Master Your Stride: Top Running Mechanics Everyone Can Benefit From

Running is one of the simplest yet most effective forms of exercise. It can significantly improve your cardiovascular health, enhance your mood, and help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. Yet, many runners overlook the importance of proper mechanics, which can lead to injuries and inefficiencies. Regardless of whether you're running marathons or just starting out, refining your mechanics ensures you get the most from every workout. Here’s how to improve your stride, enhance performance, and make your run enjoyable, no matter your experience level.

Focus on Your Form

Your running form directly impacts your performance and efficiency. Making small corrections can lead to significant improvements over time.

• Maintain Good Posture: Keep your head up and look ahead. This keeps your neck and spine aligned. Relax your shoulders and arms to ensure they’re not tense or elevated. Aim for a 90-degree angle at your elbows as your arms swing rhythmically with your legs.

  • Your elbows should drive behind you as you run. This not only keeps your shoulders in a better position preventing unwanted tension and stress, but facilitates forward propulsion making you more efficient!

    
    

• Proper Foot Strike: Striking the ground lightly and landing with your midfoot or forefoot, rather than your heel, can make a world of difference. Heel striking can increase stress on your joints and lead to injuries. Instead, focus on landing underneath your body for better efficiency.

  • Think of a heel strike as breaking power. When we run, we don't want to slow down, so why waste energy on breaking only to push forward again.

  • When it comes to the debate between midfoot and forefoot, either is great! Do what works for you and feels comfortable. If you are a forefoot striker however, pay special attention to calf stretches and monitor for excessive vertical excursion. Sometimes, forefoot strikers can become too bouncy and energy is wasted going up and down instead of forward.

    
    

Runner showcasing correct foot placement on running track.

Mind Those Hips

Your hips are critical for running efficiency. Engaging your glutes AND hip flexors can turn each stride from a struggle into a smooth glide.

• Stride Length/Cadence: Avoid overextending your stride. This can lead to quicker fatigue and unnecessary strain on your legs. Focus on shorter, quicker steps; a lively pace of 170 to 180 steps per minute is ideal for many runners.

  • If you don't know your cadence, it is important to figure out! Many tech devices and running apps can calculate for you. If you are working on cadence, try running to a metronome or music playlists set to a specific bpm to help you time your steps.

  • If your hip flexors are tight, you may not be getting full extension in your hip which reduces power and inhibits our glutes.

  • Hip flexor strength is also required because running requires hip flexion as the knee drives forward. Simple drills like mountain climbers standing at the wall are a great way to practice this movement and build resiliency.

    
    

• Core Engagement: A strong core supports your hips and stabilizes your body as you run, maximizing energy efficiency. Simple core exercises, like planks or bridge lifts, can enhance your stability and overall strength.

  • The rib cage should be nicely stacked over the pelvis. If you are running hunched over or leading with the chest, causing an arched back and flared rib cage, you are losing stabilization at the core. This often creates a hinge point in the back as well which can lead to stress, tightness, and subsequent pain.

    
    

Strengthen Your Lower Body

A strong lower body improves propulsion and helps prevent injuries. Strengthening your legs should be a priority for every runner.

Running requires strength and muscular endurance. Therefore, it is important to train both strength and endurance. Running can only build so much strength and unless you are sprinting, you are never challenging the type II muscle fibers, which is where power comes from. If you are feeling slow, stuck, or heavy in your runs, it's probably time to consider incorporating more strength and even some light plyometrics into your routine. Try including exercises such as lunges, squats, and even deadlifts into your training. Plyometrics are a great way to work on power output in conjunction with cardio, so box jumps, squat jumps, or even jump rope can facilitate progress.

Run Like You Own the Road

Attack the road, trail, beach, or whatever path you choose to run on.

Running should not be passive, but often times due to the endurance nature of the sport, it becomes passive. A passive runner looks like someone who appears to be landing on each step. They could be hunched over, shuffling their feet, or give an appearance that they are relying on their joints to accept weight and keep them upright.

Running is active so we should treat it as such! Ironically when running becomes more passive, a significant amount of energy is wasted and it becomes much more fatiguing. If we are landing and accepting weight at each step only to force ourselves forward on to the next, running can become quickly exhausting and not so enjoyable.

Instead, attack the road! This means, lean forward in your posture. Keep a neutral spine and keep the rib cage stacked over the pelvis, but lean your trunk forward almost as if you are leaning your head or chest in front of your toes. It should almost feel like you would fall if you didn't take a step forward. By leaning forward, you are allowing momentum to facilitate propulsion. You are letting your body and mechanics work for you! Not against you! By the time you take a step, your foot should fall directly underneath you (regardless of foot strike) and as quickly as it comes down, you should be driving your knee to pick that foot right back up again. Now running has become active and efficient!

Improving your running mechanics doesn’t necessitate a complete overhaul of your routine. Often, small tweaks can yield significant results. By focusing on your form, hip engagement, lower body strength, and cadence, you’ll be on your way to mastering your stride.

Whether you are a beginner starting your journey or an experienced runner seeking to refine your technique, revisiting and enhancing your mechanics can benefit everyone. With focused practice, you can enjoy a more efficient running experience, allowing confidence to guide each mile you take.

Runner enjoying a focused training session on a peaceful path.