Run Faster

Is Running Form Important? 

The way you run can be the difference between fulfilling your potential and never quite being as good as you’d hoped. However, running form/technique/style is very personal and depends upon a number of factors which should be assessed by an experienced coach familiar with biomechanical principles or by a Biomechanics Coach.

There is little evidence that the alignment of various body segments statically or dynamically alters your injury risk or indeed improves performance. In fact you will see some runners in your group who demonstrate personalised styles and techniques that include for example buckling knees, flailing arms and flat feet and some seem to get injured no more than those who run with a more orthodox style (and sometimes injured less frequently!).

There are also a number of running coaches who encourage you to run using ‘their method’. Their method may coincidentally suit you and work well, but unless you are analysed carefully and the results find that particular style is suited to your mechanics and anatomy, it may cause you more problems. Don’t be seduced by pseudo-science suggesting one style suits everyone – you are an individual and deserve to be trained as one.

One size does not fit all. Find your own style that works for you; and that may be simply going out and running, doing what you feel is comfortable.

How Can The Upper Body Influence Running Form? 

Typically, the upper and lower body are synchronised to optimise your running style. So, if your legs have a personalised style your arms will likely move differently too to accommodate and visa versa.

So, if you had a stiff upper back or a long-term shoulder injury for example, it is likely that your upper body movements will accommodate the resulting mechanical issues. This will likely cause some form of compensation in your hips and/or legs too.

This shows how important it is to make sure you deal with the causes of the movement style issues before you correct the style issue itself.

Also, any change in arm movement style should be accompanied by suitable measures to understand the likely hip/leg compensations and then exercises to help them adapt should be provided.

Is There A Hierarchy Of Things That I Could Work On? And Where Does Running Form Adaptions Fit Into That? 

It is difficult to say with any certainty that injuries or running styles are linked to a particular body part. We perform any movement based upon learned patterns, movement experiences, our anatomy and past injuries.

There are, however, occasions when a ‘system re-boot’ is helpful. We are born with unconditioned reflexes which enable us to perform movements seemingly without thinking about them; such as when we are babies – lifting our head, rolling, lifting our hands to our mouths to feed for example. Then as we get older, we perform tasks that are less natural; such as sitting in chairs rather than sitting down on our haunches. 

We also get injured for various reasons and perform unusual movement patterns to protect the injured area – these movements can become permanent if you’re not careful.

All of these problems cause something called conditioned reflexes; ones that our bodies have created to enable us to move to compensate for pain or unaccustomed stiffness or weakness. Our bodies were not originally designed to move in this way and so further problems can result due to the causes of these unnatural movements.

One way of identifying these causes is to be screened or tested – the resultant exercises to help with any issues can be thought of as a ‘system reboot’. Biomechanics Coaches or a Physiotherapist skilled in the science of Biomechanics could help you with this.

I’m Injury Free, But I’ve Been Told My Form Is Off – Should I Change Anything? 

Despite our advances in technology and our understanding of the body, as well as training and conditioning techniques, many experts suggest that the old adage;
“If it aint broke, don’t fix it”, still applies today.

Your body moves how it needs to move to accommodate your anatomy and personal mechanics. If you do have a personalised style, make sure anyone who wants to change that style (to make it theoretically better) first understands precisely why you are running as you do.

If you are running as you do to accommodate a genetically stiff hip for example and your technique is changed to something theoretically better, you may no longer be able to accommodate that stiffness and end up loading the hip, potentially causing problems. If the hip problem is something that is correctable then make the changes to your hip by exercise or treatment, and make sure that the rest of your body has the capacity to adapt to those changes, then make slow alterations to your style – if indeed any change is still necessary.

It takes a skilled coach and a detailed assessment to make these changes to minimise the risk of causing problems as your body adapts to the style changes.

If You Could Offer The General Public One Piece Of Advice What Would It Be?

  • Run how nature intended you to run, without any thought to it.
  • Progress your mileage slowly and let your body run freely.t
  • If you have regular or recurrent problems then look to understand why, by having an assessment of your body’s mechanics. Not necessarily a running analysis, an analysis of your body – to see if your body has the capacity to run the sort of distances and frequencies that you are doing.
  • If it highlights correctable issues, then perform exercises to correct them and then carry on running using your previous style.
  • Interestingly, you may find that your style changes naturally (without trying) when your body has the capacity to move differently, perhaps better.
  • If the assessment shows that you have a structural or anatomical anomaly then you should see a coach to help you change your style to work around that anomaly, which may not be orthodox, but will work for you.
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