5 Minute Routine For Correct Running Form
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that one of the most efficient ways to increase your running speed is simply to run with correct running form! Below are 5 strength and running drills guaranteed to improve your technique, and make you faster down the road!
You’ll be doing each drill for 45 seconds, with a 15-second rest in between, so the routine in total only takes 5 minutes. It’s the perfect pre-run warm up!
Correct Running Form: Inchworm
We’re going to get a little down and dirty for this first one! You’ll start by hinging over at the hips, giving your hamstrings a stretch, and then walk your hands out into a plank.
Hold the plank for a second or two, keeping your shoulders active and away from your ears, and squeezing your abs and glutes.
From there, walk your feet into your hands as far as you can go, and then stand up nice and tall, and repeat for 45 seconds!
Correct Running Form: Stable Arm Drill
Here at The Run Experience, we have a love/hate relationship with this difficult but super effective drill! All you’re going to do is run with your arms extended out straight in front of you at shoulder height for 45 seconds.
By doing this, you’re training good posture, you’re forcing your core to stay engaged, and causing your feet to turn over more quickly, all of which are key ideas in a correct running form.
Correct Running Form: Walking Lunge
Lunges are an awesome drill to strengthen your legs, and to train the different muscle groups in your legs – quads, hamstrings, glutes, and shins – to work in tandem.
For this drill you’ll just take a big step out in front of you, and drop your back knee down, keeping your front shin totally vertical.
Be sure your legs have some distance between them – we don’t want to train like we’re on a tightrope!
Keep moving forward, alternating legs and dropping your back knee down with every step for 45 seconds, resting for 15 seconds when you’re done.
Correct Running Form: High Pull
For this drill, we’re going to split the difference between a high-knee and a butt-kick, and really exaggerate the motion that falls right in between those two.
For 45 seconds you’re going to run and pull your leg up right along the inseam of the other leg, with the knee going no higher than hip-height, and with the bottom half of your leg bent tightly under the top half.
Correct Running Form: Single Leg Burpee
We love to sneak burpees into our workouts whenever we can, and doing them on one leg is a killer drill for both strength and balance!
Start by standing on one leg, and then hinge over at the hips, put your hands on the ground, and then kick back the leg you’re standing on and lower your chest to the ground. Keep the other leg extended off the ground this whole time!
From there, lift your chest off the ground, and then snap your hips and jump that standing leg back directly underneath you (or as close to underneath you as you can get it).
Carefully stand back up, and hop on one leg at the top. Alternate legs for 45 seconds, and then you’re ready for an awesome run with correct running form!