Form Series – Chapter One

I’m going to do a series on running form.  It’s one of those things, that I’ve been doing for so long, (and there are a lot of them), that I forget how important and useful it is for people.  But, like all these simple things, once I start thinking about it, it gets bigger and bigger until it is no longer useful to you.

So, I’m going to chunk it up into useful pieces and create separate audios you can use.

This first piece is going to be the introduction on form and an overview of some of the resources.

Then I’ll do a few pieces that are more prescriptive that you can carry with you as you are practicing.

Overview

Whenever people ask me a question about running, whether it be how to train for a race or what shoes to buy the answer, many times, starts with a discussion of form.  It’s ironic because no one ever teaches you running form and no one is looking for advice on form, unless they are injured.

It’s not like other sports. In golf you initially spend hours of effort on the mechanics. Maybe it’s because running is seen as such a basic human movement that no one ever considers the need to look at form in new runners.  Maybe coaches know it’s hard to rewire people’s form and it takes patience, so they just move on to the next easier thing and hope the form problems work themselves out.

The trouble with ignoring form is manifold.  Form is at the core of most other things in running.  Form is the base condition for running well, running efficiently and running faster.  Form is the starting point for the more nuanced mechanics of running up hill or down hill or long or fast or on different surfaces.

It all starts with form.

Like most other things about our sport, form seems simple, but is, in itself, an entire body of knowledge.

How does one learn proper running form?  Where does one go to learn it?

Most coaches know the basics of good running form.  Most running sources will provide the rudimentary tenets of good form.  Most people know good form when they see it and most people know bad form when they see it.

Isn’t everyone born with the basic ability to run?

Yes and no.  We are all born with the same basic running equipment that we evolved to chase prey on the savannah millennia ago.  But, in the modern world, many times it gets programmed out of us.  We put our feet in shoes with clunky heels, we ride around in cars and we sit at desks.

The running design of our bodies and our natural mechanics are there somewhere.  But how do you rediscover them?

This was very well narrated by Christopher McDougal in “Born to Run”.  It’s a great read.  It also kicked off the barefoot running craze 10 years ago.  He noted that when you come from this sedentary environment and start to run for real your form is going to be bad.   More than that he verbalized something a lot of us were already thinking, which was that most of the technology in running shoes did not promote good form, they instead masked the effects of bad form.

The good news is that he made people aware of the natural, evolutionary running form that we were designed with.  The bad news was a lot of people made the leap to minimalist or barefoot running too quickly and hurt themselves.

You may ask; “Why do I care about having good form?  Why not just run more?  Won’t more running eventually straighten out my form? “

First of all, you care because of all those things that you want to get out of running are made better, or worse by form.  If you have bad form, you are way more likely to get injured.  If you have bad form, you won’t be able to move efficiently.  If you have bad form, you won’t be able to sustain that form over longer distances.  Good form makes running easy and fun, (or at least easier and funner).

And, yes, in a way more running will make your form better, especially faster running.  It’s hard to go fast with bad form.  The problem is that you will probably get injured before your form gets better.  Think of your form as the propeller on an airplane or the wheel on a car.  If that propeller or wheel is weird shaped or mis-weighted it’s only going to run for a few minutes before the force of use causes it to shatter and the faster it spins the worse it gets.

So, yeah, running more and faster will fix your form if you survive the process.

There are a couple other notable sources that addressed running mechanics in the last few decades.  The first was “The Pose Method of Running” by Nicolas Romanov.  The second was “Chi Running” by Danny Dreyer.

I would recommend all of these as great reads and all of them agree on the basic elements of good form.  All of them will give you some direction on how to rediscover your natural running mechanics.  But, like all enthusiastic works they do go to far in places and make unsupported leaps. Nothing malicious.  Just over enthusiasm.  Caveat Emptoris.

The useful bits are the science, the breakdown of the mechanics and the practice examples.

The science talks to how our bodies are really well designed for running.  Good form allows you to take advantage of these evolutionary adaptations.

We have this big butt that sticks out the back as a counterweight to keep us upright.  We have this marvelous connected spring system from the plantar, up through the Achilles and the hamstrings that is a natural shock absorber.   Our ability to sweat and burn fat are amazing adaptations for endurance.

It’s all quite mind boggling how well we are designed for running.

The breakdown of the mechanics to good form looks at each individual movement and determines what is the optimal form for that specific movement.  Romanov does this particularly well.

And then there is the practice. Each of the sources tells you what to do and how to practice. Everything from drills to cadence music.  You can re-learn the form you were gifted by your homoerectus forebears.

I’ll create some specific audio to walk (or run) you through it but the bottom line is you want to run upright, with a bit of a forward lean at the ankles, a fairly fast cadence and a quick, light forefoot strike.  You want to minimize wasted movement.  As Romanov says “Running is falling”.  Your form is simply the way in which you catch yourself falling forward.

To close this introductory piece, find a friend and have them video you running.  Get video from the front, the side and the back.  Get some normal, some slow and some faster paces. Take a look and compare what you are doing to what professional runners are doing.  Watch some videos of the great runners and observe the simplicity and beauty in their form.

Next time we’ll synergize all that into practice.  But, for now get a baseline of where you are and what is possible.