Chapter 27: Gait Movement - The Practice of Natural Movement

“Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation’s out of breath. We ain’t running no more.”

 

—Stokely Carmichael

 

In human beings, gait is technically and scientifically defined as bipedal, biphasic, forward locomotion achieved solely through the movement of the lower limbs, with continuous or temporary contact with the ground. In simple words and from a Natural Movement perspective, gait is a particular manner of walking, stepping, or running that generally involves a certain rhythm and cadence while also being adaptable to contextual variables. Such adaptations might include intermittent shuffling, skipping, hopping, changes in pace (slow walking, brisk walking, jogging, and sprinting), and directional changes.

Early humans evolved and specialized for long-distance movement through both walking and running, as is still observed in many contemporary hunter-gatherer groups. Today, we all hold the same potential for such long-distance movement on our feet, even if it remains dormant in those of us who walk little and never run or who cover only very short distances when we walk or run.

Walking is by far the Natural Movement skill most frequently used by humans, and it’s also a pattern that we’ve evolved to become highly efficient at. A regular heel-first walking gait, though slower compared to running, has been proven to expend about 70 percent less energy than running for the same distance. A difference of such magnitude proves that humans are primarily walkers by evolutionary design. Walking is the most economical and efficient gait when it comes to covering significant distances. This is universally true across all human cultures, minus slight gender differences in gait patterns; women generally tend to walk with a relatively narrower step width and more pronounced pelvic movement than men because of their particular skeletal structure.

NOTE

 

Gait is bipedal because we exclusively use the feet to support the body, and it’s biphasic because, in most cases, the body is supported alternately by each foot in a cyclical manner.

 

The fact that we are fundamentally bipedal and primarily move on our two feet makes the foot the very foundation of human motion and the most important, valuable, and amazing piece of organic equipment we possess. When you walk or run, the human foot will support 100 percent of your body weight on an area of the body that is tiny in proportion to the size of your whole body. In fact, a single foot can support up to three times your normal body weight as it lands when you’re running at fast speeds.

The human foot is a complex structure, with no less than twenty-six bones, thirty-three joints, and more than one hundred muscles, tendons, and ligaments within a small part of the body. Thousands of cutaneous sensors on the sole of the foot support finely tuned exteroception and sensitivity to ground parameters. The under-surface of the foot even shows a tough pad of fat underneath the heel bone that cushions the rear of the foot and reduces the loads on the skeletal system when we walk on hard surfaces or when we run and occasionally land on the rear of the foot. In any case, a strong, healthy foot can handle very large forces.

Like the hands, the sole of the foot can wrinkle (“get pruney”) when water enters the sweat glands, which is a physiological adaptation that enables the foot to change its surface to generate greater friction in wet environments. The human foot is a masterpiece of biomechanical structure and sensory input that is both sensitive and tough as well as highly stable and mobile; it’s designed to adapt to great variations in terrain.

Nonetheless, a common perception of human gait reduces it to the idea that walking and running are only done with a tall posture, linearly in a forward direction, mostly on smooth, flat, predictable surfaces. The reality of gait in Natural Movement is much richer, challenging, and more rewarding. Like any other natural movement, gait is influenced by many factors, including habit or specialized training, terrain, footwear (or lack thereof), weather, physical makeup, gender, age, mindset, pain, dysfunction, disease or other disorder, or a combination of any of these things. In the absence of dysfunction or pain, modulations in gait might have to do with temporary adjustments required for effective contextual adaptability. Those practical adjustments generate many diverse manners of walking, stepping, or running. Such variability may involve not just the pace or speed of the gait, but also the foot and overall body position that is most practical or efficient based on the terrain and surface where you’re walking.

Based on the context in which you’re walking, you might need to vary your position in sequences to clear obstacles—for instance when stepping over or under something. Instead of standing with a tall posture, you might alter your gait to have a center of gravity so low that the movement might be perceived as “ground movement.” The direction of gait when stepping is not necessarily forward; it can be backward, upward, downward, or sideways, regardless of pace. These reasons alone make for a broad approach to gait in both comprehension and practice.

I also could argue that although humans are mainly bipedal, they aren’t exclusively so, as shown by the hunter-gatherers who live in the wilderness and regularly use a variety of “on-all-fours” crawling patterns. Therefore, quadrupedal movements that I previously covered in the Ground Movement chapters could be equally considered to be “gait.” As a matter of fact, humans who suffer from gait abnormality or astasia-abasia (the inability to either stand or walk in a normal manner) due to a degenerative disease, a stroke, brain damage, or phobia may in some cases revert to quadrupedal motion temporarily or permanently.

NOTE

 

The permanent fear of standing or walking is a phobia that bears diverse names such as ambulophobia, stasiphobia, stasibasiphobia, basiphobia, and stasophobia.

 

In addition, gait may take place on narrow or unstable surfaces and become a balancing pattern in Natural Movement even though they are also technically “gait” movements either in a bipedal or quadrupedal fashion.

In this chapter, I specifically address the fundamental human standing, bipedal, and biphasic gaits of our species.

Walking

 

One of the simplest ways to feel good when you’re stressed out or anxious is to step outside for a simple walk in nature or a nearby park. Health benefits of ambulation (a more formal term for walking) are numerous.

On average, children begin to walk on their own when they’re about eleven months old, which probably means you’ve been walking for a very long time already. But does that mean that there is nothing else for you to learn or rediscover about walking?

Using a Natural Movement approach to walking and practice obviously departs from both the obvious few steps we do to get in our cars, go to the bathroom, or take the occasional short promenade around the block on flat, even, predictable, artificial surfaces. It also differs from the highly specialized racewalking sports. However, any of these types of walking can be part of your practice, and they’re certainly better than sitting all day.

Walking from a broad, natural perspective includes more than changes in speed, distance, or duration, and it isn’t just about hiking outdoors. I’m talking about walking as an adaptable Natural Movement skill that involves great diversity in gait, speed, and duration but also includes stepping in diverse directions on varied surfaces in various weather conditions. It also includes the ability to walk skillfully for long distances on a variety of terrains while handling simple obstacles and potentially carrying a load. This kind of walking is incredibly more challenging and rewarding, but it requires a healthy body with great lower-body mechanics; foot, ankle, knee, and hip mobility; and stability. Fortunately for you, all the sits, kneeling positions, and transitions to standing help to recondition your foot, ankle, knee, and hip joint mobility and stability, as well as promote your core strength, in the most progressive, functionally natural and potent way with a direct benefit to your walking and running.

Technically speaking, walking in a standing fashion implies that you are moving using a simple “double pendulum” cycle where you are supporting your body weight on a single leg (called the stance phase) alternately while the other leg is traveling from the back to the front (called the swing phase), with a brief phase in between where you support yourself on both legs. It simply means that when you walk you are always in contact with the ground. In contrast, when you run, you become airborne with both feet off the ground between each step.

The main difference between walking and running is gait, rather than speed because speed can obviously greatly vary in both types of gait depending on factors such as height, weight, age, terrain, surface, weather, load, health, physical conditioning, fatigue, mindset or situation. Human walking speed averages 3 miles per hour (5 kilometers per hour), and people might walk much slower or faster than that when you take all the variables into consideration.

I’ll start with the most common type of walking: standing and moving forward on relatively flat surfaces. Though it is a complex movement, it is pretty straightforward (no pun intended).

Standing Walk

 

1 Start standing, shifting more body weight onto the foot you intend to support you. You may slightly bend the knee of the intended supporting leg.

2 Slightly move your center of gravity forward beyond your base of support, so gravity starts gently pulling you off balance. To begin the “first pendulum,” slightly rotate the hip and bend the leg you intend to move forward to release the foot. As you slowly lean farther forward, the ankle of the supporting leg flexes. It’s a whole-body lean with the foot, hips, spine, and head aligned without a Hip Hinge.

3 Extend your free leg forward without pushing off your back leg until your heel lands softly on the ground, and you establish a base of support with both feet. At this point most of your body weight is still supported on the back foot.

4 Shift your body weight onto your front foot by “rolling” it down all the way to the toes, while the heel of your back foot elevates so that only the ball of your back foot is on the ground, and your foot is in an extended position. The heel-toe motion of your foot (or “inverted pendulum”) transfers more energy from step to step compared to directly placing your foot flat on the ground. From this position, keep driving your center of gravity forward to initiate the “second pendulum” and replicate the exact same sequence, this time supported on your opposite side and leg.

During the walk cycle, the center of gravity reaches its highest point as the moving leg passes the supporting one, and its lowest point when the legs spread apart, however the change in level is slight and shouldn’t translate to a visible up and down motion of the head and body (unless you were to step out significantly). Except in special circumstances, it’s natural to land on the heel when walking. People who have issues with this are people who have issues with their health, such as being significantly overweight or having bad knees or back issues, and they can’t handle their own natural motion without discomfort or pain. In this case, gait issues are a symptom, and health is the cause of it.

Common Standing Walk Faults

Unless you are suffering from motor-control issues, such as swaying with such a magnitude that you are nearly falling (the marche à petits pas, which is an abnormally short-stepped gait) or you are intentionally modifying your gait for an experimental or adaptable purpose, the following are inefficiencies:

• Pronated or supinated feet

• Feet pointing out or splayed in a “duck” style

• Heavy stepping

• Dragging feet (when they rub against the ground)

• Little to no flexion at the knee

• Hip “collapsing” sideways upon shifting body weight onto the stepping foot

• Excessive movement in the lower back (lack of stability)

In addition, as you would expect, any postural issue you have while standing in one spot carries over to each step of your walking pattern. The better alignment you have from feet to head, the more balance and relaxation you have in walking. You can address some of the walking faults you have through practicing mindful walking—for instance, fixing splayed-foot stepping by leading each step through the knee with it pointed straight forward and avoiding external rotation of the leg. Some faults will indirectly and gradually improve or even ultimately disappear through consistent Natural Movement practice.

Fast Walking

To walk faster, you increase the traction from the front foot to thrust the swing leg faster and extend it farther forward, which is helped by an accentuated hip rotational motion. As the foot of the swinging leg lands, the center of gravity is almost immediately above it with greater forward momentum, which makes the double-support phase much briefer. Friction at the foot will be maximized to provide greater traction from the foot, which allows the hip to act upon the rear leg with greater force. Once the rear leg starts to swing, the leg is flexed at the knee; however, unlike running, the heel is not kicked toward the rear. Upon forward extension the swinging leg must land with minimal flexion at the knee (on flat terrain). The accentuated rotation of the hip must be counterbalanced by the motion of the arms. Your arms are bent, but your shoulders should stay low and relaxed with no exaggerated upward/backward arm swing motion. Your arm motion is a natural counter motion and counterbalancing motion rather than an active propulsive motion. Despite the rotary motion of the hips, it’s essential that your feet point forward upon landing. Your hips are more forward and downward; they don’t sway with lateral rotation. There is no up-and-down wave motion as you move forward along a horizontal plane.

Adaptability in Walking

Because walking is an adaptable skill, minor or major positional adjustments may occur anytime because of contextual demands, especially when you’re walking in nature on uneven terrains. You may walk forward, sideways, backward, or, if you’re scanning your environment as you move, by rotating 360 degrees as you change your orientation circularly with every step. You may use small or wide steps, have a wide stance, or walk with your feet in line. Walking gait variations may also include (but are not limited to) the following:

 

1 Heel-only stepping: In this variation, you walk on your heels with the rest of the foot off the ground. You usually use this style when walking barefoot on a terrain covered with sharp or pointy elements such as puncturevine (goatheads), shards of broken material, or thorns because the heel area is tougher than the rest of the foot.

 

2 Walking on the sides of the feet: You can use this variation to minimize the area of contact or soften your steps to be quieter.

3 Forefoot-heel stepping: You can do this to soften your stepping and make it lighter on your body, for stalking, or when the ground is unsure, especially when you’re walking barefoot without visibility on the terrain (tall grass, darkness, shallow waters, when situationally having to focus somewhere else than the ground), and you’re concerned about hurting your feet. The idea is to keep your body weight on your rear foot, often with a slight backward lean of your torso, and feel the ground with your front foot to avoid any threat to the foot (puncture, cut, instability) before you shift all your body weight onto it. The lead foot comes flat to the ground, and, in the absence of an issue, you push off the rear foot to shift all your body weight to the front.

4 Crouching walk: With this lower center-of-gravity walk, you usually use wider steps for greater stability. Use this to handle low obstacles or ceilings or to make yourself less visible. It’s also a combative stance. Alternatively, you can do this walk in a Hip Hinge fashion with a straight spine.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

A lot of people who are trying barefoot movement want to use the forefoot-heel stepping variation because their feet are unprepared to handle rough terrains. They unconsciously stiffen their feet, with tension in their face and body, as they anticipate the upcoming pain. I recommend you do the opposite to accustom yourself to let your feet totally loose so they can better absorb protruding surfaces as you shift your body weight onto the foot. You can sometimes even voluntarily stomp the ground (not too hard) as you walk. The point is to relax your feet to keep your muscles loose and to spread your bones to better distribute body weight over a greater surface of your feet.

   

5 Stepping through or under obstacles may require several positional adjustments, such as leaning both forward and sideways at the same time.

6 Shuffling: This style can be done with varied body orientation (front, side, back). You can shuffle while keeping the same lead foot or alternating your feet.

Stepping Under

The way you should step under an obstacle depends on how high or low the space underneath it is, how wide and long the obstacle is, and how fast you want to pass it. Clearly, below a certain height, you have no option but to crawl. However, with enough vertical space you might decide to stay on your feet—for instance, if your hands are busy, or if the ground is unsafe or unclean. Although stepping under a low obstacle can be done in a Half Squat or Half Deep Knee Bend manner as described in Chapter 24, which allows the torso to remain relatively vertical, those methods are much more energy-consuming and often slower than the following two options.

Forward

Stepping under an obstacle with a forward orientation is effective, but it’s not the most efficient movement, although it may be the only option you have if the space underneath the obstacle is too narrow or too long to approach it sideways.

 

1 A common approach is to lean forward with your back rounded and head down, which allows you to not bend your legs too much, which saves energy. The main issues with this approach is that you are likely to bump your back and potentially hurt your spine when you step, and you also must look down, which is a problem if you need to go fast while staying visually alert. It also holds zero value in terms of functional rehabilitation.

 

2 A more efficient approach is to first Hip Hinge, keeping your head up so you can look forward. Your spine is elongated behind your head and slightly beneath head level. Once your head has cleared the lower surface of the obstacle, you know that your spine will follow safely if you maintain that position far enough to clear the obstacle entirely as you regain a vertical stance. You also need to bend your legs and walk forward using cautious and relatively short steps, so it’s relatively slow and energy-consuming.

Sideways

If the space underneath the obstacle is wide enough—at least as wide as the length running from your sacrum to your forehead—and short enough, then stepping under with trunk rotation is the most efficient option. You can pass the obstacle in only two steps while keeping your back and spine safe, staying visually alert, and moving very swiftly.

 

1 Approach the obstacle from the side.

2 Shift your weight onto your back foot and reach with your front leg to slide it underneath toward the far side of the obstacle, then place the foot of that leg on the ground. The ideal base of support is neither too narrow or too wide.

3 While maintaining a straight spine, bend your torso forward by folding at the hips and centering your weight over both feet, which brings your hips directly under the obstacle. As you’re doing so, keep the back of your head slightly above your spine to make sure that it never comes in contact with the obstacle. Ideally your center of gravity, the obstacle, and the middle of your base of support are vertically aligned at this point.

 

4 Swing your torso under the obstacle so that it clears the far side of the obstacle; begin to shift your weight onto the foot on the far side of the obstacle.

5 Once your torso is fully clear of the obstacle, stand erect and turn to face the direction you’re traveling. Shift all your weight onto the forward foot, bringing your hips out from under the obstacle.

6 Pull your back leg completely out and transition to a regular standing walk.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

If the obstacle is at an angle, place your head toward the higher end and your hips toward the lower one.

 

Stepping Through

 

1 Stepping Through Horizontally (over-under): This variation requires enough space for your torso to pass and spatial awareness both above and below your trunk.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

A technique I use for variation 1 when the space barely allows me to pass through is to entirely deflate my lungs, which flattens my rib cage and creates extra space.

 

2 Stepping Through Vertically: When practicing this variation, try to stay very relaxed but also move quickly while avoiding touching the obstacle. In most cases, lightly rubbing against the sides of the obstacle is not an issue, but rubbing or bumping them with force can be a problem.

Stepping Over and Out

You need to step out or over whenever an obstacle presents itself, and it’s not possible or practical to go around it. Good examples include stepping across a stream, crossing a gap over a deep ravine, going over a fallen tree or a hole, or traversing a slippery, wet, or thorny area. Such obstacles are mostly passed either with a forward or sideways orientation; you use a backward orientation more rarely. The technique to step over and out has a lot to do with the following general principles, regardless of the kind of obstacle you’re clearing:

• A sideways orientation of the body fits wider gaps or more elevated surfaces as it allows you to take wider steps than a forward orientation. Once the front foot is also on support and stable, a forward orientation can be regained by rotating your hips and pivoting on the balls of your feet.

• Start the movement with impeccable position and joint stability of your back foot and leg. Your balance during this temporary single-leg phase determines the accuracy of your foot placement as well as your stability during the phase where you’re supported on both feet. Plus, if the step is wide or long, you might have to let gravity pull you off balance forward until the front foot lands, making your “off-balance balance” crucial.

• Once the front foot is grounded, as long as you aren’t exceeding the range that makes stepping forward possible, you want to push off the back foot first to create forward momentum and to facilitate pushing off the front leg to finish clearing the obstacle.

• When you’re stepping over an elevated surface without hand assistance, the height of the obstacle should ideally be a bit lower than the height of your groin area (otherwise you’ll have to briefly assume a Straddle Sit position).

• When the distance you’re stepping over is nearly the maximum distance you can cover, you need to predict that stepping will be within range. Keep your gaze focused on your lead foot until it’s effectively grounded.

• If the surface where your lead foot steps is small or otherwise challenging, keep your gaze focused on where your lead foot is stepping until it’s effectively grounded.

• Anticipate the stability and friction (or lack of it) of both the surface supporting your rear foot and the surface supporting your lead foot so you know how reliable they are. Surfaces may move, collapse beneath you, or be slippery, which can make you lose balance or land uncomfortably on your groin area.

• Your stepping should be accurate and enable you to land on the ball of your foot first—rather than on your heel—to establish a more stable foothold. Though it may seem more stable, stepping on your heel may make you slide forward and fall; by extending your ankle to point your foot forward, you can land farther if needed than if you try to land with your heel first.

• Keep your arms relaxed and resist the temptation to exaggeratedly use them for counterbalancing and as a compensatory strategy for lack of stability in the lower joints.

• Maintain ample and relaxed abdominal breathing.

• Never rush stepping out and over anything when there’s potential danger, such as falling down a crevice, falling in water with strong current, and so on.

 

1 Stepping over forward sideways

 

2 Stepping out/over sideways gap-crossing

3 Stepping out/over backward gap-crossing

Stepping Up

Stepping up implies that the lead foot is raised onto an elevated surface. This can be done progressively in a step-by-step motion when walking up an inclined terrain, but it also happens when you encounter a sudden and sharp change of elevation. You might be able to step up on such an obstacle with walking momentum, or you might have to come to a stop, ensure stable footing, and then step up from a static stand. It can be a single event as you step up onto a raised surface, or it can be a repetitive pattern when you climb a steep slope covered with big rocks (or you’re simply walking up some stairs).

Obviously, stepping up cannot be reduced to a single context, such as walking up stairs, which involves a flat, linear, stable, even, highly predictable environment that uses relatively short steps, uninterrupted momentum, and perfect visibility, which means each step is replicated the same way. This is nowhere as challenging as having to step up from a static standing position with no momentum onto a significantly raised surface that is uneven, small, inclined, slippery, or unstable, especially if you need to temporarily balance on a single leg before you can figure out where to step next. There are many modifications you can make as you step up that depend on the surfaces where you step, the height and width of the area on which you’re stepping, how much momentum you have prior to stepping up, how fast you’re going, and the direction your next step has to be.

Stepping down is the same. There is a huge difference between swiftly stepping down a low, flat step to flat ground and stepping slowly down a height on a single leg, with the supporting foot resting on an uneven or challenging surface.

Although momentum and speed can make stepping up faster and easier, there are times when you might have to do it without momentum—slowly, carefully, and accurately in the most balanced and controlled manner. This is the most challenging and unforgiving form of stepping up, and if we can determine what makes it efficient, then less difficult, more dynamic forms of stepping up will be made extremely easy.

Your primary concern is naturally producing enough force to oppose the pull of gravity by accelerating your body. Your second concern is ensuring single-leg stability without counterbalancing with your arms, just like when you balance. Of course, you might be wondering why you can’t simply use your arms to assist the movement. The practical reason is very simple: Your arms may be busy and unable to assist (imagine that you’re carrying a young child). From a skill development and functional perspective, intentionally preventing your arms from assisting increases your level of single-leg joint stability, which has benefit to other single-leg movements, such as in walking, balancing, running, and single-leg jumps or landings.

I address stepping up before I talk about stepping down because most of what I tell you about stepping up also applies to stepping down. Imagine that you are stepping only once, from a standing position (so you don’t have any walking momentum) onto an uneven surface that is also higher than what’s shown in the photos. You need to stay stable and balanced on a single leg, even if you are stepping up slowly, before you can either stand on top or step somewhere else.

 

1 Face the elevated surface straight on with a forward orientation, then place your forward foot flat on top of the surface. You may stand about one step away, or you can bring your rear foot closer to the obstacle. Your knee is vertically aligned with your foot or slightly in front of it depending on the height of the obstacle, but your center of gravity is not (although it’s not too far off). If your lead foot is higher than what’s shown in the photo, it would become even more essential that you move your rear foot toward your lead foot to align your center of gravity as much as possible with your lead foot. The reason is simple: As you step up, you switch from a two-foot base of support to a one-foot base of support. If you start with no momentum, there’s less possibility of pushing with the rear leg because it’s already extended, you have greater knee flexion in the lead leg, and you have greater vertical distance your center of gravity has to travel before it reaches above your foot to balance your top position, so you’d better minimize the horizontal distance your center of gravity has to travel. Therefore, it’s best to have your center of gravity fully aligned with the anticipated base of support (your lead foot).

2 Keeping your spine straight and your hips level, push off with your rear foot to shift your body weight onto the lead foot. Keep your knee vertically aligned with your foot (it might very slightly shift outward as a reflex to prevent it from caving inward, but it shouldn’t shift significantly). Your knee does not align itself with the body’s midline and center of gravity; your hip moves sideways toward the supporting knee and foot to align your midline and center of gravity with your one-foot base of support.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

A sideways orientation is possible and useful when the surface is really elevated because you might be able to place the lead foot higher and flat onto the surface, whereas the forward orientation only allows you to place your heel on the surface. The choice of the sideways orientation may also have to do with what’s best or doable in a given environment, including considering where you want to step next.

   

3 Fully extend the front leg as you bring your trailing leg up and onto the surface in a stand, with your center of gravity and midline vertically aligned with the center of your two-footed base of support. If your knee had moved vertically on the outside of your foot (inward or outward), it naturally moves back to a vertical alignment. However, you should have been able to maintain vertical alignment from start to finish. Although your hips might have had to move slightly sideways, your torso should not have needed to lean or twist sideways, which enables you to maintain a vertical torso without unnecessary movements.

Faults

 

1 Allowing the knee to shift inward (or outward) outside of vertical alignment with the foot creates an unstable and weaker leg position.

2 Leaning your upper body in the direction of your stepping leg makes you unstable and can even throw you off balance.

3 Bending your back to hunch over and look down. This too can throw you off balance and/or prevent you from swiftly or accurately transitioning to your next move.

Other issues include trying to step up without a slight hip hinge, which keeps the torso too vertical and prevents your center of gravity from effectively moving forward toward your base of support; this results in either a slower movement or being forced to step back down.

The most challenging version of stepping up is when your lead foot is stepping onto the highest surface it can, your lead leg is in full flexion, and your rear leg (and maybe even your rear ankle) is fully extended with very little ability to push and create upward momentum, which makes the step-up a movement pattern that closely resembles the demands of the Single-Leg Squat Get-Up. What you learned by practicing the Single-Leg Squat Get-Up gives you great insight of how to create the strongest position to produce strength and maintain balance in a strictly vertical elevation of the body, regardless of speed of motion, and in the absence of prior momentum. In the bottom single-leg position, the foot, ankle, knee, and center of gravity must be vertically aligned. The same applies to stepping up (no momentum, full flexion or close to it) for the following reasons:

• You can step up without momentum and with little to no push from your rear foot. If your center of gravity is outside of vertical alignment, gravity keeps you stuck at the bottom.

• Producing force to elevate all your body weight vertically through single-leg extension starting in full flexion is more efficient, especially if you start without momentum.

• You can control the speed of the leg extension. If you’re outside vertical alignment, gravity pulls you off balance and back down if you slow down or don’t generate enough upward acceleration to shift your center of gravity to vertical alignment.

• You can switch from dynamic to static joint stability and stop at any point of the extension to hold a partial flexion. If you’re outside vertical alignment, gravity pulls you off balance.

• Your knee remains vertically aligned with your foot from start to finish. If you start with it outside vertical alignment, your knee naturally comes back to vertical alignment as your leg finishes extending fully. This motion, in addition to being unnecessary and avoidable, might deviate your center of gravity from a vertical path and make you unstable. If you are stepping up continuously, as when you walk up stairs with an inward or outward knee position relative to your foot, your knee is basically wobbling with every single step you make, which is not an expression of joint stability.

The only way you can get away with having a starting position with your knee and center of gravity out of vertical alignment is when your lead foot is not too elevated so you have only partial knee flexion, and when you benefit from the push and body-weight shifting from your rear leg that gives you upward momentum. In that case, you don’t need to push very hard on your lead leg, and you can vertically align your knee and center of gravity with your supporting foot as you move to the top position. The best situation is to start in a real power position and allow modification to these principles only when there is no other choice.

Following are the main reasons for allowing the knee to move outside of vertical alignment:

• Direction of movement: When you’re in a forward orientation, your knee may slightly move forward beyond vertical alignment to slightly shift your center of gravity forward to help you avoid being pulled off balance backward (especially if you’re carrying a loaded backpack). If you’re concerned about stressing your knee, remember that in most cases you’re not loaded (or not significantly loaded), that you don’t start with your knee in full flexion, and that the push from your rear leg gives you upward momentum. If you’re carrying a load to the front of your body, your center of gravity shifts forward more, which definitely helps you prevent the backward pull. When you’re going upward but also sideways, your knee moves out of vertical alignment toward the movement direction after sufficient force and momentum have been produced rather than at the start of the movement, unless the direction of the movement goes sideways significantly.

• Stepping friction: When vertical alignment is not the position that ensures the most friction at your foot, a slight lateral position of your knee, usually outward, might help prevent foot slippage, such as when your foot and ankle are at an angle because of an inclined surface.

• Obstacles: An obstacle in the way of your knee prevents vertical alignment.

Fixing Single-Leg Instability

If you’re having trouble with single-leg stability and balance when stepping up, here are several movement drills you can do to help. These drills benefit any single-leg movement, including stepping down or stepping over and out. Perform the following movements while maintaining vertical alignment of your knee and foot, a straight spine, controlled abdominal breathing, and relaxed arms. There are also many single-leg movement drills in Chapter 26, “Balancing Movement,” that transfer to greater single-leg positions at ground level.

• Partial knee flexion and extension: From standing, lower your center of gravity as low as possible in a Single-Leg Half Squat, hold the position several seconds, stand up, and then do the same again. Switch legs.

• Hip rotations: From a single-leg stance with a partial knee flexion, rotate your hips in both directions by opening your free leg fully to the side and then bringing it back; then move it toward the front so that it crosses your body in front of your supporting leg. You may rotate your torso and neck as you rotate your hip, and you can add arm reaches and multidirectional positions of your head and line of vision.

• Step-ups and step-downs: Practice stepping up and stepping down very slowly with full positional control and without relying on momentum and speed to be effective and stable.

• Balancing practice: Numerous techniques and movement variations involve single-leg stances that improve single-leg stability.

• Carrying: Carrying while walking is a skill-mix that combines bipedal locomotion and the manipulation of an external load. This movement is obviously more challenging than regular walking, and it increases single-leg stability, especially when you do it on narrow or uneven surfaces.

Stepping Down

You can step down on a decline slope, on a staircase, or on a relatively small obstacle in a continuous walking fashion. This movement uses forward orientation most of the time, and there’s little effort beyond extending one leg forward and down and shifting your center of gravity forward to use the pull of gravity. The amount of time spent in the rear, single-leg stance is very brief, and the amount of force to produce the movement—before your foot lands, that is to say—is close to none. All you need to do upon landing is to ensure the accuracy of your stepping if you’re landing on uneven ground.

 

1 From standing at the top of the elevated surface, look down at the landing surface if you have a concern about stepping accurately on a specific area for safety, or gaze forward in the direction you’re going. Push off your rear leg to shift your body weight forward as you extend your lead leg forward and down. Extend your ankle to present the ball of the foot toward the ground.

2 Contact the ground with the ball of your foot first to absorb the downward force smoothly. After decelerating through that single leg, pull and extend your trailing leg forward to continue walking, using the stored elastic energy to bounce off to the next step. Alternatively, you could bring the trailing foot down to the ground in a stand or jump off the landing leg.

Faults include stepping on your heel, on a flat foot, or with a stiff knee, which makes the landing heavy; letting your knee get out of vertical alignment; moving forward far beyond your foot (unless you are transitioning to a Half Kneel on the ground); stiffening all over; or losing positional control (with any other unwanted movement of the body occurring upon landing). The unwanted movement of your lead knee upon landing, either inward or outward, is the biggest issue because it can throw you off balance and hurt your knee. If you’re changing direction upon landing—such as to move sideways—your knee should move out of vertical alignment after decelerating the body as it extends again; it shouldn’t move during flexion where it needs a reliable position to ensure efficient deceleration.

Stepping Down Sideways

If you are stepping down from a high surface and need to land softly, accurately, silently, or simply in the most balanced manner possible, you must step down in a slow, controlled fashion with a sideways or backward (facing opposite to your movement direction) orientation, which allows your lead foot to reach much farther than a forward orientation does. Positional efficiency demands that your center of gravity, hip, knee, ankle, and foot remain vertically aligned at all times as when you step up in the absence of momentum or speed. It’s the same movement pattern as Stepping Up but in reverse, with eccentric effort (generating deceleration) instead of concentric effort (generating acceleration). If your center of gravity shifts beyond vertical alignment with your supporting foot, you’ll be pulled off balance, which could mean that you’re not stepping down exactly where you need to, and you could fall.

 

1 From standing on top of the surface, turn your head slightly to spot and maintain a gaze on your landing target. Shift your body weight onto your rear foot (the one that’s furthest from the edge) with a slight knee flexion. Before you extend the other leg lower in the void, make sure that you are balanced with your center of gravity, knee, and foot aligned.

2 Maintain vertical alignment as you lower your lead leg, so you can control the speed at which you lower your body. This way you can always come to a stop or even step back up if needed. Keep looking at where you need to land your lead foot and extend the ankle to lower the ball of your foot to reach farther down or to step more accurately.

The Next Level: Stepping Accuracy

Walking is versatile. The ability to adaptively step forward, backward, sideways, or to step out, over, through, up, and down is an essential component of walking competency that enables you to pass obstacles in your way without discontinuity or with little waste of time.

If you’re still not fully convinced that walking is a real skill that you can train, improve, and make more efficient and adaptable, just look at the walking speed and relaxation of an adept mover compared to an untrained person (including people who hike frequently but only on trails and who avoid obstacles as much as they can) on a complex environment such as the rocky bank of a stream. In addition to having great, fast positional control, joint mobility and stability (especially in the ankles and knees), and foot strength, the faster walker has great peripheral vision, spatial awareness, and rapid exteroception (the feedback from your feet every time you step, especially on uneven, unstable surfaces). This is especially impressive knowing that skillful movers can do so barefoot and yet be significantly more agile and faster than unskilled walkers who are shod. Trained “Natural Movers” are confident and accurate with their stepping, and they can recover quickly when they get unstable, without gazing directly at the difficulties of the terrain. As trained movers walk, they might not need to look down as they step because their vision and brains are already ahead of their feet to calculate the next move. Of course, with less difficult and more predictable terrains, looking straight forward is easy, but the challenging terrains and surfaces considerably slow down hikers who lack adaptability. The following drills basically teach you to watch your steps…without looking.

Stepping Accuracy Drills

• Start with a short distance and look where you intend to step from a distance. Start walking with an erect torso and head (without leaning forward and looking down); only let your eyes gaze down. Do your best to step as accurately as you can, then do it again increasingly faster.

• Repeat the exercise while keeping your line of vision at a 45-degree angle, and then do it again while looking straight ahead. The point is to develop greater peripheral vision and maintain stepping accuracy while not looking straight down at your feet and terrain.

• Once you have become comfortable doing this, you may walk on new terrains; as you do, look straight forward and only briefly glance down from time to time without tilting your head. By now you should have switched from looking down most of the time to looking straight ahead most of the time and using intermittent, quick looks down so you can foresee more challenging steps that could lead you to stumble.

• Another beneficial practice is to look at a particular obstacle or location several steps ahead of you, and to estimate how many steps you need to take before you step on that spot, even predicting which foot, left or right, will step on it.

Variations and Adaptability in Walking

Walking faster and/or for a greater distance is clearly an important part of Natural Movement practice, but intensity and volume alone aren’t the only way to expand your walking practice and competency. There are other walking variations and transitions you can practice.

For instance, many balancing movements that you can do on narrow surfaces, such as the Cross Reverse and Pivot Reverse, also can be done when you’re walking on the ground. In addition, you can include lower positions, such as the Deep Squat, and get-ups as part of your walking motions. Similarly, walking on unpredictable surfaces such as small unstable rocks where you need to “claw” your feet (flex your feet and toes) to increase friction and stability is a way to blend gait and balancing.

Skill-mixes such as walking and carrying something or throwing or catching while walking also should be part of your practice. Last, you want to practice walking in ways that adapt to increasingly more complex environmental demands, which can naturally be done in nature but also by using simple props that replicate some of the variables found in the real world. Wood sticks, PVC pipes, or thin ropes placed horizontally replicate branches and obstacles to be stepped over; simple lines drawn on the ground, pieces of tape stuck on the floor, or pieces of board on the ground replicate gaps you must clear by stepping out and so forth. With a little imagination, you can create many diverse ways to make walking and stepping engaging, challenging, beneficial, and fun. A hike in nature is naturally challenging and energizing to the body and mind.

Running

 

Run for your life! In most life-threatening situations, running is the most vital of all movement skills.

Many people believe that because running is something natural that everyone starts doing in childhood, the way you run must be a matter of personal style or preference. Yet running is just like any other Natural Movement ability: It can be efficient or inefficient, and it can be methodically improved using technique.

While slight individual stylistic variations in gait are always possible (because of the anatomy, age, health, or even emotional state of the person), it’s essential to understand that the laws governing movement are the same for everyone, and there aren’t individual ways to run efficiently.

Later in this section, I list inefficiencies, which you might previously have thought of as running “styles.” You can run effectively for long distances with those inefficiencies, but this comes at a cost for your energy reserves, performance, comfort, and even body. (Conversely, you can run efficiently without having the stamina to run quickly or for long distances, so it’s essential to separate those two aspects of running.)

Any of the inefficiencies could be necessary, momentary adjustments of your running form that you must make to remain effective and efficient. Running—just like any other natural movement—is a highly adaptable skill. The evolutionary ability we have for such diverse temporary variations of running gait stems out of a biological necessity to adapt to the context where the movement is taking place, which enables us to navigate through complex and changing environments. It’s not about a concern for individual stylistic expression. Most of the time, in the absence of significant external variables, you should use a form that is neutral and consistent in pattern and levels of efficiency.

I prefer to talk about a “neutral” form rather than “perfect” or “pure” running form, which doesn’t exist. The neutral form applies only to linear, flat surfaces that aren’t subject to changing or unpredictable contextual demands. Trying to maintain the exact same running form regardless of environmental variables is absurd, and your “perfect” form will go down the drain the moment you hit the wild. However, overall principles do rule running efficiency, and you should learn and assimilate them to the point that they’re so natural you revert to them whenever you can.

If your current form is different than what I describe, you need to be open to experimenting with a different approach. It’s challenging to change patterns that are deeply ingrained. You might have been running with your current style for many years and miles, which means your technique is deeply ingrained in your brain and body. Modifying your pattern might at first feel unnatural, but with practice it will become more comfortable.

If you already have a certain amount of metabolic conditioning, with better technique you will improve distance, speed, and comfort. If you don’t run at all because you’ve never enjoyed the ordeal (which is made worse by bad form), you’ll discover that running can be made so much softer and physically enjoyable.

Repetitive Impact, Injury Risk, and Orthotics

Repetitive impact sounds like something that hurts. The truth is, repetitive impact can make you strong, or it can hurt you. Repetitive impact is determined by external and internal parameters, including the following:

• The type of ground (hard, soft, smooth, uneven, flat, or angled)

• Your footwear (if you’re not barefoot)

• The position of your foot, ankle, knee, hip, and back at the moment of impact

• The speed at impact

• Volume (number of strides, duration of the run)

• Individual body weight

• Existing conditioning of your tissues to a given type of impact (including the listed parameters)

• Health levels and ability to physiologically recover

Our tissues are conditioned to certain intensity, volume, and frequency in relation to particular positional patterns in movement. There also is a certain “loading” pattern or physical and physiological impact on your tissues called mechanome, which affects the body in good or bad ways. A certain type of running that remains unchanged induces a specific “impact pattern,” which is part of the overall individual mechanome. Changing several variables, or even changing a single variable, of this loading pattern can be tremendously beneficial in some cases; in others, it’s detrimental.

Let’s take a conventional heel-strike runner who can run a daily 5k comfortably at a slow speed on concrete wearing conventional running shoes (positive, thickly cushioned heel) and who does not sustain any running-related ailment or injury. What would happen if this person decided to take on a challenge to get stronger at running and changed a single parameter overnight, such as one of the following:

• Run barefoot (or with thin, minimal shoes) without modifying running form

• Run with the same footwear but with a forefoot-heel-forefoot landing

• Run on a rocky trail or on a sandy beach

• Run twice as fast

• Run loaded with a 20-pound backpack

• Run the same distance downhill

• Run at the same slow speed but go twice the distance (10k)

It is likely that instead of adapting without any noticeable consequence other than unusual soreness, the runner will experience discomfort or pain within days, if not the very next day. Eventually, if the runner were to persist with the change, they could sustain injury. The reason is not because repetitive impact has suddenly become “bad.” It’s because the runner didn’t make the change progressively. The change was too significant and too rapid; it was simply too brutal on the body. The truth is that the runner could adapt to any new demand, and to greater levels of repetitive impact, but the change can’t happen overnight.

So, you first need to make your running form biomechanically efficient. This will induce a change in the loading pattern of your body upon each stride, which can cause you discomfort, pain, and even injury if you’re not very cautious and if you don’t make a progressive transition. Efficient form can hurt you not because the new mechanics aren’t right for you but because you are stressing your body through movement and loading patterns that are new to it, and you’re not paying attention to progressions that let your body adapt healthily. For instance, changing your running gait from heel-forefoot landing to forefoot-heel-forefoot landing while maintaining all other running variables (intensity, duration, frequency, recovery time) could potentially fix any current running-induced injuries or issues, but the change might also bring other running-induced injuries. The more variables you change at once (technique, footwear, terrain, volume, speed, recovery time, and so on) without progression, the greater the chance that you’ll have to deal with detrimental consequences. Patience and progressiveness are keys to being successful at making this change in running movement, technique, and training.

Adapting to minimal footwear and then switching to running barefoot is the next step. It’s a good thing to practice your technique while wearing minimal footwear as soon as you can. You can keep the volume and intensity relatively low at first. You also can even run barefoot if you run on smooth and slightly soft surfaces (while still keeping the volume and intensity low in the beginning). Learning efficient running while unshod is a very effective method because the feedback from your feet is totally unaltered. Of course, practicing all Natural Movement while barefoot nicely conditions your feet and ankles to better sustain a change in running mechanics and footwear.

Five Easy Steps for Running Efficiently

Learning efficient running shouldn’t be achieved through a complicated series of isolated drills. In fact, “overdrilling” might confuse you and make you mentally and physically tense.

Another problem with isolated drills is lack of transfer. For instance, doing “butt kicks” (kicking your heels toward your rear while standing in one spot) is not the same as pulling your heels higher and faster toward your rear when you run faster. In the context of running, elastic energy and hip extension contribute to the action of the lower leg winding up toward the rear beyond the contraction of the hamstrings.

Depending on your current running form, the approach to running I present here may represent a limited change, but for most people the change will be enormous. Therefore, instead of trying to change aspects of your running pattern by bits, I want you to go through a series of short, simple drills as if you know nothing about running. These drills support a better perception of what running efficiency should feel like. From there, you should work on any aspect of your running form that you want to address or improve through actual running practice rather than in isolation.

NOTE

 

Before going through the following drills, go outside with a watch and, without changing anything about the way you normally run, count how many steps you make in one minute. Ideally, you would film yourself running, so you can later compare your “before and after” running forms.

 

Start with abdominal breathing and a neutral spine, your shoulders down, your chest open, and a forward line of vision. We now know that abdominal breathing supports spinal alignment, but it’s also my assumption that the abdominal compression that stems from abdominal breathing helps limit the internal bouncing of organs and may prevent the occurrence of side stitch.

Feel that your spine is as long as possible in a “tall stance.” Many natural movements you’ve done or are doing will help you tremendously with a perception of a neutral spine and make the position reflexive so that you start to transport your “tall posture” with every stride. In any case, you cannot run efficiently if you can’t maintain spinal positional control; yet being able to maintain positional control while standing does not guarantee that you can maintain it while you’re running. In any case, don’t wait to run, or exclusively rely on running to build a strong core and spinal positional control.

Drill 1: Leg Pushing and Leg Pulling

Leg pushing: Start standing, push your body off one leg and land on the opposite leg, and then push off the landing leg immediately after landing. Keep doing this for a minute or so. Pay attention to the muscular effort in your legs: You must decelerate the body on a single leg upon landing, and then the same leg must push the body off the ground again before the opposite leg can take over.

 

Leg pulling: From the standing position, pull one knee up at about hip level or just below and then lower your foot to the ground; a brief moment before that foot contacts the ground and starts supporting your body weight, swiftly change support by having the opposite foot move up and off the ground (you’re swiftly lifting the knee to hip level). You’ll be briefly airborne after each step. Do this for about a minute. You should feel that the effort comes from your pelvic and abdominal area rather than your legs, especially if you do it fast. You need to quickly mobilize the muscles responsible for lifting your leg the moment you change support from one foot to the other. This pattern feels much more sustainable than the first one, doesn’t it? Even though running involves some “push” upon landing to restore elastic energy, you want to replicate this sensation when you run and make the leg-pulling action dominant whenever possible.

If you were asked to choose between doing the leg-pushing drill and the leg-pulling drill for 20 minutes without interruption, which one would you choose and why?

NOTE

 

This is pretty much how it feels when your idea of running is a succession of single-leg forward pushes or jumps. You try to push hard on your back leg and extend your front leg far; landing on it feels heavy, but you must push the same leg forward again. If it feels strenuous when you do it on the spot, think of how much energy you spend doing it as you move forward for miles?

 

Drill 2: Air Rope Skipping on the Spot

Pretend that you’re rope skipping on the spot. Keep a straight back, and don’t sway sideways. You may keep your forearms to the front of your body just above hip level instead of mimicking a circular motion on the sides of your body.

Would it make sense to land on your heels? Would that feel right? The answer is no because it would feel hard and painful. So, why would you want to run by landing on your heels?

If you’ve ever tiptoed without letting your heels contact the ground, you probably have realized that it’s hard on your Achilles tendons and tends to make your feet stiffer. So, as you’re rope skipping, make sure that every time you land on the ball of the feet with both feet, your heels come all the way to the ground and gently tap it before you return to the ball of your feet and become airborne again. It may take a few seconds or longer before you get this movement right, which is nothing but an upward jump to a low height.

After you feel comfortable air rope skipping with both feet, alternate your feet, landing on the ball of your foot, then your heel, and then the ball of your foot as you slightly pull your knees up in front of you. It should feel pretty much like you’re gently running in place, with a leg-pulling sensation that’s like the leg-pulling drill, rather than a leg-pushing feeling.

NOTE

 

By the way, have you noticed that I do not use the term strike when I talk about how the foot contacts the ground? That’s because even though the landing of your foot should generate enough ground force reaction to load up your foot and leg and generate elastic energy, you should also land as lightly and smoothly as possible. You might call the way the foot lands foot touchdown rather than strike.

 

Drill 3: High Cadence

 

Keep skipping rope on the spot with alternating feet, just make sure that you are stepping about 180 times per minute. That’s right—that many times. It means each foot will land on the ground 90 times within a minute. You can look at a watch and count your steps, use a metronome, or clap your hands three times per second. Jump for a full minute, rest another minute, and then do it again until you’ve memorized the tempo in your head and body.

Drill 4: Backward Jogging

This is as simple as it gets. Just make sure the space behind you is clear so you can keep gazing in front of you without having to twist your body to look where you go. Start slowly running backward. Notice that you might be intuitively doing the following:

• Slightly leaning backward with your whole body (without arching your lower back), which allows you to maintain a tall posture.

• Making small, quick steps without trying to push hard on your legs and make large steps.

• Contacting the ground on the ball of your feet first, bringing the heel flat to the ground, and then moving your heel off the ground as your foot returns to the ball before it takes off entirely.

• Letting your arms be relaxed enough so they swing naturally because of your running motion.

 

In a nutshell, this is exactly what you need to do in the reverse orientation when you run forward. What is especially noticeable is how soft each step feels. Landing on your heel first after a wide stride, even when wearing well-cushioned footwear, is one of the main reasons why your knees, lower back, and even neck feel stiff or painful after running (along with other possible issues).

Focusing on the feedback and memorizing the sensations from all four aspects I’ve listed can greatly help with establishing the same pattern and efficiency for running forward.

Drill 5: Air Rope Skipping with Whole-Body Lean

Now get back to skipping rope on the spot at a high cadence. What prevents you from moving forward isn’t that you’re not pushing hard enough on your legs. You may try to push on your legs, but you remain on the same spot as you did with the leg-pushing drill. Unless you lean forward, you’re not going anywhere.

But how should you lean forward? If you bend at the hip, your trunk leans forward, but you’re not necessarily shifting your center of gravity forward beyond a vertical line with your feet/base of support, in which case you keep skipping on the spot while being bent over. Think about what made you jog backward. Did you have to bend your back to the rear? No, you just needed your whole body to slightly lean backward. So, what about only flexing your ankles a tad so you can slightly lean forward? Eureka. It’s all you have to do. By letting your ankles bend a little as you keep the rest of your body aligned, you are generating a gentle, almost unnoticeable forward whole-body lean that slightly shifts your center of gravity forward beyond your base of support. Gravity immediately takes over and slowly pulls you forward. (This is called gravitational torque.)

Simply lean your whole body forward as you maintain your rope-skipping motion, keep your spine straight, land softly on your feet, keep your body relaxed, and notice that you’re inevitably stepping forward at a slow pace, effortlessly, or at least without any additional effort. You’re basically jogging forward. That’s it; that’s running!

This is the neutral running form you’re looking for. It looks and feels like slow backward jogging in reverse. Instead of pushing yourself forward through your legs and feet, you get a head start when gravity pulls you forward, and you can keep using the same forward momentum as long as you maintain the lean and replicate the exact same leg sequence in a cycle. Magic!

 

Because the lean is so slight and you’re stepping at such a high cadence, you can easily maintain balance without any impression or fear that the pull will accelerate beyond control. It does not, and should not, feel like a “fall.” While technically the shift of your center of gravity beyond vertical with your base of support is the very early stage of a fall, thinking of running as a “constant fall” can easily put you off and make you tense. Worse, it might make you automatically bend at the hip because that’s what we unconsciously do to avoid or minimize a forward fall. Instead, think of the forward lean as a slight “whole-body lean.”

You don’t need to try to go fast at this point. Don’t try to widen your stride or push hard on your legs. Your only task is to maintain this slight forward lean and keep pulling your feet as if you were rope skipping. Avoid any unnecessary positional modifications, such as trying to push off your legs to reach farther. Instead of pretending that your arms are swinging a rope with small circular movements, now let them gently swing forward.

Landing Foot Position

An additional, but important, technical detail of the foot touchdown is to first land on the lateral forefoot—in other words, closer to the outside edge or outer border of the forefoot rather than directly under the big toe—before the whole forefoot (followed by the heel) comes flat on the ground. This adds extra range of motion and dissipation of impact forces upon landing, but also keeps the ankle more stable. What we named “forefoot-heel” landing for the sake of simplicity is actually a “lateral forefoot-forefoot-heel” foot touchdown.

Staying Relaxed

The best form or pattern, from an external standpoint, is not the best if you are full of unnecessary internal tensions. The primary kind of relaxation you want to address is mental. There is no physical relaxation without mental relaxation. In the beginning of learning running efficiency, you might be tempted to overthink, which makes you mentally tense, which in turn leads to physical tension. You could also have a natural tendency to be tense. The mental checks you should regularly do relate to such or such aspect of your form, but they should always start with checking that you’re mentally and physically relaxed. Resetting your breathing before you run, or whenever you notice a tendency to tense as you run, can help with both mental and physical relaxation. A few steps on the spot to keep your neck relaxed and your arms completely loose also can help because tensions in running are typically located in the neck, shoulders, and arms.

Recap

Now look at the three photos on the next page, which show the side view: three steps, two strides. The running is at a medium speed. Everything remains consistent, with only positional changes that are necessary to ensure the motion.

Notice the following things:

• One leg is bent and elevated.

• The other leg is supporting the whole body, with the knee bent—but not in an exaggerated way—and the ankle bent to ensure the whole-body lean.

• The head, neck, shoulders, back, hips, and supporting foot are aligned. This is a whole-body lean. The angle of the body’s forward lean remains consistent. The head stays horizontally level or very close to it.

• The shoulders are relaxed. The elbows are bent at about 90 degrees. The arms are close to the ribcage and move slightly straight ahead and back at that speed.

• The rear foot is pulled up underneath the hip. Because the speed doesn’t change in this sequence, the position of the legs stays the same regardless of which side is supporting the body. The center of gravity is horizontally ahead of the base of support: the back foot. As the center of gravity keeps shifting forward, there is a quick change of support with the front foot going down and the back leg being pulled up swiftly. Between the moment the front foot reaches the ground and the moment the back leg reaches the front, the body is airborne and traveling forward.

• Though you can’t see it in the photos, the positional sequence of the foot upon landing is lateral forefoot-forefoot-heel, then forefoot again as the supporting foot is pulled up (otherwise called the push-off).

• While Natural Movement techniques rely on position/breathing, sequence/timing, and tension/relaxation, we could simplify the pillars of running as follows:

• Position/breathing

• Cadence

• Relaxation

 

Practicing Inefficiencies

Practicing running inefficiencies is, in my experience, one of the most potent ways to fix ingrained habits and improve form and efficiency. Let me explain. While you are trying to run with efficient form, you’re probably dealing with some ingrained inefficiencies that keep showing up as if they’re on auto-pilot—because they are. You can easily find yourself overdrilling, overthinking, getting tense, becoming frustrated, and not getting where you want.

Addressing and tackling your inefficiencies one at a time is a great strategy because it allows you to first remove from your form what you shouldn’t be doing. There are many more “don’ts” than “dos.” When you can identify, as you run, what you tend to do constantly or intermittently that is counterproductive or superfluous, then you can start avoiding and removing those inefficiencies from your automatic running pattern. By tackling one inefficiency at a time, you’re steadily “purifying” your form more effectively than if you try to achieve the “perfect” form at once.

Now, it can be quite tricky to perceive patterns that, despite being inefficient, have been ingrained in your movement memory for so long that they feel natural and go unnoticed. Reading about inefficiencies or having someone point them out will not fix the issue. You need to experience the problem and get sensory feedback that is strong and convincing enough for you to acknowledge it as an issue and be willing to address it.

Look at the diverse, common faults in the photos. You might go to a local park to observe casual runners, and you’ll spot similar patterns. You’ll even spot some runners who display several faults, such as running with long, jumping strides; landing on the heels; using exaggerated arm movements; and shifting their heads forward as if they want to look as athletic they can. Another runner could be running with short, slow strides; landing on the midfoot; bending at the hip with almost no flexion at the knees; rounding the back and hunching the shoulders; wobbling the head side to side; and using zero movement in their arms. Others pull their knees to the front and heels to the back or swing their arms as high as they can as if they’re sprinting, even when they’re just jogging. Others display a healthy forefoot-heel-forefoot landing pattern, but they run with their torsos leaning back. The possible combinations of inefficient running form are countless. If you didn’t know, you could think that everyone’s running form is fine and just a matter of personal style.

However, you want to do more than look at inefficiencies. You need to practice each of them to consciously experience how counterproductive and unnecessary each of these inefficiencies feel. By practicing the inefficiencies, you will experientially realize that they are indeed issues. Practicing inefficiencies is especially effective for helping you become aware of inefficiencies you didn’t know you have.

I have ordered inefficiencies in the following list from the bottom of the body up—starting in the feet and legs, moving through the hips, and going all the way to the torso, arms, neck, and head. What happens in the feet, legs, and hips is the most important. You want to fix those issues before you address lower-priority issues. If your upper body is straight and relaxed but your hips, legs, and feet are doing a messy job, you’re in more trouble than if the situation is the other way around.

Practice each of these inefficiencies, one at a time, for about 30 seconds, or until you really can’t stand it anymore. Exaggerate them to the point that they look and feel either uncomfortable or plain absurd. If they feel that way when exaggerated, then even a “lighter,” less pronounced or noticeable version of the issues can’t really be a good thing, right?

Remember that any of the faults I’ve shown has the potential to be an actual, necessary adaptation to environmental or situational circumstances. The more complex the context becomes, the more likely that your “neutral” form will undergo a variety of positional modifications. Such changes are not only possible; they are mandatory to preserve efficiency. Heel striking becomes a good thing when going downhill, leaning backward becomes a good thing if you run beneath low tree branches, and so on. Clearly, this wouldn’t be a fault; it’s an adaptable motion. However, in the absence of necessity, any disturbance to a neutral form is an inefficiency. It’s a good idea to film yourself running and play the footage in slow motion, so you can get visual feedback of your running form and be able to realize inefficiencies you normally can’t see that you have.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

Make sure to practice the neutral form in between experimenting with each inefficiency, so that you return to a form that feels good, relaxing, and efficient.

   

1 Heel striking: This makes landing hard on your whole body, and it slows you down.

2 Knees pulled way too high in relation to a slow pace: The same can be true of the heels being pulled up way too high toward the rear at a slow pace. Sometimes both your knees and heels are raised high, which looks like you’re riding a bicycle. This unnecessary movement of the leg wastes energy.

 

3 A form of leg pushing run with no lean, midfoot landing, almost non-existent airborne moment: While this style does minimize impact and makes running feel softer, this is closer to wide-step walking than running, and it fully relies on pushing off the quadriceps. Because you’re keeping your feet low and close to the ground, you’re not using your hamstrings to pull your heels up toward your rear, so the effort of bringing your leg forward is entirely left to your hip flexor muscles. This style is also slow, and you can’t go fast with this technique if needed.

4 Stiff legs, lack of flexion at the knees: Knees are designed to bend upon landing to enable leg muscles to absorb impact and prevent a shock wave to stress your knees, hips, and back at every step. Preventing your knees from flexing forces your feet to work more than they should to absorb some of the impact if you land on the forefoot first and to keep pushing forward. Not bending your knees enough leaves all the effort to your feet, ankles, and calves, which stresses these areas more than necessary.

5 Striding out: Running with big, long strides forces you to push hard on your leg muscles to propel yourself far and to extend your lead leg far (making the back leg trail behind). This forces you to land on your heel, which increases the impact. The time it takes for your center of gravity to move forward so it’s vertically aligned with your supporting foot is increased, which means the supporting foot must stay grounded longer. It absorbs the impact over a longer time, losing most of its ability to store and transfer elastic energy. It looks and feels as if you are “sitting” back on a single leg every time you land. The supporting leg has no other choice but to push forward with force again; rather than maintaining momentum, you basically re-create it with each step. This is not only extremely energy-consuming but it slows you down. Revert to much shorter and quicker steps any time you find yourself striding out.

6 Striding out with extended leg and ankle: This is another unconscious strategy aimed at avoiding a forward lean and maintaining a vertical, or even leaning-backward, torso as you attempt to step relatively softly. This style relies mostly on your hip flexor muscles to swing the leg forward without benefiting from the forward momentum from leg flexion. Also, extending the ankle early with the forefoot that is pointing forward all the way from the back to the front creates unnecessary tension at the ankle.

 

7 Bending at the hip, trunk leaning forward: You think that you are leaning forward and indeed you are, except that you are folding yourself in two or bending under a heavy load on your shoulders. This position in running stresses your lower back and lessens your ability to generate forward momentum because of gravity.

8 Trunk leaning backward: This style shifts your center of gravity behind your base of support. Although this backward lean would be great if you were running backward, in this case it prevents you from taking advantage of the forward pull of gravity, which increases your energy consumption, slows you down tremendously, and prevents you from going fast when needed.

 

9 Exaggerated hip and trunk rotation: This style makes your torso twist and your trailing leg rotate internally. The rotation can be mostly generated by your trunk or hips. Rotational motion of your hips is necessary in running, but it’s limited and doesn’t generate positional disturbance.

10 Trunk leaning/swaying from side to side: This upper-body motion wants to pull you sideways. On top of using energy necessary to stabilize your body, it diverts your kinetic motion from where it needs to be directed, which is forward.

 

11 Arms are actively swung sideways across the body: Your arms should move forward and back similarly to your legs. When your lead leg moves forward, your opposing arm should move forward as well (to counterbalance the action of your leg). Your arms shouldn’t move perpendicularly or at a pronounced angle.

12 Active arms: Arms are intentionally swung with great amplitude despite running slowly. How much your arms swing is balanced with your speed; it’s not an independent motion. Ample arm swinging can be momentarily used to assist acceleration as you run uphill; otherwise it’s a waste of energy.

 

13 Overly relaxed arms: Your arms are supposed to be sufficiently relaxed to enable a natural motion that counterbalances the movement of your legs, but your arms shouldn’t be dead weight. In this photo, it’s good that the shoulders are relaxed, but you need just enough tension in the biceps to keep your forearms up to the front just above hip level.

14 Tense arms and hands: The arms remain in a set position. This is unnecessary tension.

15 Tense, stiff upper body (neck, shoulders, arms, fists): This is unnecessary tension.

 

16 Hunched shoulders, flexed upper back: This is unnecessary tension.

17 Shrugged shoulders: This is unnecessary tension.

 

18 Head tilted down: When you have unnecessary tension in the neck, you end up with a rounded upper back, and your line of vision is restricted to the ground.

19 Head tilted back: This is unnecessary tension.

20 Head thrust forward (“head-chasing”): This is unnecessary tension.

The preceding list covers the most common inefficiencies. The following are some other inefficiencies:

• Tiptoeing. If you don’t let your heel gently tap the ground after you’ve landed on your forefoot, you’re not using elastic energy because the range of motion in your ankles and the stretch in your calf muscles is limited, preventing your feet from “loading up” as they contact the ground. You are instead forcing your feet, Achilles tendons, and calves to maintain constant tension. You should tiptoe only when necessary. For instance, in certain contexts tiptoeing could help you improve frictional force and stability for a very short distance as you forcefully accelerate from a Foot-Hand Crawl to sprinting.

• Running with splayed feet.

• Wobbling your head.

• Swinging a single arm outwardly, leaning to a single side, or any imbalance and lack of symmetry (caused by habit or compensation for a recent or old injury).

Cadence Versus Speed

Are you running yet? Yes, you are! The five fundamentals of improving your efficiency were using a slight forward whole-body lean, emphasizing a pulling leg motion, landing on the ball of your feet first, keeping a rather short stride and a high cadence. If you’re not at all a runner to begin with, and you normally don’t enjoy running because it feels hard on your legs and body, you should feel liberated that this new running pattern feels so light and easy.

You might be tempted to quickly try to run faster, especially if you’re are a runner already. The problem is that greater speed might have you immediately revert to inefficient habits. So, we need to talk about running faster (but not sprinting) while maintaining the same form and pattern you’ve just established.

First, though, I want to explain high cadence and why it matters for running efficiency. In running, cadence (also called rhythm, tempo, or turnover) is the frequency at which you move your legs to stride and step, regardless of your running speed. Your running speed is the distance you cover relative to time, regardless of how many leg movements (strides or steps) you perform. So, cadence has to do with the number of times (the rate or frequency) at which your feet hit the ground within a set amount of time. Just like your pulse or heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute, cadence is evaluated as the number of times per minute you step. Therefore, you can cover the same distance by running relatively slowly at a high cadence with short strides or running relatively quickly at a low cadence with long strides. You also can run quickly at a high cadence or run slowly at a slow cadence—and anything in between.

A high cadence doesn’t necessarily imply that you’re running fast if you keep your forward lean very slight and your strides short. Do you want proof? Think about the high cadence drill (drill 3, here). You were able to do very short, quick steps (180 per minute) while staying on the spot as long as you kept your center of gravity vertically aligned with your feet and avoided any forward whole-body lean. Clearly you can independently control your running cadence and your running speed.

Typically, an unskilled runner who’s jogging displays a low stride rate—or, if you prefer, a low cadence—of about 130 to 140 steps per minute without a significant increase of cadence when they run faster. Instead of mostly increasing cadence, unskilled runners accelerate by increasing stride length with wider steps, which makes it challenging to increase cadence. The problem is that running with large steps demands much more energy. With wider strides, you must first push hard off your leg to make the opposite foot land way ahead of your center of gravity. This usually results in your body moving not just horizontally but also overly vertically in an up-and-down fashion that resembles the elliptical airborne trajectory that’s typical of jumping. I’m not saying that there’s no vertical propulsion in running, but it should be limited. When you add significant vertical momentum to your movement, you add more airborne time, which is a reason why you paradoxically might go slower even when you’re trying to go faster. Also, the front leg, which is landing from a greater elevation than necessary, must absorb the heavier impact, usually after the heel lands first with a hard landing. You must wait for the rest of your body and center of gravity to move forward before you can push off your leg again. Meanwhile, your foot spends a significantly longer time on the ground supporting your body weight, and all muscle elasticity normally stored upon landing dissipates long before it can be transferred to the next step. The heel-first landing pattern, although it occasionally can be sustained depending on context, has a braking effect on your landing, with greater impact forces, increased ground time, and reduced elastic energy storage, which participates in slowing you down and tiring you early.

In a nutshell, you waste a lot of precious energy in the process. On top of consuming much more energy than needed, this pattern creates unnecessary levels of stress on your joints—your knees especially—and supports a much greater risk of pain during or after running sessions.

Conversely, short and rapid strides or high cadence keep you “elastic” at a much lower cost, with your feet landing right under your center of gravity and your supporting leg being able to immediately transfer a lot of stored elastic energy toward the next step. Both the time your body spends airborne and your feet spend grounded (which is as little as one-tenth of a second when you’re running really fast) gets much shorter. It’s much less tiring to cover a long distance with short, quick steps than to cover the same distance with long, slow steps. This difference in energy-consumption is something that you have already somewhat experienced with the leg-pushing and leg-pulling drills that you performed on the spot.

Is There a Magic Number?

So, what cadence is best, and for what speed? It’s often said that the best running cadence is 180 steps per minute regardless of speed. That’s about three steps per second, which might sound like a lot, but leg movement in running is faster than you think when you make sure to keep your stride short. At that cadence, you can fully, consistently benefit from both muscle-tendon elasticity in your feet and legs and ground reaction forces. Running with a low cadence of about 130 to 150 steps per minute is a sign of an unskilled runner who is striding out all the time.

Another advantage of short strides is that it’s much easier to maintain a forefoot-heel-forefoot landing pattern and to land with your center of gravity right above your supporting foot, so you’re ready to be immediately pulled forward by gravity.

The “best” cadence of 180 steps per minute is an average determined after evaluating elite marathoners who were running at a racing speed. Does that mean that cadence should become the norm—a one-size-fits-all cadence for all runners at any running speeds? Of course not. Cadence has to do with pace and variations in running speed. When jogging, especially for short distances, your cadence can be as low as 160 to 170 steps per minute. If you normally are a low-cadence runner who takes about 130 steps per minute, a cadence of 160 to 170 steps per minute represents a significant increase in stride rate of about 30 percent. As you accelerate to become a faster runner, your cadence should increase to around 180 steps per minute, so you sustain greater speed without widening your strides. Now, if your average cadence was 130 steps per minute and you increase your cadence to 180 to 190 steps per minute, you’ve increased your stride rate by about 50 percent. Clearly, the only way you can achieve a higher cadence is by making what might feel like fast “baby steps” if you are used to wide strides.

A sprinting cadence ranges from 220 to 240 steps per minute. That’s about a 70 percent increase in stride rate compared to a low 130-steps-per-minute jogging cadence! Could you seriously almost double your stride rate while also significantly widening your stride?

Relative Speed Versus Absolute Speed

There are factors that can decrease or increase your velocity even if you’re not deliberately modifying your speed. Have you ever run on a treadmill so that you’re running on the spot despite running fast? Your relative speed may be high, but your absolute speed remains close to zero. You get the idea.

For example, a slight incline in terrain (uphill) can slow you down even when you aren’t decelerating, and a slight decline in terrain (downhill) boosts your speed even if you don’t accelerate. Low-friction surfaces or footwear or changes of direction also tend to reduce your velocity even when you maintain the same cadence and speed.

Going Faster

Now that you know that running with short and fast strides is good for efficiency, how do you run faster without having to revert to pushing hard on your legs in long, bouncy, jump-like, lower-cadence strides? It’s relatively simple: increase your ankle flexion. Remember doing short and quick steps on the spot without leaning and doing short and quick steps with a very slight lean so that you were jogging? What happens if you increase the lean?

Increasing ankle flexion increases your whole body lean and accelerates your forward momentum. As a result, you need to pull your legs forward faster. To do so, you need to use your hamstrings more to lift your heels toward your rear faster, which pushes your knee forward and helps you pull it forward faster. What this means is that the range of motion of your legs increases in amplitude, so you can conserve your balance as you lean forward more and make your forward momentum accelerate more through it.

Another important aspect that makes you go faster is lengthening your stride, but doing so without widening your steps. Let me explain.

Striding out is making long strides by widening your leg movement with the front foot reaching far forward. The stride length I’m talking about is the horizontal distance that your body covers between each step, not how wide your legs and feet are apart whenever your feet hit the ground. As your body leans at a greater forward angle, gravity accelerates how fast you move forward, which, without changing your stride rate, increases stride length. You’re running faster in part because your cadence increases, but also because a greater whole-body lean angle accelerates forward momentum and the distance covered in between steps, even without widening your leg movement.

Running Uphill and Downhill

Running uphill and/or downhill requires that you modify the neutral running technique and running effort, especially as the grade increases. Uphill and downhill running are normally imposed by topographical changes in the environment, but when available they also can be strategic options when you’re using them as shortcuts. Even though they’re more energy-consuming options or not as safe as running on flat terrain (the risk of injury is much higher when running down a steep grade and difficult terrain), an inclined route might represent a faster alternative and choosing to go up or down a hill might save overall time and energy compared to running on a flat but longer route.

NOTE

 

Contrary to appearances, and distances being equal, even running downhill is costlier in terms of energy consumption than running on flat terrain.

 

Uphill

Even though you’ll do your best to maintain a pulling pattern, as the grade of the incline increases, it becomes evident that you do need to push harder on your legs.

To accommodate for the grade of the incline and place your lead foot higher on the ground, your knee must drive upward higher than on flat terrain at the same speed. Because the ball of the foot is higher than the heel, your heels may not even touch the ground any longer (unless you momentarily step on one spot where the surface is horizontal, such as rock, or unless you are running up a stairway), which demands more strength and stability from your foot and ankle. The muscular effort becomes mostly concentric, with much less benefit from stored elastic energy. You must actively swing your arms upward—but not backward—and with more amplitude to generate additional momentum that you can transfer to whole-body momentum. You swing your arms in a contralateral fashion with the supporting/grounded foot with impeccable timing.

Because of these changes in pattern, you must give more attention to the relationship of tension and relaxation. You want to maintain a stable lower back and tight core and avoid rounding your upper back, swaying side to side, and other similar positional disturbances unless they’re necessary. As always, you should maintain impeccable abdominal breath control even when the effort is so intense that you also breathe through the chest as well.

Those are a lot of aspects to consider while being rapidly fatigued by the intensity of the effort running uphill represents.

The good side of running uphill, though, is that shock absorption is much less a factor, and the risk for injury is very low compared to running downhill.

Downhill

When you run downhill, gravity obviously is accelerating forward and down much faster, which you must deal with very carefully. While the assistance of gravity enables you to accelerate very quickly without effort, you can absolutely lose control of your speed, become unable to change direction, or find it difficult to slow down to avoid obstacles, which means you might crash.

Although you want to preserve a technique as close to the neutral form as you can, as the grade of the decline increases, the degree of forward lean decreases to prevent uncontrolled acceleration and speed, to the point of having to literally lean backward if the slope gets really steep. The degree of leg pull isn’t as pronounced as in general running technique. Instead, the leg extends downward to a lower surface of support.

Because you’re stepping down, you need to disperse greater impact forces upon landing, with your leg muscles working eccentrically and staying on support a little longer than on flat terrain to ensure deceleration. Even if you maintain short strides, the eccentric contractions required for downhill running might cause you soreness in the thighs the next day if you aren’t accustomed to it.

With steeper inclines, you need to revert to landing first on your heels to better decelerate and also to ensure greater ankle stability upon landing, thus protecting yourself from a potential ankle twist or sprain. Another reason you flex your ankles rather than extending them is because landing on the forefoot first when going downhill can easily make the foot slide forward and could even result in breaking toes when the foot slides and bumps onto a rock. The reality is that when you’re running downhill on steep grades and difficult terrains, such as when it’s rocky, your neutral form is completely disrupted because you have no choice but to continuously adjust position and cadence to the demands of the terrain to maintain balance and safety. Overall, the potential for a traumatic injury is real when running downhill.

However, if the ground is clear of obstacles and the grade of the decline isn’t steep, you can introduce more forward lean so you can elongate each stride. You may occasionally allow yourself to take strides longer than on a horizontal terrain, with a lower cadence, making sure to stay relaxed as you maintain a tight core.

TECHNIQUE TIP

 

It’s best to practice uphill and downhill running with lower grades first and with surfaces that are clear of obstacles. For a very fun yet very intense training, run downhill toward an uphill slope and use the momentum you gain to reach greater speed as you run uphill.

 

Deceleration or Stopping

 

It’s a good thing to know how to quickly decelerate, which can be necessary to simply keep control of your balance or avoid running too fast when you see surfaces coming that can be risky for your feet and ankles. Sometimes you just need to stop immediately (for example, because of a change of situation, upcoming gap, or unexpected obstacle). The way people usually come to a stop resembles what is normally seen as running inefficiencies: striding out and landing on the heels. Those techniques are also inefficient when decelerating because they’re hard on the body and don’t stop you that quickly.

If you just want to reduce your speed, simply reduce your whole-body forward lean and transition from a very high cadence (well over 200 steps per minute) to a high cadence (around 180 steps per minute). It’s that simple. If you do need to abruptly stop yourself (which takes place over several strides), you literally want to lean back as much as you can, which makes the balls of your feet (not your heels) act as brakes on the ground.

Running Variations, Adaptations, and Progressions

 

As I’ve pointed out, you should be able to adapt your running form in many ways to preserve effectiveness. While running variations are not as efficient as the neutral running form in terms of energy cost, they are the only way to maintain effective performance level in a given context. The idea of a one-size-fits-all running form, when exposed to the diverse demands of contextual complexity, rapidly becomes mere dogma. For instance, instead of being brief, the time you spend with your foot in contact with the ground can increase considerably proportionally to the gait cycle (such as when you’re running uphill on steep terrain, when you’re carrying a load, or when the ground is muddy and sandy). Airborne time can also increase when you’re striding out to clear an obstacle. Those are just some examples.

In the absence of actual contextual demands, you have the possibility of imagining such demands to physically create the movement behaviors and efforts they generate. For instance, both Side Shuffle and Cross-Stepping enable you to run laterally in a direction while still being able to turn your head in directions that a forward orientation would not enable. Those patterns could be employed as well for the obvious reason of having to go through a narrow passage. It’s a great approach to running competency to regularly practice these variations and make yourself comfortable with them.

See the following examples of running variations.

 

1 Side Shuffle

 

2 Cross-Stepping

 

3 Crouched

4 Cross-Stepping Crouched

5 Striding out

 

6 Stepping down

7 Directional change

8 Orientation change (to keep running in the same direction while facing the opposite one)

9 Leaning backward

Examples of additional variations include the following:

• Changing foot position and sequence upon landing: heels (hindfoot, rearfoot), ball of the foot (forefoot), internal or external side of the foot.

• Trunk leaning sideways.

• Having your feet land in line or wide apart.

• Stepping up, down, over, through.

• Half-turn/reverse.

• Full-turn/reverse.

• Accelerations and decelerations.

• Frequent changes of pace (which is known as fartlek).

• Running with a loaded backpack (If the load and/or running speed is significant, your weight upon landing increases significantly and will easily exceed your plyometric strength and endurance in your feet and calves, forcing you to land on the midfoot or even on the heel, which can be hard on your lower back.)

• Adjusting start positions (lying, kneeling, squatting, and so on).

• Stepping accuracy; learning to step precisely where you intend to (small rocks, stumps, ledge of sidewalk).

• Transitioning from skill to skill (crawling to running, jumping to running).

• Running on varied surfaces (flat, uneven, stable, unstable, soft, hard, smooth, rough, inclined, declined, hot, cold, frozen, dry, humid, wet, muddy, icy, snowy, rocky, sandy, gravel, vegetation, wood, concrete, metal, plastic/synthetic).

• Skill-mixing (running and throwing, running and catching, running and carrying, running and balancing, running and lifting).

Of course, there are endless adaptations, some of which I’ve previously described as inefficiencies, but they can be temporary, necessary adaptations in a specific context.

Most running variations are completely instinctive and don’t necessitate technical instruction beyond the fundamental principles of breathing and staying as relaxed as possible. However, some simple tips can go a long way in immediately making some of these variations much more efficient. Here are some examples:

• Generally speaking, your arms play an active role in helping you maintain balance, change direction, or propel you over obstacles. Pump your arms (swing them actively) when you’re running uphill on steep slopes or when you transition from a ground position to sprinting to make you accelerate and reach top speed faster.

• To decelerate faster when you’re sprinting, stride out and lean backward (you may even heel strike). That’s exactly what you don’t want to do when you’re running economically, but this is the way to efficiently stop yourself when you run fast.

• When you reverse your orientation (while you keep running in the same direction) swiftly turn your head before you rotate your hips.

• When changing direction a sharp 90 degrees to the side (for instance, after a tree or cutting a corner in a street), step with the front foot opposite the direction you’re turning, then rotate your head and hips toward where you’re turning to swiftly pivot on the ball of the foot. This is more efficient than making smaller steps.

• When you run through wooded, leafy areas with flexible branches, don’t slow to pull and hold branches with your hands. Simply extend your arms forward, internally rotate your arms to point your palms out, and push the branches away from your face and torso.

• Never take any step for granted. Anticipate the type of surface (soft, hard, wet, dry, stable, unstable, slippery, or providing friction) and how it might alter your foot position, gait, balance, and speed. Use visual input and pay attention to anything noticeable that indicates there potentially will be an issue when you step. For instance, mud or stone can have a certain shine or darkness to it that indicates it will be slippery or soft.

• When you run on soft surfaces, attempting to conserve a neutral running gait can be inefficient and unsafe for the ankle. The ground reaction force is low, and landing on the ball of the foot generates a delayed input of when and how much to bend the leg and load the foot; once loaded, the foot might slide back. It puts a big stress on the Achilles tendons and feet as they struggle to stabilize on a ground that’s unstable. In this case, landing on the heel or on the midfoot becomes more efficient. The heel starts compressing the ground enough to provide more stability for the ankle and load the leg, then the ball of the foot comes down with a stabilized ankle and the forefoot can compress the ground to help stabilize on the surface before the push off, which reduces the tendency of the forefoot to slide back. Because the surface is soft, landing on the heel first is relatively comfortable. On the one hand, this technique is less energy-efficient because it requires that you bend the leg more to load it; that you do it more slowly, so you spend more time with your foot on the ground; and to push off the leg more. On the other hand, it’s more energy-efficient overall because you avoid “backpaddling.”

• When you’re unsure of the stability or friction of a surface where you intend to step, don’t fully commit all your body weight as you step on it. Don’t load the landing foot and stay light to minimize the risk of slippage on the surface or of making it move under your foot.

• Pick up your toes (keep them flexed/raised) when you go downhill or on horizontal but slippery surfaces. If your foot slides forward into an obstacle, you will bump the ball of the foot beneath the toes instead of spraining or even breaking your toes or having to slow down or step to the side at the last second, which might put you on a surface that is worse.

• Picking up your toes also is helpful when you’re running on terrains with tall vegetation or shallow water when you can’t see where you step or when the terrain is rocky, but you can’t spend your time always looking down. In this case you want to pick up your toes and swing the foot, lifting it a little higher than you normally would, and keeping it tucked/flexed until it extends forward and down. The worst-case scenario if you can’t see the obstacle is that you bump underneath your toes and the ball of your foot, and you might stumble and fall but without hurting your foot. You can use this tip to prevent hurting your feet even when obstacles are visible but abundant, such as when running on rocky terrain.

Running variations are not just natural occurrences when you run in nature. They also should be part of your running practice—not something to avoid by choosing predictable, linear, smooth terrains and routes. You should include variables in your regular practice. The benefits to your overall running competency are obvious, but the fine-tuning of your motor skills and physiological adaptations that stem from their development transfers to overall movement competency, which makes your tendons stronger, your balance and agility better, your footing more reliable, your stamina and recovery time better, and so on. Those improvements are useful in many sports.

So, don’t wait to find yourself in a natural context to start practicing running variations. You can reproduce some of the natural variables in urban environments by running around the block, along the edge of a sidewalk, striding to step on paint marks on the pavement, going up and down streets, accelerating and decelerating, changing direction abruptly, and so on. It’s also a good idea to punctuate your run with intermittent short periods of other diverse other natural movements (crawling, balancing, jumping, and so on). This approach to running practice makes a difference in your overall physical preparedness, and it also makes your running practice more challenging while keeping it motivating and satisfying, compared to always running the same way on the same type of surface. This is true whether you’re a Natural Mover, or you’re primarily or exclusively a runner. Don’t be a specialist within your own specialized practice. Just remember to be sensible about your practice because the more brutal the changes in movement patterns, footwear, intensity, duration, and distance, the more susceptible to injury you become.

Last, the acquisition of efficient technique cannot compensate for a lack of conditioning or a lack of progressiveness. Training progressions in running involve environmental complexity (including diverse weather conditions), intensity (fast variations in speed and direction), volume (distance and duration), and the ability to run barefoot (if you want to develop such ability).