JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Cucuzella, Air Force Marathon chief medical consultant, visited Joint Base Andrews on May 7 and 8 to help Airmen get on track and run efficiently at a seminar held at the East Fitness Center here.
Cucuzzella is working with Air Force Health promotions to put together efficient running clinics for bases Air Force wide to bring his knowledge to subject matter experts to instruct the course. The Health and Wellness Center sponsored his first efficiency running seminar.
"It's easy to learn injury-free running with some simple instruction and simple practice," said Cucuzella. "Running should be taught like any other skill in the Air Force. There are a proper set of principles, when applied, will reduce injury and increase running enjoyment."
Both days of the clinic included indoor and outdoor instruction for attendees to learn about basic biomechanics, gait analysis to determine a way of walking, running, or moving along ones foot, complete with video-recorded drills for assessment, as well as footwear and aerobic development.
The two-time Air Force Marathon winner displayed the video and detailed the strengths and weaknesses of the runners.
Other concepts taught in the course serve to take the stress out of training for performance-based running in the Air Force.
"The ticket to running better at a PT test isn't necessarily about going out every day and running really hard," he said. "It's about understanding exercise physiology and getting off the couch a couple days of the week."
Airmen who run for fun progressively train to run their fullest range of paces efficiently, he said.
Cucuzzella, an advocate of the New Zealand Fartlek method of training, says he is inspired by children. The training involves alternating between aerobic and anaerobic exercise in the same session and is considered a playful approach to running.
"A lot of us as adults can learn from kids," he exclaimed. "If we just go out there and understand the play component of activity by letting our minds go without having a goal or an outcome, we can get fast before we know it. Just relax, be in the moment and get the body moving."
Studies have found high-stress lifestyles can run the risk of releasing high levels of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline which constrict blood vessels and inhibit efficiency, he said. The science of epigenetics, which suggests genes can be turned on or off in terms of the environment it's exposed to, profoundly affect efficiency.
"We want to create an environment, which encourages us to use fat as fuel during endurance training without engaging in eating power bars or consuming energy drinks every half hour," he said.
We can train our bodies to adapt to burn more body fat by regularly eating a balanced diet of healthy fats and proteins to change our bodies' enzymatic process and get more mileage out of our run.
"Think of your body as a hybrid vehicle, you run on gas and electric, otherwise known as sugars and body fat," explained Cucuzzella. "Running harder to charge past someone can quickly drain your fuel [sugar]; however, by eating a proper diet and running at a steady but progressive rate regularly, we can build aerobic metabolism and run on our bodies electric component [body fat] more continuously."
Ultimately, running is not just about passing a fitness test; it's about creating better health in your body," he said.
Within three weeks, 90 people signed up for the clinic and 25 people were on the waiting list.
"Our target audience is physical training leaders," said Sylvia Goff, HAWC health promotion manager.
As the unit fitness "belly button" PTL's can learn the skills and take the knowledge back to the squadron and pass on what they have learned, she said.
"Too often, people view PT and exercise as a chore," said 1st Lt. Lamie Jameson, 11th Force Support Squadron commander and PTL. "To get the most of workouts and PT test, we must make it a lifestyle. I will apply the teaching points I learned here to help our Airmen."
For more information, service members can log onto
Air Force Medical Service Knowledge Exchange to create an account and check out the 60-minute efficient running modules designed to teach them to become healthier, better runners.