Correct Your Running Form and Maximize Effort

In evaluating and teaching high-speed running mechanics, a coach must give you key points consciously focus on as you learn to reprogram your motor patterns. It is useful to break down the movement in a way that is consistent with a systematic teaching progression.   

Before beginning any run, make sure you warm up and stretch.  This is best achieved by performing any combination of moves that get blood flowing to your gluteus maximus (glute), calves, hamstrings and quadriceps. 

So what exactly should you do to warm up? I suggest a dynamic movement series which builds up your muscles that cause technical errors in your running form.  (See the end of this article for a sample Dynamic Movement Workout.)    

Having the right information at your fingertips increases the possibility that you will run faster, be stronger in your run and your times will be better than ever. 

When most people run, they take the path of least resistance which means taking a smaller stride, and are rather comfortable; you can run for an extended period of time doing that. What you need to do is make sure that all the muscles in the lower body are really active so that you can get a good cardiovascular workout while maximizing distance and effort.

Choose an interval style running workout in order to improve your oxygen capacity, and therefore help you to run faster and with better form.  A traditional VO2 Max exercise should start with a vigorous pace you are comfortable with, and run at that pace for three minutes, then rest for one minute to recover. During this minute rest, you will bring the tempo and pace down to a light jog.  You will repeat these intervals of three minutes of work and one minute of rest, five times.

But how do you know that you are running with correct form during this interval workout? First, you must ensure that you are elongating your stride so that you are not just your working your quadriceps.  The glute is the largest muscle in your body; if your stride is too short, you are not engaging the glute at all. By elongating your stride, you get the entire lower body working together and at once.  It’s a lot more work, but it’s also more efficient.  Therefore, since it’s more efficient, you are going to actively work more muscles during the course of the effort, which means you are maximizing your time. 

Secondly, increase your back kick by lifting your heel up higher behind you, while using a big open stride.  By increasing the back kick, you engage your hamstrings, as well. Relax your arms and tuck them into your side so that they do not work against you.  As you get better and more comfortable in your correct running form, you must challenge yourself to keep a vigorous pace in those three minutes and ride out your stride so that you can feel your hamstrings engage and open up the stride to push yourself into really working. Don’t forget to focus on your breathing:  push the air out of your lungs and your body will work like a vacuum and pull air back in.   

End your workout with a three-minute cool down and a static stretch on the quadriceps, hamstrings, inner thigh leg swing and calf stretch on both sides.  This workout provides simple foundational techniques that will improve your running efficiency and ultimately lead to running correctly and faster. 

Dynamic Movement Circuit