Back when I lived in Dallas, I was a running coach for about 10 years. It started out with me wanting to become a “real runner” when I turned 40 and I signed up for a beginning running class to train for a 5k. The morning I showed up for the 6-week class, the coach had us run the “magic mile” so that they could assess our fitness and put us into pace groups. I could only run ¼ mile before walking but I was committed to getting better. Sure enough, by the end of the 6-week class, I was able to run a 5k and a runner was born. I was asked to be a mentor for future classes and then later a coach and for many years coached the 5k class until I moved on to coach half and full marathon groups. The organization that I coached with added a really cool course to the roster called “Good Form Running” based on content developed by New Balance and I was soon recruited to coach the class and found it incredibly helpful in tweaking little things to make the participants more efficient runners and to reduce injury. In the class, we taught about creating an awareness of your body positioning which will make your running easier and faster. This information is not only for runners, it is also a good idea to focus on having good form when walking, so the same principles apply. There are other methods of coaching that focus on form, such as Chi Running, but I like the New Balance method because it is pretty simple. (New Balance has updated their method in recent years, but I like to follow what they originally developed.)

There are 4 steps to good form: posture, mid-foot strike, cadence, and lean.

Posture

Stand tall, spine long. Think of lengthening the crown of your head up
Head level, gaze forward, eyes focused 15 – 20 yards ahead. When running or walking, your head should not be bobbing up and down or moving side to side. If you wear a pony tail and you feel it whipping around, your head is probably moving too much
Shoulders relaxed, down away from your ears, not rolling forward—this will keep your chest and lungs open for easier breathing and ensure that there is no tension in your neck
Elbows stay in close to the sides of your torso, at a 90 degree angle
The movement of the arms is front and back, not across the body. Emphasis is on the back swing, driving the elbows back
Hands are relaxed, thumbs on top—this keeps your elbows in close and from crossing your body
Pelvis at neutral—will reduce stress on your lower back
Knees soft, not locked—these are your shock absorbers
Feet are shoulder width distance, toes are pointed forward—any rotation can cause injury or impact efficiency

Mid-foot

The heel and back ball of the foot land simultaneously
Foot lands softly, quickly, quietly. No pounding—your feet should barely be making any noise
Foot lands under the hip line
Arch of the foot is the shock absorber
Avoid heel striking and over striding—slows you down, creates friction
Avoid landing on the forefoot – causes strain on the calves and Achilles

Cadence/turnover

Aim for 180 steps per minute when running—that is 90 steps on each foot. When walking, aim for 150 steps per minute
Use a metronome app or find a song with 150/180 beats per minute
This cadence promotes short quick strides and mid-foot strike
Cadence has nothing to do with speed—it has to do with leg turnover. Your cadence would be the same number of steps per minute running a 6 minute mile and a 12 minute mile

Lean

Lean at the ankles without bending at the waist
Don’t overdo the lean—it is only about ½ inch
Weight is slightly forward, ankles flexed
Use gravity to move your body forward. There should be very little bounce up and down, the movement is forward
Push the power out the back

Now that you we have discussed the steps, here are some tips to get started:

Try to focus on one thing each week. When you are training your body to do something different, you may feel some muscle soreness. The best place to start is cadence
Be aware that we all have anatomical differences that can’t be “trained” out of us. For example, if you have very open hips, your toes may point outward and to try to run or walk with them pointing straight ahead will cause a lot of discomfort and possibly an injury
When you run barefoot, you will have the proper form. Do this inside your house or in the yard before heading out for the run or walk to get a sense of what you should be feeling
Marching in place will show you where you should land on the foot. It is really hard to march on your toes or your heels!
Reset your posture when running. Raise your arms overhead to realign your body, then slowly lower your arms to your sides. Focus on relaxing the upper body, tucking the tailbone/pelvis under a bit and the ensuring that the column of your body is straight. This stacks your vertebrae, pulls your pelvis underneath you and puts you in good alignment
Remember that when you are running, you should hardly be making any noise--your steps are light and quick with no shuffling or dragging of the feet. Look at your shoes to see how they are wearing—you will get some clues about the placement of your feet from them
Use the metronome. Think about the tissues in your legs being like rubber bands. When stretched and released they snap back forcefully. With a longer stride and slower cadence, the elastic recoil is less forceful, which will make you work harder. Cadence at 180 leads to efficiency because there will be no pause at the completion of the leg follow through. By keeping the cadence up, your stride will be shorter, preventing braking and will also give you less contact time with the ground.
When running on hills (which we have a lot of here in SF), we use different tips for the lean:

Uphill: stay relaxed on the first 2/3 and then speed up on the last 1/3; use higher turnover, smaller steps, same amount of effort (so pace may slow); bring the knees up a little higher and put the foot to the ground with purpose; think of driving the legs backwards
Downhill: start out the downhill by lengthening your stride; lean into the downhill until your body is perpendicular to the hill; try to get the foot to land a little behind the hip which means that you are putting the foot down a little sooner than if you were on the flats

There is a great app called Coach’s Eye that you can use to have someone film you while running so that you can see if there are areas that need to be tweaked. Watch the video thinking through the 4 steps: posture, mid-foot strike, cadence, and lean. Once you practice these tips for several weeks, it will become second nature and you will even find yourself “coaching” other runners in your mind when you see them. These simple tips can make you a more efficient runner with less risk of injury.