Here are five ways to run more efficiently

Running form is individual and it’s important to understand that there is a distinct lack of concrete scientific evidence supporting any one method over any other.

But whether you’re training for a 5k race or preparing to run a marathon, keeping these tips in mind will hopefully help you to maintain better running technique while you’re out getting in your training miles.

1. Avoid over-striding

The most common mistake runners make is over-striding - taking slow, big steps, and reaching too far forward with the lead foot.

Most researchers will say mid-foot landing is the most efficient and shock absorbing technique. But there are people who fall at both ends of the spectrum - heel strikers and those than run on the balls of the feet - and they do fine.

What’s important is not what part of the foot your strike but where it strikes - it should land slightly in front of your centre of mass or right underneath it. When you have a stride rate and land with the body centred over the foot, you won’t be coming down hard, eve if you connect with the heel.

A good rule of thumb is to look for the alignment of knee and ankle upon initial contact. Ideally, you’re looking for the knee to be flexing directly above the ankle on initial contact. If you’re over-striding, you’ll see the ankle ahead of the knee.

Over-striding patterns can be the result of a number of factors, in particular poor posture and running with a cadence (stride frequency) too slow for the given speed. Training at a stride rate of 85 - 90 strides per minute is the best way to correct this problem.

The next time you’re out running, count the number of times your right foot strikes the ground in 20 seconds. Multiply by three and you have your stride rate per minute (one stride equals two steps so your steps per minute will be twice your stride rate).

Now speed up until you are running at 85 - 90 strides per minute. Short, light, quick steps will minimise the impact force and keep you running longer, safer. It will also make you a more efficient runner. Nearly all elite runners competing at distances of 3,000 metres and marathon distances are running at 85-90 plus stride lengths.

You can train with a metronome if it helps, but there days there are plenty of web sites that list music by BPM (beats per minute). Either 90 or 180 BPM songs will do the trick.

2. Maintain a tall posture as you run

To run fast, far, or efficiently you have to run with proper posture.

The posture you sustain at your desk during the working day, in the car or on the sofa have a real carry-over into the way you run. Most of us spend too much of the day sitting down, shoulders rounded forwards and hips flexed. By sustaining this type of position, we get short, tight hip-flexors and other anterior muscles and weak, under-active glutes and other posterior muscles.

This then becomes an issue when we try and run, with the body needing to maintain an erect posture and adequate hip extension. Instead, we become a product of what we do most often and run in a semi flexed position - particularly at the hips.

Tension in your shoulders, neck or upper back can also inhibit your arm motion. You need your arms to provide balance, rhythm and power as you run. As with your legs, the faster you go, the bigger the arm motion should be. Conversely, running slowly requires small, yet still active motions of the arms, swinging from the shoulder.

Keep your shoulders relaxed and your arms bent 45 degrees at the elbow. Allow your arms to swing freely but don’t let them cross. This will create openess in the chest, better breathing, and more balance. The movement pattern doesn’t change, only the size of movement.

This will take some getting used to, but as you get fatigued keep your arms moving, as they help to keep the legs working at a steady rhythm. Lean slightly forward, but not at the hips, and imagine a rod running through your body from the head to the toes. Keep that rod at a slight forward angle to the ground, with a neutral pelvis. Remember, running is controlled falling.

3. Strengthen your glutes and core

No matter how hard you work on improving your running form, a serious limiting factor to your performance and ability to stay injury free is your core strength and ability to activate your gluteal muscles. These two key muscle groups play a huge role in providing stability around your lower trunk, pelvis and hips.

Weaknesses and imbalances around these areas can directly lead to knee, hip and back injuries, as well as running related problems with the lower leg, calf and achilles. Incorporate regular strength and stability exercises into your weekly routine to improve these key factors and your running will reap the benefits in the long term. Both in terms of injury prevention and improved performance.

4. Don’t bounce or rotate excessively

Running is a linear motion, as you move forwards in a straight line. Although many of the constituent movements at individual joints and segments require rotation to function correctly, your body shouldn’t be rotating excessively from side to side. Excessive rotation counteracts the end goal of making forward progression and costs us energy to control and stabilise.

In the same way, your energy should be directed in traveling forwards not upwards. A slow rate of cadence and therefore over-stride (as described above) often results in excessive upwards displacement or “bounce” within the stride. For those running a marathon, for example, an extra one inch of bounce with each step - which doesn’t sound like much - will equate to roughly one extra mile travelled upwards across the marathon distance.

5. Control your breathing

Your breathing rhythm when running should fit in with the overall rhythm that the rest of your body is working to.

The ratios with you inhale and exhale will most likely vary as your intensity of exercise varies but getting your breathing right is integral to your running technique and should be practiced so that you can maintain your composure on race day as your concentration is elsewhere.

One of the most important things you can do is to breathe abdominally, and a good way to learn that skill is to breathe through your nose.

Lying on your back, place a book on your stomach. Breathe in and out through your nose and try to make your stomach rise and fall with each breath. When you succeed in doing so, you’re breathing from your diaphragm rather than your chest. Once you’ve mastered that, try nasal breathing - in and out through the nose - while you’re running easy routes. For more difficult runs, like hills or tempo workouts, breathe in though the nose and then exhale through the mouth.