The Runner's Paradox
Alex Viada
You log more miles, follow the training plan, and push through fatigue, yet you've hit a wall. Your race times have stagnated, or worse, that same nagging injury keeps reappearing. It's a frustrating paradox for any dedicated endurance athlete: how can more work not lead to better results?
The secret to breaking through this plateau isn't found in simply running more. The answer lies in training smarter by building a more resilient and efficient body. This article distills five surprising and impactful takeaways from performance expert Alex Fiana on how to use balance and plyometric drills to unlock new levels of running performance and injury resistance.
Your Running Is a Series of Jumps—So Start Practicing the Jump
The most fundamental shift in thinking for any endurance athlete is to reframe the act of running. At its core, running isn't just about forward motion; it is a highly skilled, repetitive athletic movement.
"Running is essentially a series of controlled jumps."
This concept is crucial because it highlights the importance of running economy—how efficiently your body uses energy with every single stride. Proficient runners don't bounce up and down; they spring forward, keeping their vertical oscillation to a minimum. Their legs act like stiff, efficient springs that absorb impact and immediately redirect it into the next stride. The technical term for this "springiness" is lower limb stiffness. High stiffness means your center of mass has minimal vertical displacement, wasting minimal energy on each footfall.
Reframing running as a series of jumps shifts your training focus from simply building endurance to mastering the skill of efficient impact absorption and explosive energy return.
Master Control Before Power (And Why Smaller Jumps Are Harder)
Before you can build explosive power, you must first establish control. A significant predictor of reinjury in an athlete is a lack of balance and coordination. The proper training progression moves from static balance (staying stable in one place) to dynamic balance (maintaining control while moving) before attempting true plyometrics.
Start with two foundational drills:
-
Single-Leg Stand: Stand on one leg, focusing on maintaining your balance.
- Single-Leg Hop in Place: From the single-leg stand, perform small hops, barely leaving the ground. The goal is to control the takeoff and landing so that your center of mass remains stable.
Once comfortable, progress to a side-to-side hop over a line on the ground. Here lies a counterintuitive insight: making these jumps over a very short distance is actually more complex and more beneficial than jumping far to the side. A broad jump allows you to use momentum and land wherever your body naturally falls. A short, precise jump just over a line forces your body to exercise extreme control.
This precision training translates directly to your run. To see this in action, record a video of yourself from behind while running on a treadmill. You’ll likely see one leg come down directly under your center of mass, while the other lands slightly off to the side. The leg that lands directly underneath you is your "control leg." This training helps you control both legs, eliminating wasted side-to-side motion and ensuring every footfall is stable and directed exactly where you want to go.
The "Floor Is Lava" Rule for Explosive Power
A foundational plyometric exercise for runners is the drop jump, which transitions into a broad jump. An athlete starts by standing on a low box (e.g., 12 inches), hops off, and immediately upon landing, explodes forward into a broad jump.
However, the true objective of this drill is widely misunderstood. The goal is not to jump as far as possible. The primary aim is to train your body's ability to react.
"...the objective is to spend as little time touching the ground as possible... think floor is lava."
This "floor is lava" approach is incredibly practical for runners because it trains the body's rapid eccentric-to-concentric contraction—the split-second it takes for your muscles to absorb force (eccentric) and immediately produce force (concentric). Mastering this trains the exact quality of lower limb stiffness that creates a "springy," energy-efficient stride. You are teaching your body to rebound off the ground instead of collapsing into it.
Embrace "Play" and Learn to Bound
Bounding drills are perhaps the single exercise that most closely mimics an "exaggerated running stride." They are an accessible, effective, and almost playful way to reinforce the principles of balance, rebound, and stiffness.
To perform a basic bound, take two or three normal running strides and then begin launching yourself forward, creating longer, "gliding" steps where you jump from one foot to the next. The key is to feel like you are tapping the ground and gliding over it. The beauty of these drills lies in their accessibility; it's challenging to do them completely wrong.
"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good in these."
As you get comfortable, you can progress in two ways:
- Speed Bounding: Focus on minimizing ground contact time, thinking as if you're running across cracking ice. The bounds will be shorter but quicker.
- Distance Bounding: Focus on covering as much ground as possible with each bound, pushing for more length in your stride.
Train Your Brain with a Ton of Challenge
The final drill isn't about explosive power, but about neural adaptation. It involves performing walking lunges on an uneven surface created by strategically placing weight plates of varying heights on the floor.
The purpose of this exercise is not to lift heavy weights but to dramatically improve your proprioception—your body's awareness of its position in space. The unpredictable surface forces your brain, core, and tiny stabilizing muscles to constantly adapt and react. Each lunge requires minor adjustments in balance, bracing, and pelvic rotation.
This is an "excellent excellent drill" for trail and ultra runners who constantly navigate uneven terrain, but it benefits all runners by building a more adaptable and intelligent neuromuscular system. This approach embodies a core training philosophy: the goal is to create a ton of challenge for your brain, not just add a ton of weight.
Your Next PR Is Off the Pavement
Actual running improvement isn't always found by adding another mile to your weekly total. It’s unlocked by training your body to be more balanced, reactive, and efficient with every single footstrike.
What if the key to your next breakthrough isn't found on the road, but in how you learn to master the space between each footfall?
