What Matters For Running Form?

Photos are AI generated, the words are straight from my brain though!

Here is an issue from our bi weekly newsletter specifically for health and fitness professionals. Our owner, Jesse Lewis, shares his experience and ideas as well as stories to help the health and fitness community connect and learn from each other.

From the People

Love hearing from you all and here was an awesome response to the strengthening backs topic. This was from someone who just sold her gym but still coaches there.

At (leaving the name out because I forgot to ask her if it was OK) we used to train in neutral spine only. But over time, we have realized that this is unrealistic and missing out on an opportunity. So now, our core work includes movements with resistance (weights or bands) that include rotation, lateral and forward flexion, and extension. It seems to make a lot more sense, truthfully. I love that there is a constant evolution as we collect more information. 

I love this so much! Constant evolution is a huge piece of health and fitness and one of the major reasons I started this newsletter. I used to think I had it all figured out and now I realize I have almost none of it totally figured out.

From the Clinic

Back in my “fix everything” and I’m so smart” era, I used to hyper-analyze everyone’s running form.

I’d take videos, point out every single flaw, draw angled lines on still frames (tbh this looked very cool and impressive), and give people like six different cues to think about during every single step of every run.

I thought I was helping people. And maybe I was… in a very roundabout kind of way.

Looking back, I think I was mostly trying to sound smart. 

That’s what I’d been taught, so that’s how I thought I was supposed to do it.

These days, one of my personal (and our company’s) core values is to empower people to move and feel better in their bodies.

If I make someone feel like they have to run like a robot or they’ll fall apart, I’m doing the opposite of that.

All that does is create fear and make people think they have to move perfectly... 

which makes them less likely to actually do the thing they enjoy.

I’ve simplified how I treat runners, and it’s led to:

• Better outcomes

• Less stress for me

• Fewer clients who stressed about their form every run

What Does the Research Say?

Research is pretty clear at this point that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” running form.

People aren’t more likely to get injured just because they:

• Pronate

• Have some hip drop

• Are asymmetrical

• Land on their heel, toe, or midfoot

• 
  

So if this is what the research says, here’s what that tells me:

• We don’t need to “fix” someone’s running form to get them better

• It almost definitely wasn’t their form that caused the injury in the first place

• If someone’s not in pain, they shouldn’t be stressed about their form 

• it’s not setting them up for failure unless something is way off

So What Does Matter?

Here’s where I do pay attention:

• Cadence – A low cadence can increase stress per step. Increasing cadence slightly can reduce load.

• Load tolerance & progression – Gradually increasing volume matters more than how someone looks while doing it.

• Strike point stress

  • Heel striking = more stress through knees/hips

  • Mid/forefoot = more stress through achilles

                          → It’s not good or bad, it's just a tradeoff.

We modify form sometimes to reduce pain...

But very few runners need to overhaul their technique to prevent injury.

For performance, midfoot and higher cadence can be slightly more efficient, but it’s not essential.

In Practice

So, how do we work with runners?

We partner with Georgetown Running Club (elite of the elite in DC) and Endorphins Running (more recreational but still some competitive people), so we see a huge range of runners and we use the same general approach.

Here’s how we break it down:

1. Broad form screen

   • Does anything look way off?

   • What’s their cadence?

   • Where do they land - heel, midfoot, forefoot?

     
     

2. Temporary tweaks if needed

   • Knee pain? Try shifting to more of a midfoot landing

   • Low cadence? Increase by ~10% and reassess

     
     

Then we immediately focus on:

• Strength

• Mobility

• Load tolerance

• Their actual training plan

• 
  

That last part is 95% of the solution and where we spend most of our time. Form is only a very small piece of it.

Help Build the Community!

A reader told me they wanted to forward this to their coaches — and I said, please do! That’s the whole point: build community, learn, and grow together.

If you know another health or fitness pro who’d enjoy this, feel free to forward it along.