Running Form – Bend Your Knees!

As you know if you’ve been reading along I don’t run a ton of miles, but I do want to do the miles I run right.  I randomly think about my form and I feel like it’s pretty good but of course most everyone’s form could be better.

I had a non-running form wake up call the other day though when I asked my daughter to take a picture of me doing chaturanga and then took a look. Um, I felt like I was doing it so great!  Not so much from the camera’s point of view, I was much much higher up than I thought and my elbows weren’t as pulled in as I thought.  It’s my body, I really thought I knew what it was doing. Stupid everything.

Anyways, I’m going to start concentrating on one aspect of my running form at a given time for a while and see if it makes a difference in how I run.  Well, in how I perceive I run since that’s probably a totally different thing.

First thing to concentrate on is one of the most important according to Ken Bob Saxton, and who am I to argue with him?  Especially when it’s his book, Barefoot Running Step by Step that really got me started in the first place.

Bend your knees!  It makes a lot of sense after someone says it out loud.  If you run with your legs straight you are not allowing your knees to work as they are intended to and you are jarring your whole body with every step.   Keeping your knees bent while running allows them to absorb some of the shock that running can otherwise put on your body.

How much should your knees bend when you run?  I’d guess it’s different for everyone but here’s a video of an expert – take a look.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eowVCo7CObk&w=420&h=315]