How You Should Swing Your Arms When Running | The Balanced Runner Keys Series

These runners are a great example of how you should swing your arms when running.

How you should swing your arms tends to be an afterthought when running. You probably think of things like footstrike, core, posture, cadence, and so forth instead. That’s a mistake, since your running form is a whole-body cycle of events driven by your relationship to gravity. And in gravity, the higher up in your body … Read more

The Balanced Runner Keys Series: Core Stability and Running–Get Your Core in Action!

core stability for running should really be called "core action" because it's the movements of the core that are important

If you’ve given even a moment’s thought to your running form in the past two decades, it was probably either to your footstrike or to your core.  My previous two posts in this series on The Balanced Runner Keys addressed the issue of footstrike; now it’s time to talk about core stability and running. The … Read more

Balanced Runner Keys Series: Land with a Supple Leg to Optimize Your Footstrike

Two views of stiff vs. supple legs just before footstrike

For years – since roughly 2004, in fact – I’ve been telling people to avoid heelstriking and overstriding, and instead to aim for a midfoot/forefoot footstrike underneath you. In many quarters this is considered to be the very heart of good running form, especially since Daniel Lieberman’s well-known research supports it. For a quick overview … Read more

Good Running Form: Learn to Become a Balanced Runner™

if you've ever watched children playing, you've seen good running form

Would you like a simple set of guidelines to good running form that would help you feel healthier, faster, more efficient, more joyful, and more naturally connected to the world around you? Although human movement is complex and each person’s body, history, and learning process is different, I’ve been working on formulating the basic keys … Read more

Do You Know How to Walk Properly? (or how walking is different from running)

If you can carry a basket on your head, you know how to walk properly!

Once my clients feel happy with their running it sometimes dawns on them that they don’t know how to walk properly. Trying to apply what they’ve learned about running to walking just confuses them as what felt so right in running ends up feeling strange and wrong for walking. That’s because there are some significant … Read more

What to Do When Your Running Technique Won’t Improve

The magazines, your coach or physio, a multitude of books and, yes, even bloggers are telling you your problems will be solved by improving your running technique. You’ll be faster, you won’t be injured as much, and you’ll become the runner you dream of being. Maybe you feel yourself moving in the right direction, slow … Read more

Should You Increase Your Stride Rate?

One of the generally accepted elements of good running technique these days is cultivating a stride rate of 180 or above (meaning your feet touch the ground 180 or more times per minute). For a number of years I have recommended this as well. However a few clues have recently begun to suggest something different to me, and this month … Read more