Finding Your Optimal Running Form

I’ve been coaching runners for over 20 years. In that time, I’ve seen just about every running injury and imbalance you can imagine. While the exact causes tend to vary, I’ve noticed that many issues ultimately come down to suboptimal running form and mobility.

My Journey to Good Form

I wasn’t always a poster child for good form. When I first started running, I would pound out miles with terrible form—overstriding, landing on my heels with straight knees, not engaging my core properly. It didn’t take long before I was hobbled with various aches and pains.

Determined to keep running, I started reading everything I could about efficient form. I experimented with changes like increasing my cadence, landing more softly under my center of mass, and actively driving my knees forward. While it took time and patience, these form tweaks made a world of difference. The injuries faded and my times started dropping.

Now, helping runners optimize their form is one of my passions as a coach. While there’s no universally “perfect” form, there are key principles you can apply to find your optimal efficiency and injury resilience.

Core Principles of Good Running Form

Here are what I consider the 5 core pillars of efficient running form:

1. Cadence: Aim for 170-190 steps per minute. This quicker turnover reduces braking forces and injury risk. Use a metronome to monitor your cadence until an appropriately quick pace feels natural.
2. Footstrike: Land under your center of mass with a soft footstrike. Heel striking with straight knees sends shocks up through your body. Landing softer under your center of gravity allows better shock absorption.
3. Knee and Ankle Alignment: Actively drive your knees forward and land with bent ankles. This alignment absorbs impact and propels you forward more efficiently.
4. Arm Carriage: Drive bent arms front to back, crossing midline of body. Arms drive leg turnover, while too much side-to-side motion causes energy leaks.
5. Torso and Pelvis Alignment: Run tall with a slight forward lean. Maintain neutral pelvis alignment and brace core without excessive rotation. This connects arm and leg drives efficiently.

Building Form Through Mobility

To run with proper alignment, as described above, your body needs adequate mobility and neuromuscular coordination. Inflexibilities or weaknesses anywhere in the chain—like tight hip flexors or weak glute meds—make ideal form difficult to achieve.

That’s why I consider regular mobility practice one of the most vital components of good running form. Actively opening up your joints and coordinating muscle activation patterns trains your nervous system for efficient movement.

Some of my favorite mobility exercises include:

• Banded leg swings: develop hip mobility and glute activation
• Walking lunges: improve hip extension and ankle dorsiflexion
• Inchworms: activate core and hamstrings; open shoulders and calves

along with routines like:

• Coach Angela’s 3HAB prehab program
• Yoga for runners

Optimizing Your Individual Form

While there are universal principles, as outlined above, finding your most efficient form ultimately requires getting to know your own body. Below are three key strategies I recommend to hone your individual form:

1. Self-Analysis

• Use a mirror or video camera to observe your movement patterns
• Pay attention to alignment, range of motion, and coordination

2. Drills and Exercises

• Butt kicks, high knees, and skips to engrain new motor patterns
• Single-leg deadlifts and clamshells to strengthen weaknesses

3. Cueing

• Focus on 1-2 form cues per run, like “quick turnover” or “soft landing.”
• Avoid overanalyzing; just integrate adjustments over time

Be patient through this process. It takes time to override years of movement habits. But the payoff—better performance and fewer injuries—makes it well worth the effort.

Still Struggling? Seek Expert Help

For some runners, niggling form or injury issues just won’t resolve, no matter how much self-experimentation they do. If you’ve plateaued in your progress on form, consider an expert assessment.

In-person biomechanical analysis at sports performance labs can identify subtle issues through detailed measurements. Some also provide gait-retraining programs.

Another option is one-on-one coaching focused specifically on optimizing running form. A good coach trains your eye to self-analyze and gives you personalized movement and strength drills. Through collaborating with both lab experts and run coaches, I finally resolved my own lifelong injury battles.

So don’t hesitate to seek outside help if you need it! We all have our movement blindspots.

Related Articles:

• Learn Proper Running Form
• Improved Running Form and Efficiency

Hopefully, this gives you a solid foundation on the key principles of efficient running form and how to progress to your optimal personal form. Remember—patience and consistency are key. Keep fine-tuning your form and mobility over months and years, not days and weeks. The long-term rewards are well worth it!