How to run relaxed

How to improve your running form

An on-the-run form check

Fellow runners often ask: How should I look while running? Is there an ideal running technique? Should I change my running style?

I believe there is an ideal running technique for everyone. Of course, we’re all different, not just in height and weight, but also in how we’re built—bowed legs or not, straight shoulders or slanted, long torso or short, and so on. Because of the combination of these factors, everyone has a slightly different running style. Even among the best runners in the world, you’ll see a variety of gaits.

Despite this variety, however, almost all world-class runners have one element of running form in common: they look relaxed. Even when they’re clipping along at world record pace, they appear to be under control, to be running within themselves, with focused but unstraining, almost placid faces. I was especially struck by how relaxed top runners look while training with Kenyan runners. So many Kenyans I’ve trained with run with an upright but not overly rigid posture—their shoulders are down and relaxed, their arms are held light and low at the side of the body, moving like a fast pendulum in a steady rhythm. Their steps are not too long, and their legs carry the body smoothly, while the arms move in sync with their legs. So elegant to watch! The most striking thing to me is how they seem to be so relaxed from the inside out, almost like dancing in a fast and pleasant rhythm.

You might be thinking, “Of course they look good—they’re Kenyans! What does that have to do with my running form?” For starters, the beautiful running form so many Kenyans have isn’t just something they were born with. Many Kenyans spend a lot of time doing drills and exercises to improve their technique. Even someone as good as Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Augustine Choge does regular form work, because his coach thinks he overstrides. Think of it like Tiger Woods working on his golf swing—he probably would have a nice swing if he never worked on it, but what you see when he plays is the result of work combined with ability.

Recreational golfers can watch Woods and apply what he does to their game. In the same way, you don’t have to be an elite runner to learn how to run relaxed and in a style that’s comfortable to you. There are some basics for having an effective, energy-saving and most important, relaxed running style, regardless of how much or how fast you run.

Why bother working at what seems like such a fundamental activity? Improving your running technique and staying relaxed while running has so many benefits—you’ll run faster with less effort, you’ll lower your risk of injury and you’ll simply feel better while running. Of course, there’s plenty of research documenting the first two benefits, of running faster and being less injury-prone, but most of them miss that final element of simple enjoyment. Achieving that deep inner relaxation will help you to become a real runner, and might allow you to frequently have that sensation of skimming over the ground, tireless, feeling like you can fly!

How to Run Relaxed

First of all, realize that improving your running form is a long, gradual process. Take it step by step, and make only small changes. Trying to change too much at once can result in injury. On days when you want to check your running technique, don’t worry about how fast you’re running. Relax your mind, and let go of the tension you might have built up during the day. It’s helpful if you run with a free and positive feeling. Tension in your face or upper body can often result in a stiffer movement of your arms and legs, and you will feel tired more easily. Enjoy your surroundings; focus on nature and the air.

When I demonstrate relaxed running form to friends, I always make it a fun experience. If possible, we go to a nice setting to make us all more relaxed. Then, before we start running, I look at their posture, to see if there’s anything about the way they carry themselves that could have a strong effect on how they run. Then I tell them to visualize running relaxed from within—I want to be able to feel running as a relaxed movement without pressure and strain. Finally, before we get started on the real running, I give them a few more mental images of relaxation—happy dancing, being loose and carefree like a clown, a cherished memory or exciting accomplishment.

Only after everyone is loose and relaxed do we start paying attention to specific aspects of running form. Some of the elements of form we focus on are:

• Rock your shoulders gently: Don’t be too rigid. As you swing your arms, allow the shoulders to gently rock with the momentum of your arms. Keep your hands relaxed. Shake them from time to time if you feel tension.

• Understand how the foot strikes the ground: Your feet strike the ground slightly on the outside of the heel but mostly on the bottom, ideally below your center of gravity, which is under your hips. Then they roll in towards the arch as the weight moves to the balls of the feet. Avoid a hard heel strike—this only slows you down like brakes and wastes all that energy you just put into that stride. In general, shorter, more frequent steps are preferable to fewer, longer strides. If the horizon appears to bob up and down when you run, then you’re probably overstriding and have too much vertical motion in your gait. See if the horizon becomes more stable if you quicken your cadence and shorten your stride.

• Use your feet and legs as a unit: Push up with your foot, and use your hamstrings and gluteus (butt) muscles to move your hips forward. When you do this, your center of gravity moves forward. Using your feet in sync with the muscles of your back legs helps you to produce more power, so that you don’t feel as though you’re working as hard, and you’ll be able to run faster.

• Center of gravity: Some people run in what looks like a sitting position, while others lean forward too much. Try to run upright but not overly rigid, so that your center of gravity is at an optimum position, so that your center of gravity is located right under your hips. You want to lift your knees, but not so high that they’re parallel to the ground.

Building a Better Running Body

The biomechanical structure of the running movement can be explained as a “knee-lift” -> “extend leg” -> “hit the ground” -> “claw back and pull through” -> “push-up” movement. Each phase of this running movement can be underdeveloped or overdeveloped within a person’s stride, leading to your not being able to run as fast and efficiently as you’re capable of. According to my long-time coach, Dieter Hogen, other runners can have all normal developed running phases, but they simply can’t run relaxed. When compared to world-class runners, they prematurely fatigue, either because they are not mentally relaxed enough, their muscles might be too weak and need to be strengthened, or their tendons and ligaments might be too tight, and need to elongated.

There are elements you can add to your training that will help you to build a better running body and to improve your running form because they’ll strengthen and stretch the body parts that play a key role in how efficiently you run.

These include:

• Regular fast running: Running fast but relaxed once or twice a week improves your range of motion and helps you run better at all paces. Striders—bursts of 100 meters or so at about the pace you could hold for a mile—are a great aid in improving your form. At the end of an easy run, do six to 12 striders, with as much recovery between them as you need to be able to do each with good form. Don’t strain. On each strider, concentrate on one element of good running form, such as low shoulders or quick turnover. Many top Kenyans do some form of striders weekly throughout the year, often in the form of what are known as diagonals. To do diagonals, go to a field such as a soccer field. Run fast from one corner of the field to the opposite corner, jog along the baseline to the next corner, run fast from that corner across the field to the opposite corner, and jog along the baseline to return to your starting point. (You’ll have made an X in the field during your fast portions.) Some Kenyans will do up to 50 repeats of diagonals in place of an easy run on some days. If you can do 20 to 25 repeats, that would be great.
• Barefoot running: Doing a few minutes of barefoot running at the end of a run, or doing striders on grass, is a wonderful way to strengthen your foot and calf muscles. It’s also nearly impossible to overstrike when you run barefoot, so doing so occasionally will you to feel what it’s like to run with the right stride length. Finally, running over soft grass and feeling the uneven ground under your feet gives a nice foot massage.

• Hills: Doing repeats up a short, relatively steep hill also improves your range of motion, and builds the leg strength needed to maintain good form when you tire. Find a hill that takes 30 seconds to one minute to climb at a strong but not all-out effort. Concentrate on staying upright and driving off of your back leg. Do eight to 12 repeats, jogging back down the hill to recover between. Hills, too, are a staple of most Kenyans’ training.

• Drills: Exercises that exaggerate various parts of the running gait can also make you a more graceful runner. After most runs in Kenya , you’ll see runners doing things like skipping, running along slowly while bringing their heels to their butts and running with high knees. Bounding and hopping drills also help to build power that translates into better running form.

• Stretching and yoga: Concentrate on your upper body, lower back, hips, and legs, especially your quads, hamstring and calves. If you run after a day of sitting at a desk, be sure your shoulders and neck are loose and relaxed, because you’ve probably had them hunched over for a good part of the day. You might consider trying out special stretching and strengthening exercises from yoga for athletes.

• Strength training: By this, we mainly mean exercises that strengthen your core; that is, your stomach, back, butt and hips, where most of your power come from. Core work such as sit-ups, push-ups and back strengthening exercises will help you to maintain good form for longer, because you’ll be able to hold yourself correctly even as you tire.

Ask a trainer or one of your fellow runners to give you some feedback and advice about your running technique. First, run slow and get each phase of your running technique checked. Then do the same while running at a higher speed, because your technique is going to be different. The next step would be to repeat a check-up when your body feels tired, i.e., when you’re at the end of a hard workout. Take your time to analyze your style of running, and see what changes when you move faster.

I often remember a cold winter day training with my first coach. I had been running for about only a year. My coach had me run on fresh snow, which just covered the ground of the track we always trained on. I clearly could see my footsteps — my very angled footsteps! With the way my feet pointed out, I probably lost half of an inch each step. In a marathon, if we add this up, some experts believe that you could lose well over two to three minutes. On the next loop, I concentrated on keeping my feet straighter while touching the snowy ground. It worked. It works on a wet trail, too, and provides a reminder you’ll never forget.

Again, change your form only a little at a time, and realize that not everyone can have perfect form. Also be aware that changes might take a long time, because these changes have to be imprinted on our muscle memory. I don’t have hip problems and my legs are almost straight, so working on improving the alignment of my feet was okay. For example, people with extremely bowed legs shouldn’t overemphasize this aspect of their form and should be very careful with changes, because they might overstress their hips as well as their knees in concentrating too much on having their feet point completely forward.

Moving Forward

If you decide to change your running technique, take your time to realize the changes. Choose one part first, discuss your ideas, next visualize them, then visualize them while walking, then while running easy, and finally while running faster in the new way you visualized. Work on the first change only. Work on it for a while, and later add another element you would like to change, and another if necessary. After each change, ask a trainer or fellow runner to check your running style again. This way you make sure you adjust to the new style correctly. (On your own, you can also check your form in a mirror while running on a treadmill.)

Even the best runners who have worked on their form for a long time sometimes relapse into a less relaxed, less efficient form at times. This happened to me quite often at the end of a hard track workout or a race. Because of feeling tired, I would lose focus, and often my shoulders would go up and get tight, and soon I would lose my relaxation in my upper body. I gladly accepted advice from Dieter, who simply yelled, “Shoulders down! Relax!” Over the years, I developed a way to react to his advice right away: another deep breath and the shoulders would go down, I would relax and smile as if to convince myself that I was indeed relaxed, and I would indeed relax.

Here’s an on-the-run checklist of the key elements of relaxed running form. Run through it in your head on runs occasionally to ensure that your form is allowing you to get the most enjoyment out of your training.

• Head: Feel like your head is balanced over your neck, rather than thrust forward or held back. To have a safe run, look a certain distance in front of you, to check the ground for uneven spots, etc.; how far in front to look depends on the roughness of the surface you’re running on. From time to time, check the ground 20 meters to 30 meters ahead of you to make sure you avoid dangerous areas. On easy runs, look left and right and around on occasion—checking out the scenery might help you relax a bit more.
• Shoulders: Keep your shoulders down and relaxed. Also, try not to round your shoulders—keep them straight and square.
  
• Arms: Keep them low and easy at the side of your body, moving like a fast pendulum in a steady rhythm in sync with your legs.

• Hands: Your wrists should pass by your waist, not your upper chest. Keep your hands cupped in a “relaxed” fist. If you like, place your thumb on your index finger.
• Pelvis: Keep your hips level, and moving straight forward.
• Legs and Feet: Try not to overstrike, and focus on having your legs carrying your body smoothly. If you do not have any severe anatomical issues, such as badly bowed legs, your feet should touch the ground straight and right under the center of gravity.

Finally, make sure your whole body is completely relaxed and working as a unit, and that you’re focused on keeping your body in an upright posture. This is important to avoid getting a lower-back injury by leaning too much forward or backward. Try to be relaxed from the inside out, almost feeling like you’re dancing in a fast and pleasant rhythm.