Running Technique Tips

You don’t need to run barefoot to stimulate improvements in running technique. Here’s four ways wearing a range minimal running shoes can help improve your running form.

The overriding running technique tip in this article is that you should gradually step down into the world of minimalist shoe running.  Escaping the injury ridden doom of running in heavy, motion controlled, clunky running shoes takes a patient approach, but there’s plenty of pathways available to do this safely.  Check-out my previous article on minimalist running shoes and running technique for more information.

Running Technique Tip 1: Reduce incidental heel-striking. If you run in shoes that have a significant amount of cushioning under the heel there is a fair chance you’ll contact the ground heel first. This is especially true of shoes that have a large discrepancy between the stack height of the heel versus the forefoot cushioning.  As shoes become flatter you need to concentrate harder to avoid the heel-striking habit by adopting a more neutral posture about the ankle and foot or reducing the amount of dorsiflexion (toes pointed up).

Running Technique Tip 2: Reduce over-striding. Proponents of barefoot running technique claim that going unshod reduces over-striding, and I don’t disagree.  The impact of going minimal is exactly the same.  You can’t get away with landing with straight legs (extended knees) on your heel when you’ve given up the safety net of big cushy heels.  But going minimal is not any kind of magic cure, you really need to concentrate to activate your hamstrings and glutes a bit earlier, which encourages a propensity to run with flexed knees.  The shoes won’t do it for you, so be careful about just doing as you always did – it helps you practice good running technique.  You might also find this easy to do when you’re fresh, but when tired or trying to run fast it becomes more difficult to keep your form together, so start with short easy jogs.

Running Technique Tip 3: Get stronger feet and lower calves. Nike Free does not have a monopoly on stimulating gains in foot strength.  Run in any reasonably flexible shoe with minimal heel to toe drop and you’ll find that your plantaflexors will have to work much harder.  The reason for this is: shoes with a big drop from the heel put you in a soft plantaflexed position (toes pointing down).  This means you don’t need to work as hard to form a stable springy platform with your foot to leave the ground with purpose.  Another way of thinking about it is: the heel helping you get over your foot without you having to work as hard.  I cover this ground in more detail in an earlier article about Nike Frees and Running Technique.

Running Technique Tip 4: Get your timing and coordination right. Shoes with very flexible soles and less cushion in the forefoot are great for getting a feel for the road.  As a runner without much natural talent or coordination, getting some sensation from under the feet has been really helpful in stimulating some improvement in my running from. It’s a cruel irony that good runners move pretty well with just about anything strapped to their feet.  Runners with bad technique need the extra stimulus of feeling the ground to help get us moving better.

As I’ve continued my approach of wearing more minimal shoes I’m now finding that shoes such as the Nike Free 5.0 are not minimal enough to stimulate the kinds of running technique improvement I’m trying to achieve. These days I find wearing shoes with less heel-toe drop to be a significant area that helps me improve my minimalist running form.  Cushioning type and thickness are also important, but I’ll deal with that in another article.

I’m now running twice per week in Adidas racing flats (Adizero Pro and Adizero Rocket) which have very little  cushioning in the heel and almost no heel to toe drop (6mm).  This compares to the 11mm drop in my regular marathon racing shoes the Adizero Adios that I do the bulk of my running in. So they definitely provide more stimulus for me to reduce my heel striking habit and get a bit further towards a neutral foot posture.

Interestingly the Nike Free 3.0 has a 7mm heel-toe drop, but also feels and looks like it has a slope in the forefoot.  I run about twice a week in these shoes and find them more forgiving that the Adizero Rockets for example.  They are a good stepping-stone down to wearing flats, I found the transition from the Adizero Adios to the Free 3.0 to be reasonably comfortable and easier to make than the next step down to the Rockets or Pros.  In fact, I tend to think that the Nike Free 3.0 needs to become a bit more minimal – but that is a story for another day.

My next assignment is to drag a pair of Nike Zoom Air XC 2 cross country racers out of the cupboard.  They have a scary 3mm heel-toe drop that is not for the faint-hearted.  I’ll be going there warily. The last time I trained in these I did something uncomfortable to my peroneal tendon.  Part of the problem was launching into a set of 200m repetitions without spending the requisite couple of weeks logging some easy miles in them.  I learn … slowly.

And I’m very excited about a trial pair of New Balance MR10 Minimus that are coming my way soon.  While I’ve mentioned a few brands here I’m not particularly loyal – I’ll try and wear any shoe as long as it’s good.  All these small differences between minimalist running shoes might appear to be insignificant, but they definitely make a big difference on your run.  If you’ve come from a heel-striking background, then carefully consider the heel to toe drop of any minimal running shoe you are intending to wear. Starting with a light trainer or a marathon racer is probably the best option to avoid smashing your shins and calves in the short term.  Once you can handle these shoes in training and racing consider the flatter options I’ve discussed in this article (note: this a process of months and years, not weeks). There’s a good incremental pathway of progression for someone looking to run better in more minimal shoes, especially if you look at different shoes models from different brands.

Written by: Brian Martin

Nike claim the Free delivers benefits similar to barefoot running (better biomechanics and strengthening of muscles in and around the foot) while wearing shoes that still offer protection from everyday hazards such as stones, prickles and broken glass.

So what’s the big deal about Nike Frees?  It’s tempting to write off the Nike Free as a brilliant piece of marketing to which Nike excels, but there are practical benefits that are easy enough to understand without needing a biomechanics degree.  First and foremost there is no stiffness built into the Free range of shoes, by this I mean if you flex the shoe from front to back you’ll meet no resistance – try this with your everyday trainers and even some road racing flats and you’ll find the task a lot harder.  The sole of the shoe is also designed with deep grooves that run front to back and side to side with the goal being to allow the foot to move as naturally as possible.

The flexibility of the shoe drives potential strength gains in the foot and deep compartment of the lower calf.  In traditional trainers, there is usually a high degree of stiffness that takes over and does some of the work of the plantaflexors in the foot and lower calf.  The result, these muscles get lazy and weak, compromising your ability to transfer forces generated by the bigger buttock and hamstring muscles.  The ability to stiffen your foot is the role of the plantaflexors – small muscles that contribute to this role reside in the foot, but there are also three bigger muscles of which the tibialis posterior is the most well known, that sit beneath the soleus (lower calf) and gastrocnemius (upper calf). The tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus form the deep posterior compartment of the lower leg.

So what has that got to do with strengthening the feet?  Actually a lot, the tendons attached to these muscles wrap underneath the arch of the foot and under the toes – therefore when these muscles are strong enough they help the foot to stiffen and provide a stable springy platform from which to run.  It’s not until you build some strength through your feet and lower calves that you begin to understand the true nature of running well.  So am I a believer in the Free as a useful tool for improving your running?  Absolutely, but you need to be cautious; running in Frees is not for everyone.

I started running in Frees after I’d decided to improve my technique, so I’d already moved away a little from my hard impact heel striking technique that involved landing with my knee virtually straight, and foot well ahead of my body.  If I were still running that way I wouldn’t wear the Nike Free unless I was being extremely cautious and consciously trying to correct those technical errors.  If this is you, consider using the Frees in the gym or for walking as a transition step.  Melbourne sports Podiatrist and former elite runner Jason Agosta has a conservative approach to integrating Nike Frees – if in doubt take this cautious path.

The sole and the cushioning material of the Nike Free is one and the same, a reasonably firm plastic type material that offers much less cushioning than traditional shoes, however after you break them in they feel quite springy. The shoe itself feels like it molds into your foot, a little strange at first, but after wearing them for a while you don’t notice this.  I think that firmer less cushy shoes are better for runners trying to improve their technique – if the shoe is too spongy you can’t feel the running surface, so I really found the Frees helpful as a different stimulus for improving my technique.

It’s a bit like barefoot running though, there’s not magical cure for better running form, but the Free can help improve the way you are moving.  The shoe won’t instantly transform you into a star runner, but it does give you an excellent feel for how your feet are hitting the ground and encourages you to use your body’s innate shock absorbing capabilities rather than relying on cushioning technology.

In practice I’ve found wearing the Frees on a range or surfaces, dirt trails, grass, concrete and asphalt to be ok, although they do tend to collect rocks and occasionally a sharp one might poke up through the grooves and cause some discomfort. Overall I wear my Frees a couple of times a week and have taken them out on outings as long as 20km; after getting used to the shoes.  Aside from the rock problem I find I prefer them on rougher trails to my regular shoes because of the better feel for the ground and their ability to mold around uneven surfaces.  The Nike Free 3.0 are probably my favorite shoes to run in at the moment, but too much of a good thing can cause problems and I live in a rocky environment, so I’m  wearing them about two runs out of five.

I started with the Free 5.0 and now also wear the 3.0 without any problems; this shoe offers enough heel raise and overall cushioning/support for runners with reasonable mechanics to at least use it for some of their training.  The 3.0 is a similar profile to the Adidas Adizero Adios Marathon racing shoe so it does have some support.  If you haven’t tried the Free it’s definitely worth considering.

Written by Brian Martin

If you’re on the pathway to learning more about running form and working on improving your running technique then some knowledge of anatomy and basic biomechanics is essential.  It might sound intimidating and perhaps even boring, but understanding a bit more about how your body moves when you run and which muscles are responsible is going to make running better so much easier.  We’ve all been perplexed by a physical therapist at some stage in our lives as we’ve struggled to understand and cure a running injury. 

In running you mostly have to concern yourself with what happens from the lower back and hips down – yes the top half is important too, but if we confine ourselves to the engine room of running it makes the conversation slightly easier to absorb.  There are five main concepts you need to understand to grasp how running works.  This is a simplification, but it covers the basics, these are:

1. extension and flexion of the hip joint;
2. extension and upright posture of the back;
3. abduction and outward rotation of the hip joint;
4. flexion and extension of the knee joint; and
5. dorsiflexion and plantaflexion of the ankle and foot.

Before your eyes glaze over, I’ll explain each concept in-turn and if you find a visual introduction to this topic easier to understand feel free to skip straight to the video below.  Extension and flexion are just fancy ways of saying bending and straightening of a particular joint.  You just need to know which joint is being discussed and what is considered bent or straight for that body part.  Abduction makes literal sense too, it just means taking away from the mid-line of the body and rotation is relatively self explanatory, but like flexion and extension needs to be in context of the joint under discussion.

The hip joint

The hip joint is flexed when the thigh is ahead of the body and flexing as the thigh and leg swing forward.  The hip joint is extended when the thigh is straight under and/or behind the body and extending when the thigh is moving back towards the and behind the body.

The hip is abducting then the thigh is lifted away from the mid-line of the body.  If you were standing with your feet together and then separated them so your feet were under each hip you would have abducted both hip joints.  Flaring your knee outward involves externally rotating the hip.

The knee joint

The knee joint is flexed when the knee is bent and flexing as the foot comes closer to the buttocks.  The knee joint is extended when the knee is straight and extending as the leg straightens.

The ankle and foot

The ankle and foot are dorsiflexed when your foot and toes are pointing upwards.  The ankle and foot are plantaflexed when your foot and toes are pointing downwards.

The lower back

The back is flexed when you curve your spine forwards and extended when it’s upright and the lower (lumbar) spine has a slight inward or concave shape.

Why is this important?

Running is best explained using a consistent set of language to illustrate each concept.  When I explain running technique it will always use this consistent use of language so there is less room for misunderstanding.  This article gives you a quick insight into the basic movements of each joint involved in running mechanics.  The next piece in this series will look more closely into how these movements combine to form the four phases of the running gait.

Written by Brian Martin