Running form

Sounds like you need proper shoes, and not a change in running form.
The only thing I would suggest in terms of running form is to stand up tall, like there is a string attached to your head.
If you are already doing this, you are good to go run

cdmanney wrote: »

My husband was running behind me yesterday and noticed that I tend to sway my feet slightly outward when I run. I figured I had some form issues. I get soreness in my feet, knees, and the front inner part of my shins. I’ve run three 5Ks but am still very much a running novice. Thoughts on watching YouTube videos, checking out websites, etc to correct things? Thanks so much.

It's reasonably common, and not really the cause of your shin or knee pain. Essentially it's a symptom of a relative weakness in the shin muscle, in comparison to the inner calf.

Personally I'm not a fan of gait analysis, but that is one option. A motion control shoe may help, but I'd generally lean towards working on your muscular strength. It's worth a conversation with a physiotherapist, although googling the Myrtle routine might be beneficial.

As others have said, that aspect of running form likely isn't the cause of your pain. It's more likely a lack of muscle development and/or landing your foot too far out in front of your body. Worrying about anything else at this point won't get you anywhere.

The former can be fixed with more slow and easy miles. It'll happen naturally if you keep up the running. The latter can be fixed by learning to land with your foot directly underneath your center of gravity. This helps to soften the impact to your joints and allows the big muscles in your leg to absorb much of the landing force.

There are a ton of resources out there that will show you how to do this. In most people, changing your steps per minute can act as a shorthand way of getting there. Anything over 170 SPM will put your landing zone in roughly the right place.

If you really want to change your stride to eliminate the outward swing, you'll need to develop/activate the right muscle groups. One way to practice this is to make sure you think of your stride as an athletic motion. Consider each forward stride as a bounding leap such that you need to launch yourself off your rear leg. This will cause you to purposefully drive your front leg forward instead of letting it lazily swing to the front.

One way to drill this is to march forward and to focus on bringing the knee of your forward leg up high (like a marching band leader). Make each step purposeful and hold the high knee pose for a split second so you can focus on the feeling of activating your glute as you push off the rear leg.