5 Techniques to Improve your Run Technique
Bottom line up front: we’re putting on another one of our Run Video Analysis Clinics in a few weeks (April 16th, to be exact), and if you want to learn everything below and get your run form analyzed, you can just pull a TL;DR and sign up for our clinic right now.
Most triathletes will pursue a swim analysis to improve their stroke, and few athletes (cyclist-only or multi-sport) skip a bike fit at the beginning of their seasons, so why do so few runners take the time to evaluate their run technique? We’ve heard all of the excuses, starting with “I’ve heard that you should just run and you’ll find your most efficient form.” While there is some truth to that chestnut, the truth is more nuanced and—as with much in this world—more information won’t hurt. The truth is that evaluating your own run form is easy and can be accomplished with a phone and a friend. If you don’t have a friend, well, this can be accomplished with a phone and a tripod, but where’s the alliteration in that?
So you may have heard a statement we’ve alluded to already, that “athletes will find their own most efficient running form as long as they keep accruing run miles.” While that is mostly true, what the statement leaves out is that you’ll achieve the most efficient run form that your body can presently accomplish. If you have some very common physical limitations, then “your most efficient running form” may actually be quite inefficient. Today we’ll point you in the direction of identifying those limitations and give you some suggestions for addressing them.
So what was that bit about “a phone and a friend?” Right. You’ll need to capture some run footage. Head to an athletic field and set up an equilateral triangle (you don’t remember what that is? C’mon, yes you do), with your friend situated at one of the points, facing to the inside of the triangle. You start on the opposite leg (that geometry class from sophomore year is, like, taxed to the max right now, isn’t it?), facing your friend. Run towards them, departing perpendicularly from the leg you started on. They capture you running towards them. Having joined your friend at the triangle’s point, jog away from them along one of the two legs. When you reach the next point, turn and run across the next leg, passing your starting point along the way. Your friend will film you from the side while you do this. When you reach the last point, jog along the only leg you haven’t touched yet back to your friend. Arriving at them, turn and jog through the center of the triangle again, retracing the first path you took—your friend films you from the rear, this time. Boom—you now have the angles you need to evaluate your run form:
Hands Crossing Centerline
When you run, you probably don’t give your arms enough credit. After all, who runs around on their arms? But your upper body carriage is crucial to proper running. Don’t believe us? Next time you run, keep your arms at your side and see how it goes. Not good right? OK, now we can continue. Your legs will do what your arms do, so keeping your arms light, springy, and controlled is important. One sure sign of improper run form is arms that come across the runner’s centerline of their body—your hands should come just up to that centerline but not cross it. If you are crossing the centerline, it’s a clue that your body is searching for rotation and finding it in your arms (rather than your thoracic spine or your hips). There are two fixes for this issue, the first one you can practice while running and the second something you’ll have to do at home or the gym. During running, think about driving your elbow straight back with some real zip, and then relax and allow the arm to swing forward. At home, you’ll do something called “John Travolta Peanuts,” which we learned from the great run coach Jay Dicharry. You can tape two lacrosse balls together, or pick up one of these. Regardless, add this movement to your daily routine in order to start getting your thoracic spine a little more mobile.
2. Insufficient Hip Extension
John S. displaying PROPER hip extension
You’ve probably heard someone say “run with your butt,” but what in the world does that mean? Well, the gluteal muscles (the big ones that make up your rear end) are the primary extenders of the hip, which means they work to drive the foot back behind you. The more hip extension you can get, the better (generally—as with all of this stuff, there can be too much of a good thing). Generally we’re aiming for between 15 and 30° of hip extension, measured when you reach toe-off (your toe is flexed, touching the ground, the moment before it lifts off), drawing a line from the big bone on the side of your hip to the knee. In the picture above, our runner displays excellent hip extension (31° is within measurement error). If yours is lower than 15°, you very likely have tight hip flexors and weak glutes. Correct those with hip flexor stretches and glute exercises such as clamshells and glute bridges.
3. Leaning from hips, not ankles
John S. displaying proper lean, although, if we’re gonna critique, John IS collapsing a bit through his hips—when you see a runner with a few too many “bends” in his/her frame, that runner is losing power somewhere
You may have heard coaches shouting “lean from the ankles, not hips!” and thought What the hell does that mean? When you run you actually fall through the air, catching yourself from tumbling on your face with each footstep. Want to know what it feels like? Stand up straight and start leaning forward from the ankles, rather than bending from the hips. If you lean from the ankles, soon you’ll be falling, and you’ll have to catch yourself with one of your feet. Oh, you didn’t read that far ahead? Your nose is bleeding? Sorry. Comes with the territory. When you run properly, you should feel as if you’re going to fall and bang your nose on the ground, but you save yourself at the last moment by swinging a foot under yourself. Now let’s look at your video. When you are at “mid-stance,” which is the moment your swinging leg’s knee lines up with your standing leg’s knee, you should be able to draw a straight line from ankle to hip to shoulder. Most people lean forward from the hips, rather than the ankles, robbing themselves of the momentum that comes from gravity. Free speed! To fix this, try this drill, where a partner stands behind you with an old inner tube or band looped around your hips. Start running while leaning forward. The band should keep you from falling down while illustrating the feeling of leaning. Your partner gradually allows you to start running, finally letting go of the band altogether. Maintain that sense of leaning, even though you no longer have the band around your hips.
The runner in the band could literally lean into this a little more and push his hips forward, so his body is a bit more of a plank
4. Foot in front of knee/overstriding
Cam displaying a slight overstride
Many of us, taught to run by misinformed but well-meaning P.E. teachers, have heard that we should “lengthen” our strides to cover more ground. This mistake is understandable, but it is still a mistake. Longer strides are less efficient, as you basically bound through the air. Great for gazelles, or ibexes (ibices?), who have evolved to do that, but we are not made to bound—doing so requires huge amounts of explosive force, and that will make us tired really soon. Basically our foot should load (the moment our foot supports our mass above) when the foot is under our knee, slightly in front of our center of mass. In your video, look for the moment when your calf muscles flex, as that’s when the lower leg is experiencing load. At that point, is the heel under the knee, or in front of it? If it is in front, you are an overstrider, and may experience issues and injuries. How to fix this fault? We suggest counting the number of strides you take in a minute (counting either one foot or both feet), and then trying to raise that number slightly. So if you take 80 strides per minute (counting one foot) try to raise it to 83 over the next few months. Doing so will require a slightly shorter stride, bringing your foot under the knee. A tool such as a Finis Tempo Trainer can be great for this, and you’ll get to use it outside of the pool!
5. Overpronation/Ankle Collapse
You’ve probably heard of pronation, which is a natural reaction to your foot experiencing the force of your body as you load the feet. Every footfall while running is in the ballpark of four times your body weight, in terms of the force your foot experiences, which is why good mechanics are important. Pronation is simply our body’s suspension system, and it works like a leaf spring in a vehicle. Your foot rolls to the inside when it lands, spreading that force over a greater surface area and saving you from injury. If you have weak or poor form, your foot may simply collapse to the inside as your body searches for better suspension. You probably need to make sure your feet aren’t crossing the centerline of your body (see point #1, above) and that you have good, strong feet. We suggest at least one minute of toe yoga every day.
So that’s it! This is definitely something you can do yourself, but if you want to get your run form analyzed at our upcoming Run Video Analysis Clinic, you should come and join us. Don’t live in Portland? This is something we can do remotely and would be happy to help make happen, so reach out to us to learn more.