Ep #378: 5 Tips for Better Running Form

 Welcome to the not your average runner podcast. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running coach and you’re running BFF here to help you start running, feel confident and love the journey no matter your size. Now, if you’ve ever felt like you just weren’t meant to be a runner, think again. I believe that running is for all bodies, even yours.

This podcast is your warmup buddy, giving you tips, motivation, and the support you need to lace up and get moving. I’ve helped thousands of women become runners, and now I want to help you. Let’s go.

Hey there, runner. Welcome to episode 378. I cannot believe we have that many episodes. I counted today. And I am so excited today to talk about running form, specifically five simple tips to help you run more comfortably, efficiently, and injury free.

But before we do that, can we talk real quick about the weather? It is still really cold here in Philadelphia and don’t get me wrong. I love the cold. I really do. Uh, I grew up near the Great Lakes and, you know, way back in the 70s, we could literally get six feet of snow in one day. And as a kid, I loved that.

Uh, I do sometimes miss it a little bit as an adult, not so much living in the city because you got a shovel. Uh, but I have gotten kind of soft lately because the winters in Philly are pretty lame, my friends. You get a couple inches of snow, maybe it dips down into the 20s a couple times. Except for this year because we have gotten a lot more snow than that and we have gone several weeks where it has just been In the teens for days and days and days and frankly I am over it So I just needed to get that off my chest.

I know a lot of you have it way worse I just felt like I needed to complain and You are here. I’m here in your ear. And so I took advantage of that Anyway, let’s talk about running form. Okay. So if you’re ready to warm up, I want you to pay attention while you are doing your walking warmup, or if you’re already running, you can pay attention to your running, to all of the tips that I’m going to give you today.

Okay. So this is like a perfect time for you to actually tune into your form. And here’s the thing about running form. It actually matters a lot. And I know I say that. Everyone’s body is different and You know, what looks, what is perfect running form for one person will not be exactly the same for another person Because bodies are put together differently But that being said there are some general guidelines that are gonna make it a lot Better of an experience for you and a lot less likely that you’re gonna get injured and that’s what I’m gonna cover today So a lot of new runners just I think kind of assume you just get out there and run, right?

and Yes, that is technically true, but the way you run can make a huge difference in how you feel, how efficiently you move, how well you can breathe, how much impact your body absorbs. Good running form can help you run with less effort. It can reduce your chance, uh, your risk of injury, and it can make you feel a lot more comfortable and confident while you’re running.

Okay, and the best part of this is you do not have to be a fast runner to benefit from great running form. All right, did you hear me on that? Running form is not about being fast. It is not just for Fast runners or runners that look like gazelles, right? Running form is about finding a way in your body to run efficiently, to lower the chance of injury and to feel confident.

You do not have to be fast. That is not part of this. OK, so let’s talk about those five tips. And again, a reminder, as I’m going through each tip, I want you to do a mental inventory. And I know you’re probably walking right now. If you’re running, that’s great. If you’re walking, that’s great. But just do a check in on each one because they, they kind of also apply to your walking form for the most part.

So first up, we’re going to talk about your posture. Now, I want you to think about standing tall, with your head looking straight ahead. Keep that chin up, not looking down at your feet, not looking at your phone, right? Imagine there’s a string coming right off the top of your head and it is just pulling your body upright.

Let your shoulders be relaxed, not kind of hunched forward. Don’t let your upper back hunch forward or your neck hunch forward because, you know, when you’re all sort of slouched over, it compresses your chest and it compresses your lungs and that means you can’t breathe as well. Um, but also keeping your chest open and keeping your gaze up helps keep your stride efficient, right?

It all, it’s all. works together. But if you catch yourself slumping and not running kind of straight and upright, just take a deep breath, reset, roll those shoulders back and keep going. And honestly, I have to do this multiple times when I’m out running. I, you know, frequently do a form check and I’ll be like, Oh, look at that.

I’m kind of like rolling forward a little bit. Well, yeah. bring it back, get more upright. Sometimes I catch myself looking at the ground and I remember to like bring my chin up and look forward. It is going to make you feel so, so much better. Tip number two, let’s talk about your arms. Now, a lot of runners will sort of tense up, and they’ll hold their arms up, like they’ll shrug their shoulders up, um, or like swing their arms sort of wildly back and forth, or they clench their hands really tightly.

When I was a brand new runner, like almost 30 years ago, I used to hold onto my thumbs, I would wrap my fingers around my thumbs, and I would make these really Really tight fists for some reason. And then by the time I would get done with the run, like my fingers would hurt and I’d feel really, really tense.

So keep everything in your arms and your hands and your shoulders relaxed. All right. So keep the arms swinging gently back and forth, like front to back. Right. Not side to side. Keep your elbows at maybe a 90 degree angle, give or take, and imagine that you are holding a potato chip in your hands and you’re trying not to squish it, okay?

Now, the arm swing, again, if you, if when you’re running you find that your hand, like your right hand, crosses over to the left side of your body, or your left hand crosses over to the right side of your body, what’s happening is it’s It’s causing your upper body to turn back and forth to kind of like rotate and that is pretty inefficient.

It wastes a lot of energy and it’s going to interfere with your, um, with your core, your ability to kind of keep yourself upright. So like let the arms swing. back to front gently, right? We’re not pumping the arms. You’re not sprinting. I’ll keep everything relaxed. And remember, don’t clench those fists.

Okay. Number three, let’s talk about your stride. And I think this is what most people think about when they think about running form is their stride, right? And so one of the biggest mistakes runners make is Overstriding. And what that means is taking these like big reaching steps like trying to lengthen your stride because you’re thinking, Oh, the longer my stride is, the faster I’ll go or the farther I’ll go.

But actually it slows you down. All right. It increases the impact on your joints because when you’re reaching far out in front of your body with your foot, you’re landing hard on your heels. All right. And that impact resonates right up your knee and into your hip. Okay. So instead of a long stride, I want you to focus on taking shorter steps, quicker steps, alright?

So you’re going to increase your cadence and your cadence is simply the number of steps that you take per minute, right? So you’re going to take more steps per minute and take shorter steps. And what that’s going to do is help you Like your foot land directly underneath your body, right underneath your hips, not out in front, okay?

So those shorter quick steps in my coaching group, Run Your Best Life, we call it corgi running because it’s like, like you imagine you’re like a little dog with like those short little legs and they take those tiny little steps and they go really, really quickly. So that is, um, That’s a weird visual, I guess.

Um, corgis are super cute, but uh, you know, we have normal size legs. But I want you to kind of like keep that in mind as you’re running that you want to take short, quick steps and let your foot land directly below your hips. Now, if you are struggling to understand what that means, a good visual is when you’re running, okay, so you’re upright, your upper body is relaxed.

Just tilt your head directly down to see if you can see the tips of your feet coming out in front of your body. If you can see your toes. Awesome. If you can see almost your whole foot landing when you look straight down as you’re running, that means that you are landing out in front of your body. Okay?

And so, just shorten it up and pra It takes a little bit of practice if you’re somebody who, like, really wants to do a long, um, leaping stride. But, give it a try. because I promise you it’s going to feel better. All right? Number four tip is your core. Number four is your core. Love how that rhymes. Anyway, running is not just about your legs, okay?

Your core, your abs, your back, um, it plays a huge role too. So a strong core helps stabilize your body, keeps you from wobbling side to side, and, you know, we don’t want side to side motion when we’re running. We want forward motion. So any side to side motion that you’re doing takes away from moving forward.

It uses up energy. So think about sort of lightly engaging your abs as you’re running. Okay. You don’t have to clench them, right? You’re not like waiting for someone to punch you in the gut. Just think like put your mind in your abs and just Think about lightly engaging them. And again, imagine that string pulling you straight up from the top of your head.

And like, let that activation keep your posture strong and your stride steady. I like to think of my torso starting with my hips going on up as like, uh, as like a column, like imagine a Roman column. And, uh, at the, you know, the column is. It’s strong and thick, but at the bottom of the column there is a base, right?

And at the top of the column, there’s this building and everything. And this is a very imperfect metaphor, but I like to think of my torso as a Roman column. And I have a strong base, which is strong glutes and low back and lower core. And then my torso is, is the rest of the column. And that strong, that strong core.

Right helps keep the building from wobbling from side to side look at the Roman ruins right strong core They are still here hundreds thousands. Maybe I don’t know of years later Again, I told you it was an imperfect metaphor, but I do love thinking of my torso as like a marble column that, um, you know, the base of it is my hips and my glutes.

And then my core, my, my upper abs and my upper back are the column that like helps keep me strong while my legs are just doing their thing. All right. Number five, last but not least, is your breathing. Okay, and we talked about this in detail in last week’s podcast. So go back and listen to that one again if you want to.

And you might not think of breathing as part of your running form, but it is, right? Your lungs are, your lungs are part of your body. And if you are gasping for air, it is a sign that you may need to slow down or adjust your effort. So you can use your breathing as a cue to how your running form is. If you’re going too fast, if you’re pushing too hard, your running form is going to suffer, right?

You’re probably going to be like sort of squinched over from your shoulders and your upper back, which is going to compress your chest and keep you from getting enough air. It’s going to keep you from engaging your core. So make sure again that you’re running upright so that your chest is open and your core is engaged so that your breathing is.

as efficient and, uh, effective as possible, right? Because more air in your lungs means more power to your muscles, which means running gets easier. So it all ties together, my friends. So let’s do a quick recap of those five foreign tips. One, keep your body upright with your gaze forward, not looking down at the ground.

Keep your chest open. Number two, keep those arms and shoulders and hands relaxed, slightly bent. No, we are not crunching the potato chip in our hands. Number three, shorten the stride and make it quick. Quick light steps landing right under your hips. Number four, engage your core. And number five, focus on your breathing and adjust your pace accordingly so that you are able to maintain your running form.

Um, So that you can feel better when you’re running. Okay, and again, your form doesn’t have to be perfect and it won’t be perfect Okay, it’s small adjustments as you you know Progress as a runner are going to make a huge difference in how you feel. So just keep reframing and or keep referring back to this and Checking in with yourself and adjusting it so that it becomes habit.

All right, so Today’s run, try focusing on, um, pick one of these tips to focus on, see how it feels. If you are a member of the Not Your Average Runner podcast Facebook community, please tag me, let me know if you have any questions. Um, if you’re not a member, what the heck are you waiting for? The link to that group is in the show notes.

And uh, that is it for today’s episode of Not Your Average Runner. If you found this helpful, please share this episode with a friend. Don’t forget to subscribe and review on, especially on iTunes. It really helps this podcast get, uh, shown to more people so we can help more people. And as always, remember that you are a runner, no matter your pace or your body size.

So please keep running, keep moving, and I will catch you next week. Mwah! Real quick, before you go, I’ve got a fun challenge for you. Take my Exerciser Personality Quiz to find out exactly what kind of exerciser you are and how to make running feel easier and more enjoyable. Just head over to notyouraveragerunner.

com slash quiz. to take it and get your results. That’s not your average runner dot com slash quiz.