Natural Running
Running is both natural and unnatural. What I mean is natural in the sense that every human being has the ability to run, for at least a few seconds/minutes to get us out danger, or to catch prey to eat/survive. The built in fight or flight nervous system response kicks in in those moments of survive or die. We’ve all experienced, at least once, when that system kicks in whether it be a threat (dog) darts after us and we run from it. Or, the last donut on the counter is for whoever gets there first. I’ve avoided many aggressive dogs, as well as knocked off a few people from getting to the donut first.
Nature gives us the ability to run for survival which doesn’t really have any form other than getting out of the way fast, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about running form for a sustained time. Just because running is a natural activity, the form must be perfected for efficiency, injury prevention and longevity. Because without it, we just have quick movements for survival.
Most people throw on a pair of sneakers (sneaker choice in a future blog post) and venture outside to run a predetermined time or distance without really focusing on the form of their form. The person slogs through only focusing on their goal time/distance. However, just like in anything a human being does, poor form will cause either discomfort while doing the activity, or injury. Discomfort will shorten the distance, and injury will shorten the career of running.
When I owned my running store, customers told me they aren’t good runners because it hurt when they did it, or they suffered injuries from running. My first thought was-show me your form. I’d ask them to hop onto my in-store treadmill and watch them run for a few minutes. Most times, decent>good form can be maintained for a short time (fight or flight) but true form comes out after about 10 minutes or so of running, especially relatively new runners.
My goal was to look at their leg lift and landing points, along with cadence. Most new runners, some experienced runners do the same thing, swing their legs and land crashing down onto their heels. Their upper bodies are in a backward lean because of their leg swing. If you watch a track sprint race, the sprinter who leans upright or backwards will always lose a tight race. Leaning forward at the waist will give the sprinter the near edge and maybe the win. In distance running, leaning backwards causes back and hip pain, as well as poor leg swing and landing.
In the image above, I emulate how a lot of runners land; directly on their heels. The impact is driven straight up the leg, the knee is locked smashing the meniscus between the lower leg bones and upper leg bones. The force is then directed straight into the hip where the head of the femur is smashed into the socket of the hip. The impact is then sent into the lower back smashing the discs between vertebrae. Step after step, day after day, year after year, this impact is being driven straight through causing a whole bunch of anatomical changes.
Shoe manufactures build shoes to have more cushion in the heels to absorb this impact. The cushion absorbs the impact to a certain percentage, however, the impact is still driven up the leg. Running injuries have not been reduced with the thicker soles. Without proper form, running injuries will continue to rise and side-line people from participating in the best cardiovascular exercise and weight management activity known to man.
As with anything, tennis backhand, teeing off; batting, free throws, sword fighting, weight lifting, etc., proper form will yield improved contact, weight, or piercing your opponent. Improving running form will yield in improved efficiency, reducing injury, and longevity.
Understanding Form.
I evaluated customers on my treadmill in a quick-few minute-trot in the store. But what I really wanted them to do was to allow me to watch them without them knowing I am watching them. Difficult for sure because people love to perform. People also like to push blame onto something else than accepting their faults. So, I’d ask them to take a run with me. We’d go at a comfortable pace where we can chit-chat. I’d get them to chit-chat about themselves, on purpose, because when the mind isn’t paying attention, true form will expose itself like a bad virus. During the run, I’d re-position myself in front of them, to their right, to their left, behind them, count their leg cadence, watch their leg swing/land, and their arm swing.
Currently, I ride bicycles (mountain, gravel, and road). I’ve had “professional bike fittings” and the professional fitter watches me on my bike on the trainer. They take some measurements, scratch their head. Give off a few “hmms, and uh-huhs, and ahhs. Then make ridiculous suggestions and charge me for a longer stem, lower my saddle, different saddle, or whatever. Once, I took the same bike from one shop to the next shop on the same day. The two different fittings didn’t even give the same suggestions and charged me for different fit improving stems, cranks, and saddles!.
Running with my customer for a distance/time that is a normal training day for them, allowed me to get a good feel of their form when they began to get tired. Poor form is very evident when one becomes fatigued, which, is when proper form is of the utmost importance to prevent injury. If we couldn’t run together for my evaluation, allowing them to run on the store treadmill for an extensive period of time was the next best option. While they ran for a predetermined time/distance, I’d act busy in the store occasionally glance at them from various angles and collect the same data, hoping they weren’t “performing” for me. One important thing is to make sure they aren’t recovering from an injury to prevent compensating.
After collecting my data, we’d have a long discussion of what I had found. Inevitably, the leg swing, land, cadence, and arm swing was the same; heel strike, slow cadence, arms crossing the center line of body, and backwards lean.
The first thing to look at is your leg swing. The image above is the correct leg lift. By using your hip flexors, lift your knee straight up. With a slight forward lean at the waist and while standing on one leg, you begin to fall forward. Dropping your foot directly under your knee, the image below, allows your foot to absorb the impact in a natural way: the forefoot makes the first contact on the ground, toes spread out for improved balance, the arch of the foot stretches out allowing for a soft heel land. At this point the full foot is on the ground giving you a full base to maintain balance and the impact is totally absorbed. However, any impact that hasn’t been fully absorbed, the natural bend in the knee will absorb whatever impact that is left.
If you’d like to, set up an camera or camera person capturing your side view. Run in your normal form and see how you look. Be honest with yourself because improvement will only come along if you are 100% honest and willing to change a bit. Another thing I would have my customers do is from a standing position, jump straight up and land with a stiff leg. That impact is what you’re feeling with each heel first landing form. Then I’d ask them to jump straight up and land on their forefoot and allow the foot and knee to absorb the impact. “Ahhh” they’d say-mic drop!
Practice lifting your knee with your hip flexor, lean slightly forward at the waist, then let your foot fall directly under the knee. Image below:
Landing onto the forefoot directly under the knee will allow for the natural movements in the foot and knee to act a shock absorber. Hip flexors are tireless and can go on for a very long time.
Cadence
The next form discussion topic is cadence. The slower our leg cadence, or turnover, the more prone we are to landing heel first with an extended knee. However, with faster cadence, the shorter the stride is nearly making it impossible to land heel first. Count your cadence. Run for a period to make sure you are at your pace then count each right foot landing for one minute. In most cases when I counted a customer’s cadence, they’d fall into 50-70 range. But when I gave them a metronome, cadence counter, and set it for 10 higher than their range, the shorter the stride became, forcing them to land more on the forefoot and less onto the heel.
Cadence range is really dependent on the person, but a range should be 80-100/foot (160-200 total foot strikes/min). Elite runners, Kenyans and those who work very hard on form, hit in the 90-110/foot (180-220). This takes time and practice to get to this cadence but it will absolutely shorten your stride and make you a more efficient runner, reduce injuries, and extend your running life.
I used a metronome to teach customers how to run, but most smartphones can get apps as a metronome. Be patient when doing so, it takes time to break old habits and learn something new.
Arm Swing
Some customers had wild arm swings. When the arm, in a bent position, swings front to back, the momentum carries them through and helps with pace. A sprinter uses an exaggerated swing; both forward/back motion, but also high cadence. The philosophy is the faster the arm swing, the faster the leg cadence. It is very true, but we’re talking about recreational or distance running.
Arm swing can make the form or make the form less efficient, despite having perfect leg form. If the arms swing too forward, this tends to make us bend more at the waist. We want a “lean” at the waist, just enough to give us the fall forward feeling. Conversely, when we arm swing too far backward, this makes us lean back at the waist, causing a heel strike with an extended knee. Moreover, swinging the arms across the center body line may cause a side-to-side swing, making use of poorly toned flank muscles, and less efficient.
Practice with relaxed shoulders, arms, elbows, and allow the arms to swing naturally at your sides and stop them from crossing the vertical body center line. You can practice this without running, swing the arm at your side. The loosely closed fist should come just under your chin, driving your elbow back, not crossing the body center line. If you find yourself in a deep sprint to the finish line so you’re not the last finisher, swing those arms, baby!
Wrap Up
For most of us, running should be enjoyable, weight management, and keeping ourselves in decent shape. It is the least expensive form of exercise we can do; running shoes are about $80-$120USD, will last about 500-750 miles. The roads are free to use as a pedestrian. Overall running can be done from our front doors. Each run can last anywhere between 1-10 miles and we will see incredible results with consistency of running 5-7 times per week. Side note; for those who say we should only run 3-5 times per week, think of pre-grocery store times when we had to run daily in order to eat or escape being eaten. Or when we were a kids running multiple times per day, every day. If running was done with efficiency without injury, we can run daily for years which with practice will allow us to run well into old age.
Lean slightly forward at the waist, lift the knee with the hip flexor, drop the forefoot directly under the knee, don’t push off with the back foot. Lift the back knee with the hip flexor. Repeat with an 80-100/foot cadence. Allow the arms to swing naturally without crossing the center vertical line. Keep the upper body relaxed and have fun.