Running technique is very important for injury prevention. Issues involving how you place your foot on the ground and how you hold your body can make a difference in both speed and avoiding running repetitive use injury. There are many different opinions on running technique. Here I will offer you some basic technique ideas for long and middle distance running.

Here are a few tips for the upper body:

• Head held upright over your shoulders and relax your face
• torso leaning forward slightly
• arms moving in the direction you are running and not crossing over your body
• keep arms tucked into your sides
• arms moving using cross crawl mechanism (right moves forward with left and vise versa)
• keep shoulders and hips as still as possible with no twisting or one sided back/forward motion
• hands loosely closed and relaxed with lower arms above hips (elbows near 90 degrees)

Your lower body technique is the most important and complicated part of your running technique:

• whether you have chosen forefoot or heel striking your foot should already be in a backward motion when it strikes the ground
• at a moderate pace your knee should be the heels highest point and as the pace quickens you should be bringing heel higher
• foot plant should be just in front of the center of gravity
• lengthening the stride is done by bringing thigh further forward not by increased knee extension
• as the thigh comes forward relax the hamstring to allow the lower leg to come forward
• keep your motion moving forward and limit the "bouncing" up and down movement

In general keep your body relaxed and try not to consume needless energy.

By improving foot and ankle function/biomechanics you can reduce loss in joint and muscle tension when the foot is on the ground and deceleration is occurring. Feel free to contact me if you have a specific injury such as shin splints, sprained ankle, ankle instability, or knee pain. It's also a good idea to have your hips, knees, ankles, and feet examined even if you are pain free. Prevention is always easier than reactionary care.