Proper Running Form

by Rick Hellard, Zone 3 Sports, posted on Tri-Rudy, November 1, 2010

Proper Running Form

According to me and almost everything I've read, when it comes to running form, the things you want to think about and focus on are:

1. Posture

a. head

b. shoulders

c. Torso

d. hips

2. Footstrike

a. position

b. cadence

3. Knee lift/kick bac

4. Arm swing

5. Hand position

The good thing about this is that it is highly likely that if you fix one part, it will positively affect the others. Given the choice, I suggest posture as your main thing to work on.

Running, like walking, is a series of falls where you catch yourself with the next step. In order to continually fall forward, you have to continually lean forward, thereby using the pull of gravity to encourage that forward motion. If you stand up too straight, you do not encourage that forward motion.

With that in mind, here is what I want you to focus on, in order of priority.

Posture

Head position

look where you are going

keep your chin up so your airway is open. If you look at your feet, or down at the ground, your airway is a bit more closed than it needs to be and impedes breathing

if you do this, your posture will naturally improve

Shoulders

should be back with chest out a bit.. This will put your centre of gravity in a position that is slightly ahead of your body, creating the forward fall as gravity pulls it downward

This also opens up the lungs and makes it easier to breath deeply.

If your head is up and you are looking where you are going, this is much easier.

Torso

Needs to be reasonably taut and strong as it support the forward lean and keeps things in line between hips and shoulders, As we fatique, we tend to slouch. A strong torso easily resists the fatigue.

If your head is up and your chest is out, you cannot slouch.


Hips

Should be slightly forward, adding a bit more to the forward lean.

To a point, the faster you run, the more you lean.


Foot Strike

Position

Ideally, you should try to use a mid-foot strike where the foot lands slightly behind the ball of the foot and under your hips, not in front of them. If you do one, the other will happen almost automatically. It is important to remember your feet and legs are only propelling you forward if they are, however slightly, behind you. If you touch down in front of your hips (aka overstriding) three things happen:

1. you are actually slowing yourself down by hitting heel first,
2. you are increasing the level of impact with every foot strike; and,
3. you are delaying the next push off the length of time it takes for your body to get in front of the contact point so you can actually push off.

If you get the forward lean right and the feet under the hips right, you will naturally land mid-foot.

Cadence or stride rate

The ideal cadence for running is between 88 and 92 footstrikes per foot per minute. This goes for almost every size and speed of person, as well as race distance.

Simply count foot strikes for 30 seconds and multiply by 2. if you get 90, you're golden. If not but you are close, that's fine. if you are much higher or lower, you should adjust accordingly.

One of the things gently touched on above is overstriding and it's effect on impact-it increases it. Keeping your cadence around 90 will result in a softer foot strike because the body weight is supported more often, therefore distributed between more footstrikes for shorter periods of time. This will very likely reduce impact injures.

Hopefully, it is obvious there is a most efficient stride rate and taking more steps is not necessarily better. More than 90 foot strikes per minute gets to be too many and is not as efficient.

A good stride race will also limit upward motion, reducing time in the air, again, reducing impact.


Knee lift/kick back

It was proven long, long ago that with the appropriate length lever, you can move almost anything.

It is worth noting that the longer the lever, the greater the distance one end needs to travel in order to move whatever is at the other end. The further the travel, the longer it takes.. Conversely, the shorter the distance the end has to travel, the quicker it can move.

So, it stands to reason that by raising your foot and bending your knee and thereby shortening your leg (lever) on the kickback, the easier and quicker you can get your knee forward and back into position to get your foot back on the ground so it can propel you forward.

This action takes a little more effort on the part of the hip flexors, hamstrings and calves, but in terms of efficiency, is very worthwhile working on.

The faster you go, the more benficial it is to do this, but it helps at all speeds.

Also, the faster you go, the more pronounced it is.


Arm Swing

Simply put, everyone is different when it comes to arm swing, but the general rules are:

Do not cross over the center line

Use a relaxed and natural swing

Elbow should be bent to 80 degrees when the hand is in front of the body, and should snap open to 90-100 degrees , initiating the downswing and behind the hips.

Hand travel should be from around sternum height to 10cm behind the hips.

If your hands go higher than the sternum, there tends to be a bit more upward motion to the body instead of forward motion.


Hand Position

Your shoulders, arms and hands should be relaxed, but not floppy

It may help to visualize yourself carrying a pen in each hand with the your thumb and first knuckle of your index finger gently pinching the end of the pen

You also want to make sure you don't poke yourself with the other end of the pen, so it should point slightly outward.


Ideally, you should be thinking about this all the time, especially when you get tired or are going easy, which are both times when we get lazy. When you are rested or running quick, a lot of this comes naturally.