Running Technique | Running Injury

Running Technique: As Simple As Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other?

Running technique is often overshadowed by fitness concerns for runners. Yet if you can improve yours, it can make a huge difference to your performance.

Take a look at the photograph on the right, which of these runners has the best technique? Because we all have different body proportions efficient techniques will differ from one another. However, there are a few golden rules that apply to use all. The runners on the right of this photo look relaxed, balanced and upright. The athlete on the left looks tense, has tightened his neck and shoulders and is off-balance.

So one of the first basic rules that applies to running technique is gravity. Newton’s third law of gravity states that ‘the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and in opposite directions’, or more commonly known as, ‘for every action there is an equal opposite reaction’. As a runner this simply means, your foot goes down, the floor pushes back and your foot recoils back off it.

We do not have to be pulled down by gravity yet many runners appear to lose the battle. Contemplate this law when running and we can allow ourselves to go up to go forward due to the action of the legs and utilise energy more efficiently.

Experiment With Your Running Technique

Improve Your Running Technique
Take a look at my unique program for assessing and improving your running style. Many running injuries can be directly due to the way you run. This online program includes video and audio instruction plus an option for video analysis.

For more information please click here

Here is an example of the procedures from my program:-

1. Following your warm up, try walking the first two hundred yards. Enjoy the ease of the movement and let your legs swing from the hip joints, note these are located at the front of your pelvis. Allow your arms to swing like pendulums from your shoulder joints.

2. Be aware of the ground beneath your feet and think of walking tall by using the upward thrust from the ground in response to your body weight.

3. Before you start to run let the arms swing faster without losing form and allow the legs to match the speed.

4. The next stage is important. Your objective is to observe your running technique and look for places where you are making it harder than it should be. Before you move up to a running pace, see if you start to prepare for the effort by holding your breath or stiffening your neck. Any unnecessary tension applied at this point is likely to be carried throughout the duration of the run. Try to make the transition from walking to running without additional effort.

5. Allow the arms to bend at the elbow and keep them swinging in a linear motion. Think of the legs swinging from the hips and raise the legs with the knee leading the move.

6. Once the knee has been raised, the lower leg can be allowed to swing through. The common kicking action of most runners increases the workload on the quadriceps and is unnecessary and drastically reduces the efficiency of your running technique.

7. Be conscious of the hip, knee and ankle joints working together in the movement. As with walking tall, think of running tall to utilise the force of gravity. This may sound a little strange initially but the ground is where the force comes from that moves us forward. Be wary of trying to hold yourself up to achieve an upright position. If you can remove unnecessary effort, your body will attain an effortless upright stance due to the absence of inappropriate muscular activity.

8. Do not allow your heel to strike the ground first, this causes a jolt up your leg and reduces the efficiency of your leg joints. If you keep your ankle soft you foot should land anywhere between the ball and the middle of your sole. This allows for a 'springier' action and gets a better push up from the floor.

For more advice and tips on how to eliminate self-inflicted or over-use injuries click Improve Your Running Technique

Increasing Your Speed

The most common response to the thought of stepping up the pace is to put more effort into the stride. If the legs are already being over worked due to a less than efficient technique, the centre of the brain (motor cortex) that initiates the action has to send more impulses adding to the traffic in the feedback loop. You may have the sensation that you are running quicker because of the increased effort, but are you using our energy efficiently?

Your sense of effort can be misleading. Next time you want to increase your speed try the following method.

1. First, when you have decided to quicken the pace, observe what you normally do to achieve this. After a minute, slow down to a comfortable jogging pace and again think about raising the pace.

2. This time do not think about running faster but instead just move your arms quicker. If you think of only moving the arms faster, requiring less energy, the legs will match the speed.

Try the exercise and experience the difference. The first time you speed up you will use your usual habitual method, the second will feel different because it will be unfamiliar.

Use your session to observe your running technique and appreciate where you may be applying unnecessary effort.

There are many interesting theories about the ideal running technique. If you do as I did and experiment you will find the one best suited for your own body. Once your technique starts to improve will your times will get better whilst the injuries start to disappear.

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Running Technique: As Simple As Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other?

Experiment With Your Running Technique

Increasing Your Speed

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