Adjusting My Foot Strike To Run Better

I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for ways to make running easier and more efficient. When I was a new runner my goal was just to run. To get from point A to point B and not die. As the years went by I learned more about all the technical things that help you be a better runner. While I know how and what to do for the most part, that doesn’t mean I always do all “the things”. I often times find myself getting lazy and my form suffers. My most recent focus is foot strike. 

I am a heel striker. I have tried to change my gait before but still find my self landing on my heel. I’m not injury prone so I told myself, if it ain’t broke why fix it. But recently I read an article about foot strike and now I want to see if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. Will I be faster? Will running feel easier? I’m ready to find out.

I did some research and this is what I found.

Running Form

In order to adjust my foot strike I must start with my running form. Everything seems to begin and end with form.

Run tall

The best form is with a slight lean forward from the hips/pelvis while keeping a straight line from head to ankle. Gaze forward (not down), head up, shoulders and arms relaxed, with hands in a soft fist. 

Arm swing and foot turnover

Arms bent and close to the body, swinging forward (not across your body) from the shoulder. Your arm swing mimics your stride, for every arm movement there’s a leg movement. Sometimes when I want to pick up the pace I concentrate on moving my arms faster and my legs will follow. 

Foot turn over should be quick. Focus on shorter strides with a quick turnover. A coach once told me to think of the ground as hot and you need to pick up your feet quick. 

This brings us to foot strike.

Foot strike

Most of us are heel strikers and as long as you’re not injury prone then that’s okay. Having said that, that doesn’t mean there isn’t benefit to adjusting your foot strike.

When we land on our heel we are essentially putting on the brakes, which obviously naturally slows us down. This generally happens with over striding, which stems from tight hip flexors and/or weak glutes. This is me.

Ideally you should land on your mid foot with your knee flexed, ankle under your body or center of gravity. If you find this completely unnatural for you and are determined to land on your heel try quickening your pace, landing with a more gentle heel strike. The faster turnover will bring your landing closer to your center of gravity. I call this a happy medium and it’s where I’m at right now.

My next step is to upload a metronome to my phone to help quicken my cadence. See the link at the bottom for a video to see why. 

There’s also fore foot strikers but they tend to be sprinters. If you want more info on this go here.

Mobility and Strength

Everything I read says in order to maintain good running form and thus efficient running we need to do mobility and strengthening exercises. I found a couple of people on YouTube that I like but the Kinetic Revolution with James Dunne has a lot of informational videos that I have found to be the most helpful. He is a sports rehabilitation therapist who focuses on running. Check him out below.

Here are a few exercises I think will benefit me the most. Maybe you’ll find them beneficial too.

Hip flexor stretch and mobility exercise. Watch YouTube video here.

Split squats. Watch here.

Arabesque

Single Leg Squats

Other videos that I found helpful are How to Increase Cadence and 5 Strength and Conditioning exercises.

I hope some of this information was helpful. I know I need a review every once in a while. I know this because I wrote a similar post here.

Are you a heel striker? Do you have hip mobility issues? Do you do glute activation exercises?

I’m linking with Kim and Zenaida for Tuesday’s Topics

and Deborah, Debbie, Lisa , Jen and Laura for Runners’ Roundup.

**Just a reminder…I am not a coach, personal trainer, physical therapist, etc. I am a seasoned runner sharing info I find from (hopefully) credible resources. 

Thanks for reading.

         Denise