The physical phenomenon, graphed below – alludes to how inefficient runners waste energy, which very often leads to injuring soft tissue, e.g muscles, tendons, including the heart. In the graph below, you can see more energy via muscular effort is required to walk slower, compared to a normal walking pace.

From this lesson you will later see how the mechanics of inefficient running involves the same wastage of energy and wasteful muscle contractions while purposely walking slower than your normal pace.

And because running with bad form is inefficient and wastes energy, it opens the door to understand training techniques to develop explosive power, nutritional physiology, biomechanics, the illusion of training styles, how adherence to certain beliefs lead to destructive use of the body, and moreover, to see and feel the invisible world in a more complete and concrete way. Thus, the physics and philosophy of ‘Do not run unless you can run‘ is not limited to running.

The philosophical part is more important but difficult for people to understand. The ‘tough guy/girl-tough it out’ mentality permeates the thoughts of endurance runners to the point of pushing through – and ultimately glorifying pain to the point of senseless injury – both acute and chronic.

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