Perfecting Your Running Form
Running form is just one of those things that you may not put much thought into. Running isn't something most of us probably think has a proper form or technique, but it does. As with strength training, running has proper form and technique that are effective in avoiding injury. And as with strength training, running form will look different on everyone.
Many runners could use some fine-tuning or even a complete overhaul on their running form. Bad running form can range from not landing on your feet properly, to hunched over, to over-striding or over-rotating your hips. Bad form can impact your running efficiency and even worse cause injury.
What’s proper running form?
The Pose technique.
The idea is to keep your body in line. A great cue is to imagine a string being pulled at the top of your head. Keep your head up and looking straight forward, shoulders down and relaxed, arms swinging more parallel to your body and not crossing the centerline of your body, trunk/torso with a slight lean forward, hips level, and foot strike underneath your hips.It’s stacking your body systems in a straight line - this will look a little different on everyone.
This means your legs, hips, trunk, neck and head are all stacked on top of each other forming a line. To simplify - proper form is when your body is aligned.
For your head, besides needing to see where you are going, keeping your eyes set straight ahead will help with oxygen intake. When you tilt your head down to watch the ground, you're restricting the amount of oxygen you can intake. The same goes for tilting your head up to the sky. Great way to avoid this but still watch your feet in times of non-smooth surfaces - move your eyes, not your head. This way you can avoid tripping but still keep your oxygen intake unrestricted.
Shoulders down and relaxed will help in a few different ways. One is that holding tension is going to take away from the available energy you have from running. It also helps prevent you from hunching forwards.
Your arm swing is important. When it gets tough you can put more energy into your arm swing and it can make you move a bit faster. The idea here is to keep your arm swing parallel to your body. You don't want to cross the centerline of your chest.
Your trunk or torso should be at a slight lean forward. This is because running is more or less controlled falling by hopping from one leg to another. The forward lean will help create this falling movement, in a way using gravity to do some of the work for you.
Lastly, you want your foot strike to be underneath you. To be honest, the jury seems to be out on how you want to strike your foot (forward, mid or rear), so the best option is to do what works for you, just make sure you're landing underneath you. Foot strike goes hand in hand with stride length and cadence.
Stride length is the length between steps. You want to be mindful that you aren't over-striding since that can cause injury. A great tip I've come across is the cue "pick your foot up" This means the second you step and are switching feet think pick your foot up so that your knee kind of comes up more. I find that this cue helps with keeping my foot strike landing underneath me and in turn keeping my stride length where it needs to be.
As for cadence, there are the 180 steps per minute. But again there are mixed options and research out there. Candence can vary in my research and experience. It can depend on various things. Such as height, stride length, going up or downhill, and pace. So there isn't a set "you need to hit x number". I've found that my average Candance hovers around 170-180 and will hit 200+ when maneuvering a steep decline.
Proper running form makes for sustainable running! Oddly enough I learned a lot about perfecting my running form from reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. If you're into reading running books it's one I recommend!
All in all, like most things running form is going to vary from person to person but I hope these tips help you! If you have questions feel free to reach out!
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Happy running!
Citations
Boullosa, D.; Esteve-Lanao, J.; Casado, A.; Peyré-Tartaruga, L.A.; Gomes da Rosa, R.; Del Coso, J. Factors Affecting Training and Physical Performance in Recreational Endurance Runners. Sports 2020, 8, 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports8030035
https://posemethod.com/running/
Running: Improving Form to Reduce Injuries;Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy,45,8,585-585,2015,10.2519/jospt.2015.0503,PMID: 26232321,https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2015.0503
Vincent, Heather K. PhD, FACSM; Vincent, Kevin R. MD, PhD, FACSM. Healthy Running Habits for the Distance Runner: Clinical Utility of the American College of Sports Medicine Infographic. Current Sports Medicine Reports 21(12):p 463-469, December 2022. | DOI: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000001019
