When I watch elite runners I notice how smooth their running style is. Everything is used to propel them forward with no wasted energy. What is there that I can do to get my running smoother and perhaps not get tired as quickly as I do at the moment?
Your running style becomes smoother when you only use your energy to drive forward movement and eliminate unnecessary vertical and lateral movement. For this to work, you need strong and stable glute and core muscles. Add a forward lean, higher cadence, and a lighter foot-strike for smoother running.
Let’s take a closer look at the six steps you can implement to make your running style smoother.
How Using The Forward Lean Can Make Your Running Style Smoother
When you watch a video of elite runners from a side profile and pause the video you will notice that they are leaning forward.
You will see that the lean is with their entire body. In other words, you can draw a straight line from their head down to an extended leg and that entire line leans forward.
If you create your forward lean by bending at the waist then you are actually making your running less effective.
When you lean forward with your entire body you are using gravity to help propel you forward.
One thing to bear in mind is that the further forward you lean, the faster you need to run or you will end up falling over. So find the balance of running pace that you can manage and balance the amount of forward-lean that works with that pace.
How To Use Cadence To Make Your Running Style Smoother
The less time your feet are in contact with the ground the smoother your running will be.
If your cadence is slow your feet will be in contact with the ground for longer on each stride. On the one hand, this will create a dead spot on each stride that momentarily slows you down before speeding up as you push off into the next stride. On the other hand, when your foot is in contact for a long time you will tend to push up into the air more instead of using your energy to just push forward.
Together these two things will make you bounce up into the air as well as run in a jerky way as you constantly slow down and speed up on every step.
How Upper Body Movement Affects How Smoothly You Run
Your upper body needs to stay relaxed to keep your running style smooth. If you start hunching your shoulders up to your ears with tension it will affect how smoothly you run and negatively impact your breathing which will make you slower.
Your arm swing should be more forward and backward rather than side to side across your body. Think of the way your arms are swinging as a way to create momentum in the direction you want to run which is forward. This will make your running smoother with less side-to-side sway.
Even while keeping your arms bent to around 90 degrees, your arms, wrists, and hands must still be kept relaxed.
How Your Foot Placement Influences Running Smoothness
Foot placement can make a big impact on how smoothly you run.
Taken to extremes out on the trail, bad foot placement will result in tripping over things regularly. And falling down is the opposite of running smoothly across the trails.
If your feet are turned inward or outward while you run that is often related to hip alignment or muscle weaknesses around the hips, as in your glutes or hip flexors.
This often manifests as a knee injury. I injured my knee in a completely different sport, but this is what hampered my rehabilitation and return to running. I needed to do strength and conditioning work in the gym.
As you run, you will want to have your feet landing under your center of mass to keep your running style smooth. If your feet land too far ahead of you it will have the effect of slowing you down every time your foot hits the ground.
How Core Stabilization Makes Your Running Smoother
If you look at almost any photo of yourself after finishing a race, especially over a longer distance you will likely notice that you are not standing with your hips level. That is because your core muscles and your glutes got fatigued over the duration of your race and are no longer doing their job of keeping your hips aligned so that your legs can drive you forward smoothly.
Now look at the finish line interviews conducted with professionals, and no matter what the distance, they are still able to keep their hips level. Their stronger core stabilization keeps their hips aligned all the way to the finish line and beyond, meaning that their running style stays smooth.
You can also make strides in that direction by including core and glute strengthening work every week as the professionals do.
How To Run Smoother By Maintaining A Line Of Sight Directly In Front Of You
This last tip actually ties most of the previous tips together without you even realizing it.
The average human head weighs between 4lbs and 5lbs. That is a fair amount of weight to carry above your shoulders.
What you ideally want to do is to keep your line of sight a couple of paces ahead of you for as much as possible. That way you can hold your head in a neutral position directly above your spine.
If your head is to one side or sagging forward, that uneven weight distribution needs to be compensated for somewhere down your body to keep you running in a straight line.
What I have noticed is that when I start getting tired I start looking down at my feet a whole lot more. That means I am dropping my head down and forward. This puts strain on my lower back and I shorten my stride by nearly 50%. My running looks like a shuffle and I expend even more energy to move slower than I would if I was running smoother.