In yesterday’s post we discussed ways to help prevent cardio workout injuries, which you can read more about here. One sure fire way to prevent running injuries is to perfect your running form.
If your stride and foot placement when running is off it can cause unnecessary pressure on your joints, leading to injuries. So it’s important to learn how to run properly to help prevent these injuries
Below we have a video of Dr. Daniel Lieberman, a Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, giving what he believes are the five key elements to good running form. Here is the layout of his thoughts and five key elements:
Dr. Lieberman’s How To Run: Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t Overstride – don’t stick your leg too far out in front of you, your foot should not be landing out in front of your knee.
Do Land on a Flat Foot –land on the ball of your foot, a more natural motion.
Do Run Vertically – don’t lean! Be vertical from the hips up.
Don’t Thump – you shouldn’t be hearing your feet landing. Your run should be light and gentle.
Do Ease Into IT – if you’re new to running and perfecting proper running form, always be sure to listen to your body. Don’t over it do, like we’ve stated before in this post here, “give your body time to adjust to this newly placed physical demand.”
Now for the video itself:
I came across this video here on the blog RunBlogger.com who is an expertise runner himself. He shared the video and also gave his thoughts about Dr. Lieberman’s points: “I agree with almost all of them, particularly points 1 and 5. As far as foot strike goes, I tend to view a little bit to either side of the midfoot to be as fine as long as there is limited to no over stride (too much focus on foot strike can be problematic and often causes people to consciously exaggerate form in a potentially negative way).”
For more running advice, be sure to check out this article here.
What do you think about the video and Dr. Lieberman’s advice?!
Any tips or tricks of your own that help you maintain proper running form?
