To enhance your running ability, it’s crucial to assess your running technique and implement any required alterations and enhancements. Doing so will decrease the likelihood of injury, augment velocity, and improve effectiveness.
The way you run is crucial to reaping the numerous health advantages of running. It allows you to cover more ground, boost your performance, and experience less pain and discomfort.
It is important to consider variations in body mechanics when following specific form techniques. Additionally, one should take into consideration their desired running distance and speed, as well as any injuries or physical concerns they may have.
It is important to remember that you might have developed unhealthy behaviors during your running journey, which can be challenging to eliminate due to their familiarity. However, it’s alright! Enduring some discomfort or novelty while improving your form is valuable and can boost your running enjoyment.
Running form
Listed below are some recommendations that can help enhance your running efficiency, enhance your athletic capabilities, and reduce the chances of getting injured.
Jogging
Despite its slower pace, jogging offers various health benefits that shouldn’t be overlooked. To get the most out of your jogging routine, follow these tips:
- While jogging, maintain good posture, engage your core, and gaze forward.
- Avoid tilting your head down and slumping your shoulders.
- Broaden your chest, and keep it lifted as you draw your shoulders down and back.
- Keep your hands loose, and use a relaxed arm swing. Avoid crossing your arms in front of your body.
- To prevent injuries to your lower body, use a midfoot strike, and avoid hitting the ground with your heel. This allows your foot to land directly under your hip as you drive your body forward. A heel strike may cause your leg to slow down your stride and stress your knees.
Sprinting
When engaging in the high-intensity activity of sprinting, it is necessary to activate a significant amount of muscle and generate explosive force, in order to cultivate a formidable stride. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
- Slightly lean forward from your waist while engaging your core.
- Lift your chest, soften your shoulders, and draw them away from your ears.
- Use short, fast strides to conserve energy.
- To reduce your chance of injury, land softly and quietly with minimal impact.
- Use a forefoot strike, and propel yourself forward from your toes. With each step, lift your thigh so it’s parallel to the ground.
- Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle and draw them straight back and forth, using an exaggerated movement and moving them through a wider range of motion than when you jog.
- Raise your hands as high as your chin and back toward your low back.
- Avoid rotating your torso and bringing your arms across the midline of your body.
On a treadmill
If you want to minimize the impact on your joints and avoid overuse injuries, running on a treadmill is a viable choice.
When using a treadmill, you can maintain a consistent speed and avoid interruptions or breaks, which helps you concentrate on your technique.
Take into account these suggestions:
- Draw your shoulders back and engage your core as you slightly lean forward.
- Maintain an erect spine. Keep your shoulders directly above your hips.
- Relax your arms, gaze straight ahead, and avoid looking down or at the monitor.
- Use a short stride, and take small steps.
- Running on a treadmill will force you to shorten your stride since overstriding will cause you to kick the front of the treadmill.
- Unless you have concerns with balance, avoid hanging on to the rails as you run.
Your feet
When running, make sure your stride is suitable for your pace and try to land softly to avoid injuries, instead of slamming your foot onto the ground.
By adopting the appropriate foot strike, you can enhance your running economy and boost your speed while utilizing lesser energy.
Learn how to care for your feet:
- Land with control, using a smooth, even foot strike.
- To avoid lower extremity injuries, use a forefoot strike, which utilizes more muscle activation when you land.
- A midfoot strike helps propel your body forward.
- Avoid striking with your heels. This can slow you down and stress your knees.
- Maintain normal or neutral pronation of your feet by rolling your feet inward slightly. This allows your feet to properly absorb the shock of landing while keeping your lower body in alignment.
Techniques to improve form
Enhance your technique by carrying out essential workouts that elongate and fortify the muscles utilized in running.
- Include core exercises, such as glute bridges and side planks, to improve strength, balance, and stability while lowering your chance of injury and overuse.
- To protect your knees from injury, strike your foot directly under your knee instead of in front of it, which can also be the result of overstriding. This is particularly important when running downhill.
- Maintain a tall, erect spine, and lengthen out through the crown of your head. Do head and neck exercises to build the strength necessary to maintain good posture and a forward gaze.
- Coordinate your breathing to align with the rhythm of your feet. This helps maintain a relaxed posture, reduce muscle tension, and efficiently use energy.
- Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle, and swing your arms from your shoulders forward and backward while keeping your hands relaxed.
- Avoid crossing your arms across your torso or twisting your upper body.
- Slightly lean your chest forward to help propel your body forward.
- Press up and forward from the ground behind you with each step.
Proper Running Technique: Top Six Tips
1. Avoid Over-striding
The position of the contact point in relation to your body is a significant factor in determining the weight of the impact and braking forces, regardless of whether you strike with your heel or forefoot.
It is a useful guideline to check for the position of the knee and ankle when assessing over-striding. The optimal position is for the knee to be flexed directly over the ankle upon initial contact. If the runner is over-striding, the ankle will be in front of the knee.
Patterns of over-striding, as demonstrated in the above image, may occur due to several factors, with insufficient posture and a slower than appropriate running cadence (stride frequency) being significant contributors.
Attempt to boost your running cadence (the number of steps taken per minute) by 5%, and experience how it motivates you to decrease over-striding. This, in turn, leads to feeling more weightless on your feet, as your time of contact with the ground shortens.
A fundamental electronic metronome is an excellent aid in achieving and sustaining a heightened running tempo.
2. Maintain a Tall Posture as You Run
Achieving good and efficient form largely depends on your running posture. The postures you maintain when sitting at your desk, driving, or lounging on the couch can greatly impact your running style.
Many of us have a tendency to sit for extended periods throughout the day, myself included as I am currently in a seated position while writing this. This posture can lead to the tightening of our hip flexors and other muscles towards the front of our body, while also causing weakness in our glutes and other muscles located towards the back.
When we attempt to run, it creates a problem because our body requires proper hip extension and an upright posture. However, due to our habitual postural tendencies, we end up adopting a partially flexed position while running, especially in the hip region.
Now let’s think about triathletes, many of whom experience postural problems related to their desk jobs. Adding to this, they spend hours on the bike, which worsens the tightness in their hip flexors caused by prolonged sitting.
To combat hip flexor tightness, I instruct my athletes and triathletes to do the hip-flexor mobility routine provided below both before and after every training session, as well as during their day when they have spare time. This can be done in the gym, at work, and in other settings.
The focus is on reversing the hip flexion pattern and restoring some extension range.
3. Relax Your Shoulders
Inhibited arm motion due to tension in the shoulders, neck or upper back can disrupt the balance, rhythm and power that your arms provide while running.
Similar to the legs, when running, your arm motion should increase in size as your speed increases. On the other hand, slow running demands slight, but sustained arm motions that originate from the shoulders. The motion pattern stays the same, only the scale of the motion varies.
It might take some time to adjust, but when you start feeling tired, make sure you continue swinging your arms as they assist in maintaining a consistent pace for your legs.
4. Strengthen Your Glutes & Core
Despite your diligent efforts to enhance your running technique, your core strength and capacity to engage your gluteal muscles remain crucial in determining your performance levels and warding off injuries. The stability of your lower trunk, pelvis, and hips are mainly supported by these critical sets of muscles.
Knee, hip, and back injuries may occur directly as a result of weaknesses and imbalances in these regions, as well as running-related issues in the lower leg, calf, and Achilles.
Integrating strength and stability exercises into your weekly schedule will enhance these crucial elements, resulting in long-term benefits for your running such as injury prevention and enhanced performance.
5. Don’t Bounce or Rotate Excessively
The act of running involves moving forward in a straight line, making it a linear motion. While specific joints and segments require rotation to operate smoothly, it is crucial to avoid excessive sideward turning of the body. Excessive rotation can sabotage the ultimate aim of moving forward and requires significant energy to manage and stabilize, resulting in a significant inefficiency.
Similarly, when moving forward, focus your energy horizontally rather than vertically. If your cadence is slow and you over-stride, as mentioned earlier, it may lead to excessive upward movement or “bounce” during your stride.
An additional one inch bounce per step while running a marathon would cover an unnecessary mile of vertical distance throughout the entire stretch, making it a fruitless addition.
The figures may differ based on the length of your stride, but you understand the concept.
6. Control Your Breathing
It is important for your breathing pattern while running to align with the overall rhythm of your body. As the intensity of your exercise changes, the ratios of inhalation and exhalation may also change. Proper breathing is crucial to your running technique and should be practiced in order to remain composed during races, especially when your focus is elsewhere.
Tips to avoid injury
Below are some additional suggestions to aid you in preventing injury as you focus on improving your technique:
- Improve mobility and flexibility in your hips and ankles to reduce injuries in your low back and knees.
- Increase your number of steps per minute to put less stress on your body.
- Gradually increase the duration, intensity, and frequency of your runs. Build up your speed and mileage over time. Remember, results take time.
- Take a break for an appropriate length of time if you have muscle pain or injuries, especially if they’re recurring or long lasting.
- See a physical therapist if you have any injuries. They can treat your injury, identify the cause of it, and help you make the necessary corrections to prevent it from recurring.
- Talk to your doctor if you’re new to exercise, have any physical concerns, or take medications that could interfere with your running program.
- Wear appropriate running shoes. Avoid shoes that are too cushioned. Replace your shoes often.
When to talk with a pro
There are several advantages to receiving individualized fitness coaching. Both amateur and competitive runners can gain from collaborating with an experienced running specialist, even if only for a limited number of sessions.
With the help of a committed expert, you can develop a personalized regimen to attain your objectives by establishing regularity, drive, and responsibility.
Additionally, a seasoned runner will support and encourage you throughout your journey towards achieving your goals.
This is particularly advantageous if you are inexperienced in fitness or running, or if you have any concerns regarding your body, particularly with regards to alignment, body mechanics, or past injuries.
A study conducted in 2015 suggests that incorporating visual or auditory feedback can be an effective tool in enhancing running form and reducing the likelihood of sustaining injuries.
Your form can be improved by receiving feedback whether it is from watching a video, using a mirror, or receiving verbal cues.
A fitness expert can aid in establishing and upholding proper posture, as well as eradicating any poor habits you may have formed. They can assist you in enhancing your stamina and lowering your chances of sustaining injuries.
With the assistance of a fitness expert, you can ensure that you warm up and cool down properly, prevent overexertion, and maintain safety. Moreover, they can aid you in creating a nutritious meal plan and deciding on pre- and post-run meals.
Running Form is Individual
Despite the extensive discussion in recent years regarding running form, it is crucial to acknowledge the absence of conclusive empirical data that favors a particular approach over others.
From my observations while coaching endurance athletes, it becomes evident that a midfoot strike style is advantageous for a specific group of athletes. However, it is crucial to adopt a gradual and progressive approach to improving running technique from head-to-toe, and adequate time should be given to allow the body to adapt slowly. Unfortunately, many people fail to apply this factor correctly.
Many endurance athletes should focus on maintaining a heel strike, but should work on making it lighter instead of over-striding and slamming their heels into the pavement, which is a common mistake made by many runners.
Frequently, these athletes possess a distinct injury background or a predetermined objective such as Ironman or ultra running that makes them more appropriate for adopting a softer heel strike contact as opposed to transitioning to a more forceful midfoot or forefoot strike.
Craig “Crowie” Alexander, a three-time Ironman World Champion and ambassador for Newtons (a forefoot running shoe company), can be observed heel striking to some extent during the latter part of an Ironman marathon.
The crucial point is that despite being tired, Crowie maintains exceptional running form, executing a heel strike without excessive overextension and resulting in a light, efficient landing. This type of strike is called a “glancing” or proprioceptive heel strike, characterized by a gentle landing on the heel followed by a quick transfer of weight to the forefoot for full loading.
The post provides various easy running technique tips that can enhance the effectiveness of your running form, regardless of whether you land on your forefoot, midfoot or heel, or if you prefer running barefoot.
