Why are we so obsessed with running form?

And does it matter?

I meant to send this newsletter last week, but then the fires broke out in LA and, like many of you, I’ve been tracking the news. To be honest, it’s been really hard to watch everything going on from across the country, worrying about friends. It’s devastating on so many levels. I had vowed to be more intentional about my social media and news consumption but that went all out the window.

Two friends and their families have been impacted by the fires. Natalie Mitchell and

Jinghuan Liu Tervalon

are two of the kindest people I’ve met.

I’ve known Natalie for almost 10 years—we met when we both blogged—and is such a generous friend. She’s a runner, coach, podcaster, and big part of the running community in LA. She shows up for her friends and community and always, always has a smile on her face. She, her husband, and three kids had to evacuate their home in Pacific Palisades. At the moment, I believe their home is still standing but continues to be threatened by the fires in the area. Jinghuan is a runner, writer, and activist. I’ve read her work in Runner’s World, Outside, and Women’s Running for years and finally got a chance to meet in person two years ago. She showed me so much support when my book came out. She and her family lost their home in Altadena.

If you have the means, Natalie and Jinghuan’s friends have set up GoFundMe pages for them here and here, respectively.

Sending all my love to everyone in LA.

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Growing up, I played a lot of different sports. Tennis, swimming, skiing, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, volleyball. It was in part because, at that time, we played sports in school and we had to play a different sport every season. It made it easier to try different things and figure out what you liked.

It also meant that you had to learn new skills. I remember countless lessons on technique and form. Drills and reps to not only expose the body to new ways of moving but to ingrain those patterns in your body and mind. And when you wanted to improve your performance, often one of the first steps was cleaning up your technique. I remember the first time that I really got what it meant to “catch” the water while swimming and to feel like I was gliding through the water. Everything felt so much easier—and more fun—after.

Yet, when I picked up running, I didn’t think much about technique. I didn’t run cross country in school so I never learned anything about training cycles or running form. I just wanted to run for 30 minutes straight. Eventually, I started running longer and then started running some races and a few marathons. Still, my training plans were pretty basic.

Despite being a “runner,” I felt like I was doing it wrong because I didn’t look like the other runners I saw in Central Park. When I started having some knee pain, I figured I must be doing something wrong, that I must be running wrong. Over the years, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about my running form—everything from posture to foot strike to cadence to arm swing—trying to “fix” it.

There is SO much advice out there that it’s hard to decipher what actually matters and for whom. At the end of last year, I had a chance to take a closer look at the research and talk to a couple of experts for an article for the New York Times [gift article].

The article specifically looked at the question of whether form/biomechanics improves performance for more beginner or everyday runners. I’ll get into some of the main findings and conclusions later but the thing that I didn’t get to talk about as much in the story is: What drives our interest in running form?

Why are we so obsessed with running form?

Several running coaches told me that runners frequently come to them with questions about their form or want to have their gait analyzed. Amanda Brooks, a Denver-based running coach, told me that when she asks new clients what they want to work on, they most often say that they want to improve their running form. But it’s not just people who are new to the sport. Brooks said that she hears it from runners of all experience levels.

“I think oftentimes we think that if we can improve our form, we'll either be faster or just be better runners because that's so normal in every other sport” where technique is important, she said.

Part of the reason why it’s so easy to focus on running form is because we can see it. When you watch elite runners, they run fast and look effortless as they glide over the pavement, track, and trailer. Compare that to a recreational runner’s technique and you can pinpoint differences in running form. It leads to the presumption that the way elites run is the “right way” if you too want to run well (aka fast and effortlessly).

“But you can’t look into the muscle of the elite runner and see the many adaptations that have gone on there,” Bas Van Hooren, a sports science researcher at Maastricht University, told me, which is what allows elite runners to run they way they do. When non-elite runners try to run like elites—or if you try to drastically change your form—you load your body differently than it’s used to. If your muscles can’t tolerate that load, it’s not great for improving running economy or performance and could also lead to injury.

Another thing to optimize?

The focus on running form—and by that I mean the many articles, TikToks and Instagram reels, etc.—feels like it plays into the whole optimization and hacking mentality. It sometimes feels the advice from running form evangelists and running influencers preys on runners who simply want to get better at their sport. I can teach you to run better. I can analyze your gait. Follow my program and run more efficiently.

“There’s a perception that it’s a quick fix,” Izzy Moore, associate professor in human movement and sports medicine at Cardiff Metropolitan University, told me, that changing your cadence or how your foot strikes the ground is a short-cut to better performance. Frankly, it’s a lot easier than training consistently and building running volume, which is what Moore says ultimately improves running economy, particularly if you are newer to the sport. Studies have found that your body will find the most efficient way to move as you build your running experience and mileage.

Focusing on changing your stride can be physically and mentally taxing, and it can even make you less efficient. “The whole gait cycle is less than one second,” Dr. Moore said. “If you take 160 steps per minute and you’re running 30 minutes, that’s a lot of thinking.”

Does your running form matter?

It’s not to say that form isn’t important but it depends on how we define form (are we talking about biomechanics, cadence, foot strike, stride length or a combination of these factors?), who we are talking about (new runners, recreational runners, injury-prone runners, competitive or elite runners?), and for what purpose (to improve performance or to reduce injury risk?). Focusing on form likely will have a some/more benefit for more competitive runners because those tweaks may lead to some improvements in running economy and in that population, those marginal improvements are more likely to make a difference.

But the current conversation and focus on running form also doesn’t leave much room for nuance.

And when it comes to research, there are limitations, too. Your form can be influenced by a number of factors—your body’s proportions, height, weight, muscle fiber type, tendon stiffness, experience, even your sports bra. Yet, it’s hard to tease apart all those factors in scientific studies. “One of the things that probably annoys me the most is when we look at running, we look at it as just individual variables. Then we try to link them together to explain a whole person,” Moore said.

The one area where research shows that adjusting your running form may be beneficial is for injury prevention. “You might think about how was I running? What kind of loads did I experience and did that contribute to my injury?” Moore said.

OK, so what should I focus on?

Here’s what the experts told me:

• There is no ideal way to run.

• Your body is smart. Build your running volume gradually and your body will self-optimize. Van Hooren also said to include lots of variation, which will help your body learn to move efficiently.

• “It’s hard to have good form if your body is collapsing inwards and fatigued,” Brooks said. Incorporate strength training into your routine. It will also help your muscles, bones, and tendons become more resiliant to handle the load from running.

• Good posture helps so stay tall and keep a little tension in your abdomen. Heather Vincent, director of the UF Health Sports Performance Center at the University of Florida, told me to imagine you’re blowing out a candle.

• The one form tweak that you could play with is increasing your step rate. A slight faster cadence can help keep your body stacked and aligned, which reduces stress on your knee, Achilles tendon, and shin—three common areas for running injuries. But 180 steps per minute isn’t a magic number.

Dr. Van Hooren said, if it’s below 160, for example, it could be worth increasing your step frequency. Find a playlist where the beats per minute match your goal cadence and run along with the beat of the music without increasing your speed.

• Don’t stress about your foot strike. There’s no right way that your foot should make contact with the ground. (Yes, landing on your heel doesn’t make you a bad runner or more injury-prone!)

There are no hard and fast rules and, as with everything, whether or not you should tinker with your running form will depend on you, your running experience and your goals.

Really, the best advice is to don’t overthink it.

I’d love to know: What’s your take on running form? Have you worked on yours? Has it helped? Is it overhyped?

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Links & Things

• The burden of carrying other people’s guilt.

• This podcast episode puts the oft-given advice of “control the controllables and let go of what you can’t” into context in a way that sparked several a-ha moments for me. I had to pause it several times and scribble down notes.

• No, art and creative work isn’t a waste of time, even if you don’t sell the book/painting/ceramics/screenplay.

• I've never been a big make-up person but I think I like make-up now too?

That’s it for now. Take care of you and each other.

Christine