How do i lengthen my running stride

It is well-known that stride efficiency and power increase automatically through subconscious processes in response to different types of training. It is not known whether consciously manipulations of stride form can be beneficial, and if so, which specific changes are beneficial for which runners. Therefore your efforts to improve your stride should consist primarily if not entirely in training methods that stimulate "automatic" gains in power and efficiency.

Kneel on your right knee and place your left foot on the floor well in front of your body. Draw your navel towards your spine and roll your pelvis backward. Now put your weight forward into the lunge until you feel a good stretch in your right hip flexors located where your thigh joins your pelvis. You can enhance the stretch by raising your right arm over your head and actively reaching towards the ceiling.

Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and then repeat on the left side. Fast running requires good hip mobility. You need to dynamically achieve a high degree of hip flexion and extension to take the large strides that speed requires. The giant walking lunge is an effective exercise to develop hip mobility. To do it, simply walk forward slowly by taking the largest strides you can and lowering the knee of the trailing leg to within an inch of the floor on each stride.

In it, I introduced you to running drills and their benefits. Here they are! Power Skips 2. Calf Hops. Cut Race Times, Not Corners. Start day free trial. Bounding 4. Side Skip Practise Makes Master Because running drills are a skill, you need to pay careful attention to the way you perform each drill. If you rush the movement and perform them with poor form, you only reinforce bad habits.

Here are some points you want to think about as you perform the drills. Think of your head as your anchor. To correctly perform three-pump lunges, lunge out to a comfortable distance, lower until your back knee taps the ground and drive yourself directly up to your starting position, engaging your butt to do the work.

Remember, your butt is the important muscle in this drill. You must train your body to take long, efficient strides. Bounding over-exaggerates the long stride, while forcing you to have a powerful push-off.

To perform bounding exercises, start with a slow jog and gradually increase your stride length with each step. Within 20 yards you should be leaping from one stride to the next, focusing on long extension in the back of your stride while pushing off to gain distance with each stride as well. When that happens, my cadence increases and my stride length decreases. Hi Cristina, it is better to have a higher cadence than a lower cadence. This post may also help you feel a little better about your higher cadence.

Very informative article. I would like to share something about my running cadence too. I am short height runner. I have an cadence of during my easy runs.

And a little higher in a faster run. My stride length is also considerably small compared to other runners in general. And everyone also point that out while they run with me. Although I feel good about my short-step running style. Something, which concerns me is if I should work increasing my stride length as that is unusually small. I have tried that in practice but feels uncomfortable and not natural.

Hi Roy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It is good that you are taking the time to listen to your body, and find out what works for you.

My Avg Cadence during interval, tempo or Long slow runs vary between to If I am conscious, I can increase my cadence upto My Stride length varies between 1. My best FM pace is around 3h 16mins. Unbelievable that Bekele could increase his cadence from to Any tips on how to increase the Cadence?

Thanks in advance. Hi Bobby. Thanks for the comment! You may not need to change yours. If you do want to experiment with cadence interval training, using an app on your phone plenty available these days can be an easy way. Very interesting article. More research needed in this topic. As a high school runner, I ran for m and for m, all while having a short stride but a high cadence.

It looked like a shuffle. Your email address will not be published. Matt Phillips. You have decided to take up running. Looking at the definition above, logic suggests there are two ways you can cover a specified distance in less time: Move your legs faster, i. What is stride length? A stride incorporates two steps, the left and the right.