How to Improve Your Running Form

Podcast

August 21, 2023

You can change your running form at any age. Paul McKinnon of The Balanced Runner explains arms, torso, legs, cadence, shoes and three cues to try.

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 186, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly and Paul McKinnon of The Balanced Runner

Yes, you can change your running form, and change it for the better. Paul McKinnon, a former professional field hockey player who now coaches movement and running technique, works with runners from everyday athletes to Australia's best. He starts at the top of the body and works down, because your arms and torso shape everything your legs can do.

Is there an optimal running form?

Partly. Paul wouldn't model anyone on one particular runner, because leg length, structure and history differ. But there are a few basic fundamentals that fit everyone:

Arms: what they're doing, and whether they move symmetrically
Torso: its position over your centre of mass, and where you hold tension
Leg pattern: whether the movement is led by the upper leg or the lower leg
Landing: mostly an outcome of the three above

Where should you start?

At the top. If you're leaning back, it is almost impossible to land under your hips, however much you work on your legs. Paul usually starts with the arms, because poor arm movement makes it hard to fix the torso. Then he moves to the legs.

Each change is about self-awareness. He wants the runner to tell him how a change feels. If it isn't an improvement, they won't feel one, and he hasn't done his job.

What should your arms do?

Paul gives the arms three roles:

Counter-movement. Your arms balance your legs. Restrict your arm swing and you restrict your stride. Overdo it and your legs have to adjust.
Balance and timing. If your left and right arms move differently, you can't expect your legs to move the same way.
Lift. Running is about spending as little time on the ground as possible. Arms that swing side to side make your legs work harder to get you up and forward.

Your arms never touch the ground, so they create no forward force. Tensing them and muscling through is wasted energy.

Is "shoulders back, chest out" good advice?

No. Paul uses it as his main example of a running technique myth. Pulling your shoulders back shifts your mass backwards when you're trying to move forward. It also limits how deeply you can breathe.

His tip is to find which muscles are switched on, such as your shoulder blades drawing together, and turn them off. Runners often feel rounded afterwards, but they're in a neutral position. It feels rounded only compared to what they're used to.

Watch sprinters in slow motion and you see the same thing: relaxed faces and relaxed upper bodies, even at full speed. The same applies at marathon pace.

Why do some runners shuffle?

Often the runner is using a walking movement. In walking, your hand and opposite foot swing forward and back together. In running, your upper arm should swing in time with your upper leg. When a runner's elbow matches their foot instead, they land in front of the body, brake, spend longer on the ground and have to work hard to get any flight. Paul's description is "race walking but cheating".

This also explains why some runners can't run slower on easy days. With a walking movement, slowing down removes the flight time, so it stops feeling like running and they speed back up. With a running movement, Paul says you can run at 7:30 to 8:00 per kilometre and still get flight.

Should you change from heel striking?

Not on its own. If the rest of your movement is right, the landing usually changes by itself. Runners who change only their foot strike keep the same movement and add another lever, which moves the load somewhere else and can cause injury. Working from the top down lets the landing come closer over time while the body adapts.

Hip flexibility is rarely the problem either. Most runners have enough range. Tight hip flexors often come from never moving past a neutral hip position, so the hip flexors do all the work of lifting the leg.

Is there an optimal cadence?

No. Paul says cadence is an outcome of how you move, your pace and your leg length. Two runners can both run at 165 steps per minute, one with good flight and little ground contact, the other heel striking and overstriding. Raising the second runner's cadence won't fix the movement. Runners with perfect technique and different leg lengths will still have different cadences.

What should you do when form fades late in a race?

Come back to whatever cue you're working on. Then run a smaller version of the same movement. Paul compares it to throwing a ball over 20 metres instead of 60: less range and force, the same mechanics. The fundamentals don't change when you're tired.

Do fast shoes change your form?

No. Shoes change your relationship with the ground, not your movement. Paul says early research on Nike's Vaporfly showed an economy gain of two to seven percent, about four percent on average. Runners with poorer movement got the smaller gains and the best movers got the larger ones. He compares it to a wetsuit: it helps, but it won't make you a more efficient swimmer.