It is not uncommon, when watching Olympic runners bounding across the track in their typically graceful and relaxed manner, to feel as if they are floating on air. Their apparent effortlessness is due in no small part to their ability to coordinate (or synchronize) their feet, hands, arms, and legs such that they move in a cooperative, and even synergistic fashion. In fact, producing an efficient and powerful stride can be thought of as the act of coordinating (or synchronizing) the movements of your entire body from metatarsal to metacarpal, and head to toe, in such a manner that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts and muscular force, rather than being additive, becomes multiplicative.

For Every Action There is an Equal and Opposite Reaction

Because our eyes are oriented to the front of our body (one reason it’s called the “front” of our body), we have a tendency to be less aware, not only of our backside, but any movement that crosses behind the coronal plane and consequently out of our field of vision. Thus, when walking or running, we often have little inkling of not only how we are extending our neck, back, and hips, but the trajectory of either foot, knee, shoulder, elbow, or hand as it trails behind us. Yet, every movement we make both in our back and in the parts that travel behind it plays as important a role in determining the power and efficiency of our stride as those we make in our front and within our field of vision.