also use a rolled up towel or band behind your back to tell if your spine changes position.

These become pretty easy with practice, so there are countless variations (ex. perform with both arms extended). Driving home the point, this does not give you jacked abs, it is to retrain the brain to get co-ordination of the spine and pelvis when doing other movements.