The Run Experience-Nate Helming: Are You Running With the Parking Brake On? R4R 006

8 years ago

Nate Helming originally thought of running as a suffer fest (sound familiar?). Years later, after discovering joy in his own running journey, Nate is the co-founder of The Run Experience, and has helped thousands of runners reach their running goals.

You will learn today that Nate is a lot of fun, he has a great attitude, and makes running and strengthening our bodies a way of having fun, rather than a chore we dread doing.

Taking what he learned from his interest in other sports, including a breakdancing past(!!), Nate looks at runners differently. He believes we have to train like athletes, not just runners. Exercises to strengthen our bodies are the same regardless of what sport we are in. If you learn the correct posture, and how to protect and stabilize your spine, you have a brand new tool set to do everything, so you can adapt it to a variety of sports.

Nate and I discuss why what is safest for the body is always what makes us the most powerful; you should never have to trade your safety to gain strength. He also shares his reasons why he thinks most people end up injured…spoiler alert: it is not because of our running!

We discuss why you should set burpees as punishment to bring your awareness to bad posture you might have throughout your workday, and how to breathe correctly while running.

This is for you if you want to be able to run and enjoy the outdoors and remain injury-free. Nate has helped athletes finish their first races, conquer new distances, overcome pre-existing injuries, set new PRs, reach the podium, and qualify for national and world level events.

Today’s Guest

Nate Helming

Co-founder of The Run Experience, a community to help runners train better, race better, and be better. Nate is based in San Francisco and in addition to coaching runners, he trains Olympic level cyclists, professional triathletes, elite mountain bikers, and national-level ultra runners on strength and mobility.

What You Will Learn About

How he accidentally signed up for an ultra as his second marathon and became an accidental triathlete.
Why becoming a runner is good thing, but it can be limiting, as we do not want to risk injuries
How to undo the effects of sitting all day
Why if you are busy and feeling a little overwhelmed, going from 0 to 15-30 mins is very powerful
Squats, pushups, lunges and burpees

Listen to the Running for Real Podcast

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Nate’s #R4RPowerPose

Inspirational Quotes

We have treated our business like training for a race, you have to dream for not the impossible, but the edge of what you think you can do, and plan how to get there.

Running is this vehicle we use for physical training, to make ourselves better physically, for a social outlet, to have a shared experience with people online…and it pushes us mentally.

Running takes us to places we don’t think we can go.

For me, running is the ultimate expression of being an athlete. How my body moves in general.

Running is a gateway drug to being an athlete.

The first time I felt like an athlete, was when I called myself a runner. That is such a powerful Identity.

I am a runner, I can do more.

You need to run a lot to be a good runner, you can’t burpee your way to a BQ.

High mileage is a privilege you have to earn, it’s not a right.

What’s safe is always what’s most powerful; I never have to trade.

We need to give ourselves a transition from our work, sleep, mornings and our runs.

We are giving runners a place to explore their athletic side and develop their inner athlete.

If you don’t Strava the run, did the run happen?

Our body is a precision machine, and it is going to do precisely do what we tell it to do all day long. If we want to change the outputs we care about like running and performance, we need to change the inputs, what we tell it to do on all those other moments.

Resources Mentioned

Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoyed today’s episode.

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Thank you to Nate, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

breathing, flexibility and mobility, injury prevention, strength training