How to Run: The Best Current Evidence
Running, more than any other single human activity, is consistently correlated with health, healing, and well-being. Running is generally more effective than therapy for psychological challenges, is generally more effective than medicine in treating all kinds of ailments, and is the closest thing we have ever found to a panacea. Running works. And yet, the vast majority of people who take up running become quickly injured. Accordingly, they lose heart and stop running.
This need not be the case. Much is now known scientifically about the running stride which evolution has designed for us, and which was, at one time, the central reason for our success as a species. Here are the basics:
Get out of the shoes.
Our ancestors did not wear shoes, and our bodies were not designed for shoes. The rates of running injury and muscle imbalance have risen in step with the use of running shoes. The evolutionary process which led to modern humans involves barefoot running, across diverse surfaces, probably while hungry.
Run barefoot, or as close to it as you can get (i.e. Vibram Five Fingers), on soft surfaces such as trails.
Recognize that while the cardiovascular system responds to training within a few weeks, and the muscle system responds within about a month, the tendon and ligament systems require about six months to respond. The bones require ten months. Accordingly, almost a full year is required to train the body. Go slow and be cautious.
Run about an hour a day
Do this four or five days a week (but not at the beginning! — work up to it over about three months). One day a week, do strength training instead of running.
Rest one day a week.
Especially as we age, the body requires rest from strenuous exercise. Remember that it's only during periods of rest that the body builds its capacities.
About once a week, run for two hours or more.
Pace is (almost) irrelevant, and will increase naturally over time.
Focus entirely on the running form.
The running form is also known as running economy. With mindfulness to signals from the body, barefoot running is reasonably good at suggesting aspects of the ideal form (though, attention is required).
Never wear a music device while running.
Instead, listen and respond to your body.
Focus on your feet.
First, try to land with each foot flat or bent slightly downward, so that the majority of your weight is on the forefoot. Touch the heel with every stride, but touch lightly. On each stride, land with the foot directly below your center of gravity. Allow the foot to touch the ground with minimal impact. The ideal is to touch with no sound. The Achilles tendon provides as much as 25 percent of forward thrust in running. Allow this tendon to stretch as your forefoot touches the ground lightly, then allow the stretched tendon to release as you raise your leg at the end of the stride. Try to sense the tendon bounce. Direct the momentum of this bounce forward. (This is easiest to sense on hills, but also most likely to lead to injury on hills. Be cautious.) Avoid the tendency of the tendon bounce of the Achilles to become a bounce of the whole body.
The head (stabilized by the nuchal ligament) should be still, and the body should not oscillate too much vertically. In the upper body, your movement forward should be as though you are sliding on a stable platform. (A famous running story involving Alberto Salazar describes Salazar running across a bridge during a race. The bridge had a solid fence, at about chest height, which prevented observers from seeing Salazar's lower body. It looked to the observers as though Salazar was standing on a platform pulled by an unseen vehicle.)
When raising the leg at the end of the stride, lift and bend the leg with your hip muscles and hamstrings. This reduces the length of the bent leg, reduces the lever length of the movement, and increases the speed at which the leg returns to a forward position.
Avoid all braking action as the feet touch the ground. The movement of the feet should precisely match the movement of the ground beneath you. There should be no friction, slapping, or shuddering. It helps to think of this as a rolling motion, as though your legs and feet are like the spokes of a wheel rolling across the surface of the ground.
Aim for 180 steps per minute.
And, while doing so, keep the forearms level and lightly swinging. Never cross the center-line of the body with the forearms. Keep the head elevated, with the gaze forward at a spot about 20 metres ahead.
Try to breathe through the nose (with your mouth closed) as often as possible.
The nose is anatomically designed for efficient breathing (and proper air temperature as well). Whenever possible, keep your mouth shut.
Aim for a running style that is completely relaxed and effortless.
This takes time.