Good Running Form: Learn to Become a Balanced Runner™

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 for good running form into one simple list for the past fourteen years. My goal is to offer fundamental guidelines that will be transformational on some level to every runner who reads it.

The first version I created was also my first YouTube video, The 5 Biggest Mistakes Beginning Marathoners Make. It definitely is a reflection of my best understanding at the time (2012), but we’ve all done a lot of learning since then.

Here is my most recent version:

Print this pdf, read it over, and see if one of the first six running form keys seems easy or comfortable to you on your next run. Allow yourself to relax into doing it and see if, after a while, you also find yourself spontaneously doing one or two of the other elements on the list.

Just notice, don’t try to force anything to happen. (Here’s more about that strategy.)

Then forget all about it and think about whatever you want (perhaps what you’re having for dinner) as you finish your run. Next run pick another element that you’ve noticed yourself doing in the past or think you could do without working too hard or forcing anything, focus on doing that, and see which other elements on the list might appear after awhile.

What makes the Keys different from most good running form tips is that they’re not just a list of what to do with different parts of your body. Instead, all of the keys are connected to each other and reinforce each other–they’re all aspects of the single, whole-body action that is good running form. So if you start with whatever part of the list is easiest for you, it will help the rest begin to appear.

Keys 9 and 10 are the strategies that will further assist your ideal running form in developing naturally. Have those in mind all the time.

As you work on this, always remember: good running form is easier–not harder!–than bad running form. So allowing yourself to relax into doing these keys should not increase your level of effort or your heart rate! If it does, back off and try something different from the list.

I’ll write about each of the nine keys on the list in turn here in my blog in the coming months, so for further explanation please stay tuned.

I’m eager to hear how this goes for you, so please leave a reply letting me know your experiences!