Sunday, August 10, 2014

The PT Test: 6 Ways to Quickly Get Max Points for Your Waist Measurement

(This post was updated on 10 August 2014.)

Believe it or not, the waist measurement is probably the easiest component of the PT test to max out. Why? Because the waist measurement is actually an overall measurement of your health and the USAF has set the bar pretty low. Also, improving your health (and dropping inches from your waist) is remarkably easy to do (trust me).

This is good news because the waist measurement also gives you the second largest block of points (up to 20 points). Generally, men have to have a waist circumference of 35 inches or less to get max points; women have to have 31.5 inches or less.
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Saturday, August 9, 2014

Improving Your Running Form: Posture

(This is an excerpt from my upcoming Natural Running Guide.)

Good running form starts with good posture. Posture describes the “three natural curves” of the spine. For running, good posture describes your body making a straight line from your head, shoulders, pelvis, and ankles.

If you don’t utilize good running posture it becomes very difficult for you to efficiently use elastic recoil (described in another post). This is because a kinked posture forces your muscles to work harder to keep your body from collapsing, preventing you from reusing much of your running momentum.
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My New Natural Running Guide


One of my biggest complaints with the USAF's PT program is that no one actually teaches you how to run. Consequently, many people use poor running form and economy, making running a very exhausting and painful experience (I know it was for me). However, once you actually learn how to run, your running experience radically changes. Not only do you start to run much faster with fewer injuries, but you may even like running (this may sound impossible to many of you, but I promise, it's a very real possibility).

Because there are so few running clinics out there, I decided to create a guide based on my research and struggles with improving my own running form. Although the guide is still several months away from completion, I will start to post excerpts on my blog.

Below is my introduction and screen shots of a couple of pages. As always, I would love to hear your feedback!
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