How to Run

Running is a strange sport. Because we run as soon as we can as children, most who take it up as a sport—from the most casual to competitive— believe they already know what to do and are never seek out coaching on proper technique. It’s hard to imagine starting out in tennis, golf, or Olympic weightlifting without a quick rundown of the basic mechanics.

What makes running different? I imagine the prejudice against learning “how to run” comes from the beliefs that 1) running is natural and so it does not need to be taught and 2) changing technique is far too difficult and possibly even counterproductive.

Running is natural in the way that speaking is natural. But few of us can address a crowd with perfect cadence, rich emotion, and no “uhs” or “ums” without understanding the mechanics of public speaking, extensive practice, and feedback. Running well requires the same active intention. Fortunately, improving running technique isn’t difficult once you understand the running gait cycle. And much less scary.

The Power Stroke

At the most basic level, we move forward when we run because our foot strikes the ground and pushes backwards. The harder and longer we push backwards into the ground, the more we accelerate ourselves forward. Getting a good power stroke is all about optimizing 1) where and how the foot touches down on the ground at the beginning and 2) where and how the foot pushes off the ground at the end.

Initial Contact

If we imagine a runner from the side, there are three possible places the foot can land: in front of the center of mass (CoM), under the CoM, and behind the CoM. For ease, imagine the CoM is located in line with the hip joint.

One of the most common errors in running is landing with the foot in front of the CoM. This is called overstriding. Stand up, bring one foot forward a bit, and then push. You just pushed yourself backwards. Any time the foot spends supporting your weight while in front of the CoM is producing a breaking force—it is slowing you down!

Likewise, landing behind your CoM, which you almost never see happen, is not ideal because it will shorten the distance, and therefore the time, that we can push backwards.

The ideal is to land directly underneath your CoM. If you observe elite runners, you might notice that they seem to land several inches in front of their CoM. There is a difference between where the foot touches the ground and where the foot accepts body weight. The foot touches in front of the CoM but only accepts the full body weight and begins the push once it is directly underneath.

You may have read about foot strike patterns of heel strike, midfoot strike, and forefoot strike. However, these do not. Some elite distance runners touch down with the heel, others with the ball of their foot. But when they actually accept the load and begin pushing, they are pushing through the ball of the foot starting directly under their CoM.

Overstriding, regardless of what part of the foot touches first, is always detrimental to performance.

The Follow Through

Now let’s turn to where the foot needs to end up before it leaves the ground. As stated before, we want to maximize the time we have pushing through the ground. That means pushing as far back as possible.

There are three major joints responsible for this push.

The hips are the most important joint in this push. They are responsible for getting the thigh angled back behind you. Without the thigh in this position, pushing through the knee and ankle will just make you go upwards, not forwards.

Next are the ankles. When you look at an elite runner at the end of push off, they almost look like a ballet dancer with their foot pointed down pushing through the big toe.

Finally, the knee needs to straighten. In elite runners, it is very rare that the knee actually becomes fully straight; there is often a few degrees of bend at push off. This allows the runner to bring the leg forward again in anticipation for another power stroke.

In summary: you should finish pushing with fully extended hips (about 20-30 degrees), a pointed ankle pushing through the big toe, and an almost but not quite straight knee. Stronger, more powerful hips, knees, and ankles mean a big push and higher speeds.

The Elastic Component

What separates running from sports such as cycling and rowing is that much of the force from every power stroke comes not only from the muscles but also from the elastic energy returned through the tendons. To be faster and more efficient runners, we have to maximize the quantity of energy returned in every step.

Elastic energy is primarily stored and released in the tendons. When running, the Achilles tendon is by far the most important tendon. Therefore, we need to optimize the function of the Achilles tendon and prevent energy leakages elsewhere that could prevent energy from going into the Achilles.

Optimizing the Achilles

Tendons are structures that connect muscle to bone. The Achilles tendon is a common tendon shared by the big calf muscles—the gastrocnemius and soleus—as they attach to the calcaneus bone which makes the bony part of the back of the heel. As such, the Achilles tendon is stretched and taut when our foot is such that our toes are pointed up towards the sky (dorsiflexion of the ankle), and shortened and slack when our feet are pointed down like a ballet dancer (plantarflexion of the ankle).

To get the most powerful—and importantly, quickest—elastic recoil through the Achilles we want to land with a dorsiflexed (pointing up) foot. By pre-stretching the Achilles as soon as we contact the ground, the Achilles will spring the ankle forcefully into plantarflexion propelling us forward.

If on the other hand we have a slack foot or our feet are plantarflexed when landing, we lose all this elastic energy.

Preventing Energy Leakage

Energy that we want to direct to the Achilles is most commonly lost in the hips, arches of the feet, and the big toe.

Imagine looking at a runner head-on. The foot can land in a number of places relative to its respective hip joint: medially (towards the midline of the body), under the hip joint, or laterally (past the hip joint away from the body).

We want the foot to land under the hip. Unless one has a neurologic injury, it is uncommon for the foot to land toward the outside of the hip.

However, one of the most common technical faults is landing with the foot medially. At the extremes this looks like a “scissoring” of the gait. Where the foot lands relative to the hip is controlled by the muscles on the side of the hip, the glute med and min. When we see a runner whose feet land inside rather than under their hips it is usually the result of an insufficiency of these muscles due to either weakness or lack of coordination. The result is that energy is lost as heat through a rapid stretch on these muscles. In addition, a forceful push becomes more difficult in this position. Try to stand from a chair on one foot with your leg angled diagonally inward rather than straight to understand.

When the foot nears or crosses the midline of the body, it also becomes difficult to maintain the arch of the foot. A firm arch returns elastic energy. Think about those rubber mushroom shaped toys you would invert as a child that would violently bounce upward after a few seconds. The arch of the foot works similarly, if a bit less dramatically.

The arch of the foot can collapse on its own, even with strong hips and good foot positioning due to a weakness of the muscles supporting it or structural deformity. Unfortunately, a weak arch can’t be addressed through technique adjustments and needs to be addressed through specific exercises by a podiatrist.

The big toe, however, does influence the mechanics of the foot arch. When the big toe goes into extension, that is it bends back during the push off, this pulls on the plantar fascia at the bottom of the foot and stiffens the arch, a process known as the windlass mechanism. Being able to push through a strong, stable arch is crucial to transfer muscle power and elastic energy into forward movement. If the arch collapses at this point, that push is dampened.

Much can influence the function of the big toe. Hip weakness, an outwardly pointed foot, an inwardly pointed foot, and stiffness or weakness of the big toe can all prevent the it from engaging the windlass mechanism.

Fortunately, all of these possible deficits can be straightforwardly addressed through corrective exercise and a conscious effort to adhere to the principles of proper technique.

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Running well simply means 1) landing with the foot directly underneath the hip joint and 2) following through in a way that fully marshals the energy at the hip, knee, ankle, and big toe. If you can do these two things you are well on your way to becoming an excellent runner.

See my other articles for drills and exercises you can do that can reinforce the habit of getting into these positions and strengthen the relevant structures needed to support the positions.