You Don’t Need to Overhaul Your Form to Better Your Runs. These Small Tweaks Lead to Bigger Results.
I still remember how confused I felt as a high school runner when a random parent came up to me at a track meet and told me I needed to completely change my running form. And I’m not talking about a simple shift in my cadence or arm movement. The stranger told me that, after watching me run, he “knew” I needed to alter my entire stride and posture. Those significant changes would magically turn me into a faster, more efficient runner, he confidently explained.
Spoiler alert: I did not need to change my form that drastically. In fact, most of the parent’s suggestions didn’t feel natural to my body when I tried them out in races, and the adjustments actually made my performance much worse.
However, despite the one technique horror story, I have seen success with making tiny tweaks to elements of my running form. I learned how to run with relaxed hands with the help of a strange-but-silly Pringle drill. I discovered how to hammer my arms more powerfully by, well, swinging my arms with hammers in my hands. I’ve even logged miles with a metronome to focus on quickening my cadence and turnover.
The bottom line: You do not have to overhaul your entire running form to see positive changes in your consistency, efficiency, and speed. In fact, it’s often the smallest, most subtle tweaks that lead to the biggest results and improvements.
Looking to fine-tune your form? Our new Guide to Running Form makes identifying areas of improvement and dialing in your technique simple. Led by clinical exercise physiologist Heather Milton, you’ll discover what movement patterns may be holding you back, and how to fix them with cues, drills, and easy adjustments. And we have advice for every type of runner—whether you’re a newcomer, PR chaser, injury-prone athlete, or masters runner, we have a chapter dedicated to your form needs.
Maybe you’re constantly feeling pain in your back or IT band. That means it may be time to build your hip and core strength with some helpful exercises. Or perhaps you’re looking to make the marginal gains necessary to score a marathon PR, and know you bound too much as you stride. If so, you may benefit from keeping some visual and cadence cues at top of mind. Even if you’re a complete newcomer, or an older athlete who’s been putting in the miles for years, you could benefit from dialing in some easy-to-implement form changes that come with plenty of longevity and performance rewards.
“Most everyone can benefit from form tweaks. It’s almost like strength training,” explains Milton in our running form program. “Can you do a deadlift? Yes, but if you have a trainer, and that trainer is optimizing your form and maximizing the muscle activation, you benefit.”
See what’s possible for you and your running journey when you take a closer look at the form that’s powering you along your path. Dive into our Guide to Running Formto see how you can improve your technique for stronger, pain-free, and more efficient miles, and find other ways to enhance your training with the help of our tailored guidesand plans available to Runner’s World+ members.
Become a Stronger Runner With These Exclusive Training Programs
Ashley is Editor of Content Hype at Hearst’s Enthusiast & Wellness Group. She is a former collegiate runner at UNC Asheville where she studied mass communication. Ashley loves all things running; she has raced two marathons, plus has covered some of the sport’s top events in her career, including the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials and multiple World Marathon Majors.