Running Form Basics - Upperbody Mechanics
Hey! I’m Coach Andrew Simmons Head Running Coach at Lifelong Endurance. I’ve spent the last 6 years honing my skills and developing a method to help athletes unlock free speed by working on their running form.
Taking the time to focus on your form allows you to simultaneously build fitness, run faster, and stay injury free. On average 67% of runners will see at least one running injury, 56% will see more than one injury in the next 2 years. What was the biggest factor that if improved could lower a runners risk? Improving their running form and mechanics.
We’ve built a free guide to help remove frustration and help you break bad habits.
Upper Body Mechanics
Every athlete has a unique gait and running style that propels them around the track and down the trail. The goal of this series of articles isn’t to force everyone to run the same - that’s simply impossible. The goal is to help athletes correct inefficiencies, tease out bad habits, and make corrections to their mechanics that are costing them seconds per and minutes per marathon. We’ve built this series to dive a little deeper and get into the small details. Enough talk, let’s get into it.
Countermovement Explained
Figure 1
Figure 2
Hands/ Wrists
Next time you’re at your local track or just out for a run and see someone running by take a close look at their hands and wrists - are they hinging at the wrist with palms facing the ground?This combination of Flexion and Pronation of the wrist is likely causing them to run with wide elbows. We’ll get to why that’s a problem here shortly.
The first thing I want you to understand is that our upper body often counter movements in our lower body. As you can see in Figure 1 above there is a counter movement in the upper body to keep the body in neutral based on the gait of the athlete pictured. Things can get out of hand when we try to do this very quickly and repeatedly. If we haven’t built up good coordination and body awareness we can start to develop imbalances that are a result of our counter movements. What your legs are doing are a result of your arms and vice versa.
So you can imagine that if your elbows areaway from your body (and center of mass) that you’ll begin to twist at the hips. In Figure2, you can see the result of a twist in the upper body, this twist creates torque in your hips and pelvis. This torque can cause strain and overuse if the support musculature isn’t ready for what you’re throwing at it.
So how do we fix it? Thumbs up with a neutral wrist will allow your hand and wrist to move comfortable positioning your Ulna and Radius over one another. This neutral wrist position will automatically pull your elbows in closer to your ribs. There are a number of hand positions to consider when you’re running - the Core Fist,B-Fist, and C-Fist as popularized by the Weck Method , you have likely heard of hand circles, or the Potato Chip Method.
Potato Chip Method - Pretend that you are closing your hand around a potato chip. You want to hold that ship hard enough that you won’t drop it but not so tight you crush it. Light hands mean s you’re not creating fists that will waste needless energy.
Want to unlock more free speed with your running form?
Arm Swing
Your arms balance your body as you run, arm swing helps diminish overall energy expenditure, drive you forward and improve your over running rhythm. Your arm swing is what helps you start your “kick” in a sprint or race. Your arm swing also plays a role in vertical oscillation and helps lift the body off the ground with each stride.Ensuring that you’re always putting you energy forward is absolutely key - ensuring that you don’t cross the center line of your body. The moment you begin to cross your centerline combined with wide elbows you’re creating significant amounts of unnecessary rotation (Figure 2).
Opening and Closing at the Elbow
You want to close at the top of your swing and open up at the bottom of your swing. For distance runners this movement is minimal (80-100 degrees), when we talk faster races, sprinting, or running up hill - a big arm swing is key! The faster you go - the more you’ll swing.
Swing from the Shoulders
Key word is swing - not rotate!Swing from the shoulders and not your elbows. Avoid the urge to lift your shoulders up and down - the same goes for forward and backward (avoid the shoulder lean). Keep your shoulders in a fixed position while arms are driving.
Pushing your arms back
The forward swing of the arm is natural - most runners need to think about bringing their elbow further behind their body. Concentrate on pushing or driving your elbow back, the forward movement will come on it’s own naturally.
Hip to Nip
Hands should come as high as your mid-chest/ nipple down to your hip pocket/ beltline.
It’s the biggest point of content - midfoot, forefoot, heel strike. There is no perfect “way” to strike the ground - it’s more about where your foot strikes relative to your Center of Gravity than how it first makes contact with the ground. In a perfect world we’d like to see a mid-foot strike underneath your center of mass. However, the world isn’t perfect! Between dodging rocks, undulations in the road, and your changing mechanics as you fatigue will have you doing some combination of all 3 landing patterns. Your body naturally adapts especially if your brain is turned on and focused on efficiency. Read On to see how you can take the pain out of your stride.