What is proper running form?

Uh, you lift your legs…and uh, go forward.

right foot, left foot, stiff upper back and keep your back to the wind.

Away from.

I was in cross country for 2 weeks in high school and I’m pretty sure we were taught to run with our arms down as much as possible. It helps breathing or something.

^Don’t listen to that. Running with your arms down will slow you, and make your shoulders, neck and back hurt like hell.

Here is a great article about proper form. Proper form involves the head, shoulders, torso, arms, hips, ankles, feet, and of course legs, and describing it in detail would be much much too long for a fluther post, but please read the article. It’s really quite well-researched and accurate.

The aspects of it that I would highlight are:
1. Look straight ahead of you—don’t look at the ground.
2. Keep you shoulders loose, not stiff or tight.
3. Let your arms swing in a forward motion with your body, not “sawing” across it, but back and forth in the direction you’re running. (I’ve never heard of trying to keep your arms down, but doing it would be working against human biomechanics)
4. Don’t try to control your stride, ie using a stride you think is long or one that is short, let your body find the stride that’s right for it. Studies have shown the human body will naturally choose the stride that is most efficient for its unique characteristics.

It’s good to keep your hands in “loose fists” if that makes sense. Almost like you are forming a relaxed “zero” with them.

And ^^ what she said.

Some of the fastest runners I know have the oddest (ahem, most unique) strides.

I wouldn’t listen to me either. That’s just something we were told 10 years ago when I was in high school. I thought it was obviously some joke advice when I mentioned I was in cross country for 2 weeks.

when you see someone with good looking form, you’ll know it.
If you have someone tape you as you run, you’ll immediately see a lot of errors if you have bad form.

and the “arms down” thing mostly applies to a lot of girls who like running with their hands almost pinned up to their shoulders. Also, it applied to me, before my coaches told me to stop doing it. Now, i swing them so that my wrists are almost by my hips at the bottom of my swing, and my fingertips are about level with my shoulders at the top, but my elbows are almost locked into a 90 degree angle throughout my whole stride. the “swinging forward, not across” is a common problem though, and something a lot of coaches will look to fix. One trick is they’ll have you pretend you’re holding guns and you’re looking to shoot someone in front of you. If your arms are swinging too diagonally, you’ll obviously miss your target. Also, another (or so i’m told) common problem is having your shoulders up by your ears and really tight. That constricts your breathing, and wastes momentum. that’s another thing people mean by “arms down”

something else to take note of: your feet. if you go into a running shoe store (especially a good one), the salesmen always want you to try the shoes out at a running pace, and watch your form. If you’re wearing the wrong type of shoes, your form will suffer, and ultimately your whole body.

Another important note: your form should change based on terrain.
For example, when climbing up hills, taking shorter strides, driving with the knees, and swinging with the arms more is not only natural, but more efficient.
On downhills, taking long, bouncy strides happens, and you can gain a lot of ground if you do a sort of “windmilling motion” with your arms and lean forward with the hill (it’s scary to lean forward with the hill, but the arm motion-which happens naturally for most people-will keep you balanced.) if you have knee or shin problems, i don’t recommend pushing the downhills like this. It really does wreck your knees, and shin-splints will feel a lot worse.