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As above really. I'm 44 and been running for years but long story short a hamstring injury has sidelined me recently.
My physio has suggested that I aim to adopt a mid-foot strike, lifting my heels high to avoid a repeat injury. Coincidentally, the coach in my local club (completely separately and un-prompted) remarked that I have a very static, low to the ground running style and would likely benefit from a mid-foot strike, lifting my heels more.
So, the advice seemingly tracks. The question is, in my mind changing your running style/technique seems like one of those things that is easy to say but probably hard to actually do.
So, I wonder if anyone has genuinely actually achieved this and if so, has any tips or pointers of how to try and make it stick?
Personally, no. But I know a couple of people who have, albeit not drastically.
The coach you know may have ideas on how, but the people who did say it started out with short runs working on the technique, often somewhere like a track where they didn’t have to think about anything else. Short being a mile or 2. Drill were also quite a big part of it. You have to learn and be comfortable with a movement pattern over a short distance I think.
I used to get really sore legs running and went through a few pairs of variously cushioned trainers that didn’t really work because I had a very heel heavy run. Then realised that if I ran barefoot I ran on the balls of my feet. Tried it and it helped, moved to being able to run in pretty uncushioned shoes. Years later I’ve probaly slipped back a little.
It does take some conscious effort over time to embed it but after a while I got a flip to the old way feeling odd.
After ages of trying and failing to run regularly without tweaking my calf muscles, I went back to the drawing board a bit to change how I was running. Focusing on cadence (i.e. practicing higher cadence running) was the main thing I did to start with, as well as actually paying attention to how it felt to run. Smaller strides, pushing back using glutes rather than bouncing along or striding ahead, that sort of thing. I didn't personally find it helpful to think too much about foot strike, I reasoned that that is a by-product of other more significant things.
I also continually reminded myself of the 'Born to Run' guy's mantra of 'easy, smooth, light, then fast'. Efficient movements, minimise bouncing, keep it easy, and just forget about pace for now.
It's felt like I have basically been learning to run slowly, but at age 47 and after a few 10ks over the last year I'm feeling more confident and comfortable running more than I ever have (or thought I would, to be honest!). I am now starting to work on some speed work and the form is in a good place I think, it feels like I can build pace in an efficient and controlled way.
The other thing I did was train myself to ALWAYS warm up beforehand and stretch down afterwards. That has been a real advantage.
Smaller strides, pushing back using glutes rather than bouncing along or striding ahead, that sort of thing
Smaller faster strides I get, but the rest of this might as well be in Cyrillic to me!
You can do it if you put you mind to it. You need to build muscle memory and avoid exceeding your capacity which will lead to you losing focus and reverting to old ways.
I think ot was "smarter every day" youtube channel whho taught himself to ride reverse steering bike (as in bars go right wheel goes left). He had to break the cycle and build up and once he could do it he struggled to ride a standard bike. And thats way less intuitive than just focussing on engaging muscles slightly differently.
In my opinion style develops through training. As you train more and faster you will naturally reach a close to optimal (for you) style. I am not convinced that you can "force" yourself to run in a way that is unnatural for you, certainly not in a way that would change your style permanently. Been lucky enough to train alongside some very fast runners over the years. I dont recall every being aware of any of them wondering how to change their style/gait only how to train themselves to be faster.
I have a mid to forefoot strike. I never think about it it simply happens when I run. Not sure why your coach would think it is beneficial. What may be beneficial is some faster intervals. You body will likely develop better form as it adapts to the training stimulus.
Yes, I deliberately changed my running style after having some knee issues, going from a heel strike to mid/forefoot strike gait. As pointed out above it's basically how you run if barefoot, particularly pronounced on uncomfortable surfaces like gravel/tarmac! In fact that's quite a good way of getting a feel for what I'm on about.
The increased heel lift thing sounds a bit odd though; to my mind that's just a side effect of the change not something to aim for in itself.
I did have to scale my running right back though, no more than 15 mins at a time for a month or so then only incrementally going further over the next few months. Along with foam roller work on the calves which will get sore and so on.
I increased my cadence substantially. Before I was a "runner" ,when I might go for a run once in a while, I used to lope along with a long (over-)stride, got progressively more tired and slow after about 30 mins or so. When I took up running properly (ie 2-3 times per week and running 5-10k events for fun) I consciously worked on getting my cadence up to the 180 mark and after a while I was cruising along much more comfortably for longer distances (and then higher speeds came too). Many running watches have a built in metronome, you can set it to whatever feels natural initially and then nudge it up a beat every few days/weeks.
I'm not entirely sure to what extent it changed my gait, that wasn't the main goal, but I think it has made me more of a mid/front striker rather than heel. I certainly wear out the sole of running shoes primarily under the ball of the foot and it used to be more heel.
Yes, ages about 16....went from a flat/heel strike to forefront strike to stop getting shin splint issues. I'm now 38, I think it would be harder to change a style now!
It wasn't easy but worth it....
No headphones
Flat intervals - you will lose form as you get tired so intervals are good for this.
Be very conscious of how you are running, listen to how hard you hit the ground.
At the time I went for very light racing flats to force me to run that way.....I like a 6mm drop these days. Not sure the type of racing flats I had back then still exist.
As @thecaptain - I didn't work on my gait but I did increase cadence. Thing is, I prefer the "feel" of those long, flying strides, even if it's neither the fastest nor the most sustainable technique.
Similar to other posters. I changed a couple of years ago from heel striking to mid/fore foot. I have ACL issues in my knee which, when heel striking meant after 3-4km my knee would swell and become hard to put any weight through.
The one huge help were the shoes. Went to Novablast 5’s which were nicely padded up front. Reverting to heel striking just feels physiologically wrong (even when descending).
Not sure if it comes from cycling background, but my Achilles have always been tight (also never been much of a runner anyway). This is emphasised by running fore foot so I have to really warm them up before starting, and walk up any hills if in the first km of a run.
In my opinion style develops through training. As you train more and faster you will naturally reach a close to optimal (for you) style
Muscle imbalance from other sports.
Poor posture.
Extra weight
Unknown or poorly cared for injuries leading to compensation.
Change in distance from short to long or viceversa.
Poor/no coaching
+Training to "optimum"
Any of those would optimise your running style but would easily create sub optimal ultimate style wouldn't they.
And taking the point to the total extreme. Loads of people relearn how to run after catastrophic injury including limbloss. Its it clearly evident you absolutely can alter your running gait. Potentially not very easy and potentially produces no benefit but it can be done.
In short, yes. In my late thirties, determined to run a marathon but sick of sore knees
MONTHS of one km runs, twice a week, then 3, 4, 6 times a week. Not increasing distance, just frequency.
sore legs, tight calves, but made progress. Then slowly started to increase distance. If my form worsened during a run I’d stop and walk home.
it worked. Full marathon without any heel strike in 3:29.
working on trying to crack 90 minutes for the half at 46. PB is 1:33 so far
Yes, probably about 12 or 13 years ago. (Early/mid 40sat the time). I'm not exactly a natural-born skinny runner- defo a biker who swims, and have to 'run' to finish triathlons. So treat this with due caution if you're a proper runner !
What was revealing was when I did a session with physio and couple of friends, on a treadmill. With shoes on I was banging my heels down as many do. As soon as any of us switched to bare feet, then instantly (for the same treadmill speed) automatically shortened our stride, upped the cadence, and went up onto our toes / mid foot, and leaned forward more. It was impossibly painful to carry on smashing heels-first (so imagine it will be even worse on a fully solid surface like a road).
It took me probably 12 months to fully transition to midfoot/toes - at the physio's warning that to do it quicker would result in me blowing my achilles. Initially it was 30 secs on toes then back to 'normal' for a few minutes, and repeat. Then slowly over the months increase the proportion of time on toes.
I now don't like running shoes with loads of height drop from heel to toe. They just encourage heel striking.
The big warning is that it really increases the loading on your calves and achilles. The loads have to go some where ! So beware ! Occasionally I have to revert to flat-footed or heel striking when the mad calf disease strikes.
Yes, sort of. It's an ongoing thing but I'm mostly on the mid-foot now. I realised I was loping along with a slow cadence and heel striking a lot, and it was making my knees sore.
There's too much going on with each stride to think about/attempt to actively correct it while running, so I just focus on faster, quieter steps, at a higher cadence, and my body works out the rest.
Note though: you will probably mess up your calves if you try and bop along on your toes for all of every run. I kept tearing my calf, and also ended up with some mild Achilles tendonitis, which my physio put on to increased load from changing my gait and doing hill sprints. Do a few mins running on your mid-foot, then swap back to your normal gait, and slowly build up. Add some calf raises or gentle plyometrics to help steadily introduce the additional load.
It's interesting to read about people with what they describe as poor form or the identification of an element of their running style that they consider to be poor/injurious or somehow sub optimal, then undertake a period of training, then identify an improvement.
It's almost as if the act of increasing stress and adaption through more running (at different speeds, distances and terrain) actually succeeds in finding a more efficient "style"
I haven't as mine is , to be blunt, pretty decent. But have seen other people do it? I assume from your first post you're a shuffling heel striker? What are you trying to achieve - regular running without injury, or performance? Do you overstride?
It would be quite a big change for you, and you should expect muscles to hurt that have previously not done too much work. I'd be looking to do regular short runs off road on a flat grass, track surface and expect to be doing different training for a while to what you did before for quite a while.
What do you do running wise?
Yes I did a long time ago. When I first started (fell) running all shoes were quite flat so I was always quite happy in shoes with a low heel. At some point I became convinced by the prevailing attitudes and fashion that I was heel striking and over pronating so needed "motion control" shoes. Some years later I read Gordon Pirie's "Running fast and injury free" and decided I needed to get my weight forward over the balls of my feet. I'm convinced that pronation is a result of heel striking and that if you land on your forefoot you cannot over (or under) pronate. I successfully got back to wearing flatter shoes (Asics racing flats in my case). One particular drill I did was high cadence short strides on grass concentrating on landing on the forefoot. By short strides I mean SHORT, the forward foot landing only just in front of the back foot. This led naturally to a running style landing on the forefoot and crucially ensuring the forward foot lands on the ground UNDER the body, not ahead of it. If you think in terms of velocity vectors if you land on your heel ahead of your body each footstrike is slowing you down. If you land on the forefoot with your foot under your centre of gravity and push backwards, each step is propelling you forwards.
It worked for me but... I don't run any more. I keep thinking I should but my knees don't like it.
Link to the Gordon Pirie thing.
It's interesting to read about people with what they describe as poor form or the identification of an element of their running style that they consider to be poor/injurious or somehow sub optimal, then undertake a period of training, then identify an improvement.
It's almost as if the act of increasing stress and adaption through more running (at different speeds, distances and terrain) actually succeeds in finding a more efficient "style"
Make up your mind.
My daughter did when she was about 15. No idea if it would be so easy in your 40s. Essentially the physio who identified the issue did about three actual running sessions with her to get the “correct” form and she did practice in between. 5-6 weeks and her style/gait was quite different. When tired she sometimes goes back to it - but a shout from the sidelines can restore the focus. IMHO you need to be able to see what you are doing “wrong” so videoing is useful.
I'm 49 and have been running since I was 13. I've never had coaching or been part of a proper running club, I'd just carried on running since I bought my first pair of Hi-Tec Silver Shadows, so I probably had some pretty bad habits and was very aware I thumped onto my heels when running.
I was recovering from a (snowboarding) knee injury and found the "Beginner Runner Village" podcast by accident - it was a revelation to me and led to a change in my running gait, comfort when running, speed, stamina and posture. The episodes are short and listenable and I definitely recommend the first fifteen episodes or so. Without diagrams or illustrations, the presenter describes simple ways to think about how your body moves while you're running that get you moving efficiently.
MOJOFORRUNNING.COM It's not a panacea, of course. But I found that listening and visualising the advice while on the commute home, then going out for a run without headphones and just focussing on my form, started making a really big difference.
For the record, I have absolutely no personal link or incentive to plug to this podcast, just found it really useful for me! YMMV...
Hi All, OP here...
Thanks for the replies, really interesting to hear everyone's thoughts and experiences and as expected it seems that it can be done but takes some dedication and effort.
A couple of people asked my current mileage/background: I run twice a week which consists of 1 x set of track intervals (usually intense) and a long run with hill reps included. So, about 25km a week. This isn't a lot but I'm training for triathlon so the rest of the week consists of turbo sessions, bike rides, a swim and some basic bodyweight exercises. I'm 44 and ran a (just over) 19mins 5k earlier this year so the 2 runs/week seem to be working reasonably well but I'm not sure if that makes me fast or just average.
Really, my main aim is to stay injury free and keep running but if there are "free" gains to be made by improving form then I would definitely not complain as I do race in trail, fell and cross country races once in a while.
Hamstring injury currently means I'm limited to 30mins run/walk sessions whilst rehab progresses so I think there's scope to take time to experiment and be mindful about it whilst I (hopefully) get back to proper running fitness.
I'll definitely check-out the links and podcasts people posted, cheers.
In my younger years I’d definitely was guilt of over-striding and a heavy heel strike - I could run a 10km in 35 minutes, but would often suffer from lots of niggly injuries, 4-6 weeks off, 12 weeks of training, absolutely flying then get injured & repeat. I tried expensive foot orthotics then minimalist/barefoot style. I eventually just went with a well-cushioned neutral shoe and kept to a shorter stride and it works. All my running is off-road due to where I live - plus do a reasonable amount of technical/hill running that really helps maintain leg strength and means you have to lean forward and keep a short stride to maintain cadence. Likewise, coming downhill maintaining ‘soft’ knees to avoid jarring.
Following a lifetime of flappy ankles (hypermobility), endless sprains and even a break according to the MRI I took. All of this resulted in bad Plantar and several ears off running, I went to a decent physio. He not only adjusted my use of my foot in running, but also in walking and in general use. I think I had 8-10 years of plantar that was not there 100% of the time, but I was at the point I couldn't walk the dog without pain.
I was landing too much on the outside of my right foot, which in turn added weight to the wrong part of the ankle increasing my chances of rolling it. The physio got me do some simple exercises to help me identify where to land better on my foot, 3 months later I ran my first 5k for a long time, it didn't hurt.
Prior to this I also trained myself to run pose - which as a heavy bloke with bad ankles didn't do great things for me overall! So I trained myself back into heel/mid-foot striking, trying to roll through the foot.
If you can run a 5 in 19 mins, I'd stop worrying, you are in the upper percentages performance wise, miles better than I'd ever be.
But yes, with a good bio-mechanic you could probably retrain yourself through little changes. I'm not sure you'd gain all that much though. I am also not an expert, unless is comes to injuries, I'm pretty good at those!
I Listened to the advice from the Under Armour app, and simply ran at a higher cadence. Not a real change in gait, just a snapper stride. Focused on staying more upright, and trying to keep less ground contact time.
I didn't really improve my times, but I can run further and without stiffness the next day.
While running yesterday I actually paid some attention to what my feet were doing. I seen to be fore/midfoot striking. It's interesting in that I all but gave up long distance walking due to heel pain whereas I don't get that while running. I've a multi-day walk planned with Mrs S this year so I might treat it as a series of short sprints with rests.😉
While running yesterday I actually paid some attention
Didn't collide into any rocks this time out then?
I totally changed my running gait after years and years of injuries, shinsplints etc. I used the barefoot coach at Vivo, and then started running in zero drop shoes (altras) but never true barefoot shoes. I looks totally different whilst running now if you look at videos of me before and after, I look like a different person. Transition took about 6 months and had initially to totally cut my mileage... I then pilot fractured my ankle and could no longer run again.