Training: What’s the biggest running form problem?

One of my readers, Kelly from New York wrote in asking the following question:

“What is the biggest problem with people’s running form that you see when you watch people run?”

Good question Kelly.

First, I won’t try to write a long article here on running form. There’s a lot to say about the topic, but I will try to answer your question. The one thing that you notice when watching lots and lots of runners is that everyone has very different form. As the comedian Lewis Black once said, “we’re like snowflakes” – we’re all different.

But there is one problem that I bet many of you have that you can easily start working on and that has to do with the positioning and use of your arms and hands when running. Many, many people fail to use their arms while running, which can cause a wide range of problems.

Proper Arm and Hand Position
When you’re running, make sure that your arms are bent at the elbow at a 90 degree angle (like an “L”). Your arms should move straight forward and back. Your arms should never cross the center-line of your torso – meaning they should not cross over your belly button. The arms should drive back and forth, helping to propel you forward. You’ll note that your arms set the cadence of your stride. Try speeding up your arm-swing sometime in practice and you’ll notice that your legs will turn-over faster as well.

Problems With Arm and Hand Position
Here are the areas where I see real problems.
1) Arms crossing the center line of the body – This causes your hips to twist, which can cause lower-back problems, but also just wastes forward motion energy.
2) Hands too low – Get those hands up at, with the elbows bent at 90 degrees. When the hands are down near your belt buckle, you don’t generate any forward motion with your arms.
3) T-Rex arms – you should run with strong arms and carry them at a 90 degree angle. Many runners look like the T-Rex dinosaurs that had tiny little arms that they carried around as if totally useless. Use your arms.
4) White knuckles – Make sure to relax your hands. There is no need to squish your hands down in a fist. It just creates tension and limits the flexibility of the arms.

Tips for improvement
There are a couple of things that you can do to improve your arm position and generate greater power with your arms.
1) Arm Swings – get yourself two 5 pound bar-bells and do 100 reps of your arm-swing motion every day after your workout. This will increase the strength of your arms and make you a strong arm swinger.
2) Think about your arms – Pick out a time during your run to concentrate on your arm motion and try to improve. Think to yourself “90 degree elbows”, “don’t cross the center-line”, and “drive with your arms”.

Improving your arm positioning and motion will help you run more efficiently and with more power. Try it on your next run.

In a future article, I’ll talk more about the elements of running form.

Thanks for the question Kelly. If you have a question, please comment on one of my pages.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at https://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also available on Yahoo! 360 and MySpace.