Although almost everyone is capable of learning to run with some practice, mastering correct running form with consistency may require some time. Additionally, improper running technique may result in various problems, discomfort, and injuries that can hinder your mobility.
If you end up with scraped calves after a jog or if the outer part of your shoe sole wears out quickly, or if your calves experience excessive tension due to your toe-running style, it indicates that your running technique needs improvement. Our assistance is available to rectify this.
6 Running Form Tips
Prior to delving into a particular drill video, let us share our foremost running form advice to promote exceptional running form:
1. Keep Your Shoulders Down
Ensure that your shoulders are not hunched up towards your ears. Keep them down and pulled back as if trying to hold a pen between your shoulder blades. This will aid in maintaining your endurance.
2. Get Your Head Straight
Direct your vision straight ahead, focusing on a distance of approximately 20 to 30 meters. Avoid fixating on your feet, unless you’re performing a brief exercise (which will be elaborated on in the following section).
To maintain proper running form, it’s important to avoid looking down as this can create tension in your neck and shoulders. A relaxed neck and jaw are necessary for optimal performance. Additionally, be mindful not to jut your head forward and ensure that your ears are aligned with your shoulders.
3. Relax Those Hands
Some individuals are naturally more inclined to do this than others. As for myself, I tend to clench my hands while running, so I make a conscious effort to loosen them since it can cause strain on the shoulders and back.
4. Go for a Mid-Foot Strike
Although every runner has their own inherent foot strike, it is advisable to develop a mid-foot strike for optimal landing. While heel or forefoot strikes are prevalent, it is beneficial to consistently concentrate on landing on the middle of the foot.
5. Control Your Knee Lift
Running with excessive knee lift can result in a bouncy gait and increased impact absorption with every stride. To minimize the impact of running on hard surfaces, try to maintain a slight knee bend while running.
Although high knee action is appropriate for running drills, while running, one should maintain low knee lift and lift their knees forward rather than upward.
6. Lean Forward Slightly
Always avoid leaning backward or standing fully upright when running. Instead, tilt your body forward a bit while hinging at your hips.
Thankfully, there are numerous uncomplicated running form exercises that may instruct you on how to properly run and prevent injuries, allowing you to fully relish each run.
5-Minute Running Form Fix
When learning proper running technique, liken it to an orchestra with various components such as maintaining an upright stature, executing hip rotation and extension correctly, possessing robust core muscles, and maintaining balance.
Our form is usually impeccable towards the start of a run. However, it is necessary to be deliberate in correcting it or it may deteriorate due to mileage and fatigue.
By following this brief five-minute form correction routine, we can learn how to fine-tune our rotational movement and enhance our stability, which prevents our body from overcompensating in specific regions as exhaustion begins to take hold.
Focus on Your Arms
While it is natural for running to primarily engage the legs due to their extensive exertion, it is equally vital to maintain a correct arm swing to enhance form and keep your shoulders and hips steady and neutral with each stride.
When fatigue sets in during a run, your shoulders become rigid and the movement of your arms diminishes, causing your upper body to compensate by twisting excessively.
If you overtwist, there could be a rapid decline in your performance. You’ll disconnect from your pelvis, your hips will drop after every step, and you’ll observe that you scrape your calves frequently. I’ve experienced this myself, and my calves become quite grimy after an extended run.
The Stable Arm Drill
To avoid losing the correct arm swing due to fatigue, what measures can we take? The solution lies in practicing the stable arm drill, which emphasizes stability and rotation to safeguard the hips by eliminating the arm swing. Follow these steps to perform the exercise:
- Jog lightly in place. Notice how your arms naturally assume a contralateral movement–they move the opposite direction of your legs.
- This will feel silly, but it helps. Run with your arms out straight (imagine Frankenstein running) for 20 meters or about 15-20 seconds.
- You’ll notice that your upper body starts to twist because your arms aren’t moving. Now, your goal is to minimize as much twisting as possible.
- Stabilize your core and make sure you’re running tall. Keep it tight!
- Repeat this exercise three times.
- We’re not through with this one yet! Do three more rounds–but this time, put your hands together in front of you. It makes it even more challenging to keep your upper body from twisting, but it’s great practice.
Once you resume letting your arms swing, you will promptly recognize its function. Rehearse this exercise a few times a week as a reminder on how to run properly in times of exhaustion.
Focus From the Bottom Up
Since you now understand the benefits of a proper arm swing on your posture, let’s shift our attention to the lower body to prevent a phenomenon known as “tightroping,” which occurs when excessive rotation causes your legs to resemble a tightrope walker. I have personally stumbled a few times after completing a lengthy run due to this issue.
All that is required is a marking to guide you along the edge of the street- avoid utilizing a double yellow line!
The White Line Drill
- Choose a course that has a line on the side to use as a marker for your feet.
- When you stand naturally, your feet are usually about hip-width apart. When you’re running, your feet should land with a bit of space between them.
- Use the line to make sure you’re feet are straddling the line with each stride. This helps prevent over-rotation–which causes that “tightroping” stride.
- Don’t go too wide–you know the stride is too wide if you feel like you’ve just gotten off a horse!
- Straddle the line for 30-60 seconds. Repeat for three to five rounds.
Include these two uncomplicated exercises in your weekly running routine to promote correct form and flexibility. Are you seeking tips on running form as a novice runner? Read this article for top-notch guidance.
5 Steps To Proper Running Form
1. Glute Engagement – It’s all about the butt. Seriously.
Based on the advice of specialists I’ve consulted regarding previous overuse injuries from running, it appears that weak or tight glutes were either the root cause or contributed to the injuries.
This seems to be the most prevalent factor in these types of running injuries, if not the top one.
Achieving adequate activation of your glutes is crucial if you aim to run with correct running form.
If the major muscles in your body, such as the legs and back, are weak or tight, they will force other parts of your body to work excessively and possibly incorrectly to compensate. This would result in improper running form.
If you consider it, it is logical.
Many people experience poor running form because they spend several hours a day sitting down, whether it’s at their desk or while driving. This sedentary lifestyle does not engage or strengthen their glute muscles.
Are you familiar with the term ‘glute activation’?
These are workouts that specifically aim to activate and involve the neglected and less utilized muscles in the buttocks.
Using your body inefficiently and not running with proper form may be a result from your neural pathways skipping the activation of certain muscles when you stand, walk, or run.
Not doing so could result in you forfeiting the opportunity to improve your performance and strength, and decrease your chances of getting injured while running.
2. Improve running posture
In order to maintain the proper running form, it is crucial to activate your core muscles.
It’s entertaining to consider my physique as a bag (how elegant!) and I have no desire to appear like a droopy bag while trekking.
My goal is to have an upright and sturdy posture while extending my core. A rigid upper body is undesirable – it’s better to keep it loose. To achieve this, concentrate on activating your core and maintaining a straight back instead of tensing up everything.
When I focus on my upper body and ensure that I keep it erect when running, my overall posture improves. I automatically look ahead (rather than down) with my eyes, and my upper body assumes an upright position, with a slight forward tilt and alignment in a straight line.
When you engage your core, the muscles in the vicinity of the center of your body, including those on your sides and back as well as your abs, work together to provide stability while you run, resulting in less superfluous movement up and down and side to side.
As soon as you correct your posture while running, it is likely that you will notice an immediate improvement in your breathing. Additionally, if you focus on proper breathing techniques while running, it can also aid in enhancing your posture. For further information on how to achieve this, refer to the article on proper breathing while running.
By focusing on maintaining good running posture, you enhance your running efficiency and increase the likelihood of achieving correct running form.
As a consequence of adjusting your running posture and muscle activation, you will likely notice an instant improvement in your speed.
The Chirp Wheel is a beneficial tool to unwind your back and relieve tension, so keep it handy at home if you feel the need for a massage.
Having a method for relaxing your back at home is beneficial because excessively tight or spasming muscles can inhibit the development of strength. This approach is superior to utilizing a foam roller.
3. Think about your running footfall and stride length
To reduce the likelihood of getting shin splints and other running injuries, especially from running downhill, I focused on maintaining a moderate stride length and an efficient cadence instead of over-striding.
Considering HOW your feet make contact with the ground can assist in deciding if you need to adjust your stride length, specifically on certain terrains. Shortening or lengthening may be required for some individuals.
As has been extensively recorded, just like myself, it is more beneficial for one’s body to land softly using their midfoot rather than striking their heel or landing on the balls of their feet, which is what I focus on achieving.
If you adjust your stride length, it’s likely that your running pace will also shift.
Efficient running is typically associated with a running cadence of 180 steps per minute. Initially, adjusting to this cadence may seem challenging, but with a few runs, you will easily adapt to it.
4. Don’t twist your upper body – get in the right planes of motion
As I run, I contemplate the ‘planes of motion’ involved in the movement of my arms and legs.
What I am trying to convey is that I prefer not to rotate my body too much, including my hips, knees, upper body, and shoulders, if possible.
When striving to move with proper running technique, I imagine my limbs chugging along like a locomotive.
The arms move in a front-to-back direction, and the legs swing from the hips forward and backward in the same plane of motion. It is important to avoid allowing the arms or legs to swing across the body or twist during their movement.
5. Push-off, knee drive and paw-back
All three of these are connected to the way you move your legs during every step, to propel you ahead.
When you break down a stride, it consists of three phases for your legs: push-off, knee drive, and paw-back.
Distinguishing an average jogger’s ‘shuffle’ from resembling a professional Olympic athlete is what sets them apart.
Observing an elite runner’s track performance, particularly in slow-motion, reveals the extent to which they move their knees forward, extend their legs backward and the time duration of each foot’s contact and landing on the ground, ultimately propelling them forward by ‘pawing back’.
