Your running form is important for a number of reasons. Running efficiently will protect your body from as much impact as possible, reducing the energy needed to run, both making you faster and helping you to run stronger, all whilst reducing your risk of injury.

How to run is something you've learned over our lifetime, so correcting or changing your form can feel very bizarre or uncomfortable at first. Therefore, you need to be patient and be prepared to work on your form as a continuous process. It'll pay off, I promise!

Here are our top tips to help you improve your running technique:

Running with the right form is very closely related to your body position while you run, and there are several mistakes we see as coaches.

Often, runners will either bend forwards from the waist, or stay too upright, both of which lead to increased braking forces on your stride.

Other common ways in which runner's body position can be problematic are with the head jutting out, pelvis tilting forward or with the hips collapsing with each stride, causing energy to be absorbed by the body, rather than being used to propel you forward.

To hold optimal alignment as you run, imagine your body is a plank and you're simply leaning slightly forwards and, importantly, up from the ankles (not your waist!). Running should start to almost feel like 'controlled falling', which is much smoother and more efficient.

Next, make sure you're running tall and looking forward, rather than at your feet. When running 'tall', this will help you to plant your feet beneath your center of mass, rather than too far out in front of you. This will also make you contact the ground with your midfoot to forefoot.

This helps to avoid, or at the very least reduce, the braking forces on the body as you run, caused by striking the ground with your heel out in front of you, or overly planting on your tiptoes; both are associated with increased risk of injury.

Landing under your center of mass is more efficient, which leads to more energy rebound, while also activating your core and glutes more which are often described as the 'powerhouse' of runners. By ensuring your hips are in a strong position, it'll also allow your shoulders to relax more.
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As you contact the ground, you have a few options. There's a spectrum from landing leading with your heel, through landing with a flat foot, through landing on the tips of your toes.

Whilst you want to avoid either end of this spectrum, there is no right and wrong way when it comes to contacting the ground. However, when we look at the majority of professional runners, there is a common theme that they land on either the midfoot or forefoot.

I'd suggest to aim for the sensation of the front of your foot taking 80% of the force contacting the ground, with your heel lightly touching the sole of your shoe with 20% of your body's force.

To find this sensation, try jogging on the spot. You'll find that you automatically take most of the force through the front of your foot. To turn this jogging on the spot into forward movement, just lean from the hips, finding that controlled falling sensation that I mentioned before, and carry that momentum forward, trying to match the contact you had with the ground while jogging on the spot.

Your buttocks shouldn't be sticking out while you run, which often happens when you lean forwards from your waist. Instead, you should be leaning forwards from your ankles, keeping your buttocks tucked in and driving your hips forward.

Imagine that someone has got a hold of your belt and is pulling you up and forwards. This will help you drive you forwards without slouching.

Typically, runners operate best running at a rhythm, or cadence, of around 180 steps per minute (spm). This is the stretch recoil speed of tendons, ligaments and muscle fibers, so by running to this rhythm, or at this cadence, it provides a much more efficient source of energy.

Rather than running with fewer, more powerful and longer strides, take shorter, faster steps and, once you're warmed up, try to hit 180 spm. You should be able to almost flow from one stride to the next. Most running watches will track your cadence, so you can easily check it while you run; alternatively, you can use a metronome app on your phone, set it at 180 beats per minute, and run to this rhythm.

While upper body running form is also key, it doesn't need to be complicated.

Firstly, just relax and try not to shrug your shoulders. Instead, think about bringing your shoulders away from your ears and down your body. Try to pull you shoulder blades together slightly, whilst puffing out your chest and keeping your head up straight, rather than jotting out.

With your arms, simply look to hold the elbows at a 90 degree angle and gently swing your arms from the shoulder (not the elbow) in time with the swing of your legs, a bit like a pendulum!

Finally, you want to think about the direction that you take these arms, and not rotate them too much, which wastes energy and destabilizes you.

For this, imagine you have a zipper going down your front of your body like on a jacket, and simply don't let your arms cross this zipper line. Your arms can swing in towards the center line, but shouldn't cross it. This helps to let the forward momentum push our body forwards rather than being lost twisting your body side to side.

Changing anything that you've done for a long time can feel very weird at first. The same is true about improving your running form.

A new form will also work different areas and change how the load is distributed. Therefore, it's important that you make the changes gradually to allow your body to adapt.

I'd start off by doing this for part of your easy runs. For the first 100-200m of every kilometer or mile, start by jogging on the spot, lean forwards from the hips and carry this forwards into the run. Next, try and run natural for the remaining kilometer or mile.

Should you switch off and get distracted by a running podcast or the birds flying past and notice you've reverted to old habits, don't worry. Simply wait until the next kilometer or mile starts, and go for it again.

Each week, build this up gradually. The following week, aim to do this for 200-300m, then for 300-400m, and so on. Once you are confident with your technique in your easy runs then you can transfer this to your interval and tempo sessions.

What will feel like a very conscious effort at first will soon feel like a subconscious habit to carry forwards to your running for a lifetime!

If you're keen to learn more about your running form, we've partnered with Becky Lyne, an ex-pro athlete and running technique specialist who provides a running form analysis service through Gracefull Running.

All Runna clients have access to exclusive packages; to get 20% off on your personal running form analysis, just click the button below.

Finally, maybe the best thing you can do to improve your running fitness, beyond aiming for the right running technique, is to follow a training plan.

If you use Runna, the app will set out all training sessions for you, guiding you through a variety of running workouts each week, giving you plenty of tips and advice, and automatically adjusting your mileage and incorporating deload weeks.

Strength training and mobility work are also essential components of improving your running form and helping you run more efficiently; in Runna, you'll get access to customized strength and mobility training programs, all within the same app.

Join Runna today and get your first week free!