Small changes to your running form can lead to big improvements in your efficiency, speed, and injury risk. Poor mechanics slow you down, place unnecessary stress on your joints, waste energy, and increase your risk of common running injuries.
You can correct most running form mistakes with the right combination of strength exercises, drills, and cues.
Below are five common running form mistakes and practical ways to fix them so you can run more efficiently, feel stronger, and stay injury-free.
Crossing The Line
Crossing the line happens when your foot lands too close to—or even across—your body’s midline while running. It can look like you’re trying to run on a tightrope.
Why it Matters
Crossing the line reduces your stability left-to-right and can cause excess stress through your hips, knees, and feet. Crossing the line can lead to uneven loading of the legs and leave you susceptible to hip and knee overuse injuries and IT band syndrome.
How to Fix It
Side Plank with Hip Abduction
Hip abductor and lateral core strength are key to reducing this common running form mistake. Elevating the top leg makes this side plank extra challenging for the bottom hip.
Stork Variations
This targets the hip abductors while also challenging foot stability (hips and feet need to coordinate well).
Hip Drop
A hip drop is when your pelvis drops to one side each time you land.
Why it Matters
A hip drop often means your hip stabilizers aren’t controlling load well when you land. When these muscles are weak or don’t switch on, there is likely weakness or poor timing in the glute medius, a hip abductor, and/or the quadratus lumborum that helps to control hip shifting. A hip drop can load your legs unevenly, increase stress at the hip and knee, reduce efficiency, and raise injury risk.
How to Fix It
Swiss Ball Hip Hike
This exercise integrates hip and foot stability and control from the standing leg with trunk control of the opposite leg – teaching you to coordinate the pelvis on both sides.
Side Step Downs
This exercise builds single-leg stability and control while loading the quadriceps and glutes. It teaches you to stabilize your core and pelvis to resist dropping your hip with this movement pattern that is crucial for running.
Too Hunched Forward
This is an excessive forward bend through the torso and upper back while running. Your chest collapses, shoulders round forward, and your head drifts out front of your body.
Why it Matters
Too much forward lean limits power output and efficiency. It can add stress to your back, reduce how well you use your glutes to propel yourself forward (often shortening stride length and reducing speed), and may restrict chest expansion—potentially limiting how much oxygen you can take in.
How to Fix It
45-Degree Back Extension
A strong posterior chain supports a more upright torso. Strengthening your glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors can help to improve running power and efficiency, while reducing excess strain on the lower back.
Seated Cable Row
This exercise strengthens your upper back to support good posture and an efficient arm swing while running.
Overstriding
What Is It: Overstriding is when your foot lands in front of you—striking the ground ahead of your center of mass.
Why It Matters
Overstriding is essentially braking with each stride, which is inefficient and sends more impact through your entire body. Overstriding is an energy leak that makes it harder for you to propel yourself forward and usually means that you are spending more time on the ground with each stride – increasing your risk of injury.
How to Fix It
Try thinking of the cue: “push, don’t pull” when running: Stop reaching in front; focus on pushing behind you to propel yourself forward.
Running Drills (A’s, B’s, C’s)
These teach you proper running mechanics where you land with your foot directly under your hip so you propel forward instead of braking.
Cadence:
Aim for ~165 steps per minute (spm) or more. Higher cadence usually means quicker turnover, less time on the ground, less impact, and improved efficiency. You can try running for ~1 minute out of every 5 minutes or so with a metronome set to 165 beats per minute (bpm) or search for playlists with around 165 beats per minute to run along to.
Too Upright
Running too upright means you’re standing up tall with little to no forward lean. Without slight forward momentum, it’s harder to move efficiently.
Why it Matters
Keeping your torso too upright can limit stride length and pace by reducing power from your glutes—slowing you down and wasting energy. It can also shift work to your lower back and/or overload the hamstrings, which may increase your injury risk.
How to Fix It
Think of the cue “Fall forward from your ankles” when running: You want a slight lean that helps you keep moving forward—without leaning so far that you become hunched (like the fault above).
Dead Bug Variations:
An anti-extension core exercise that builds strength and control in your anterior torso to stay strong and engaged with a slight forward lean.
The Takeaway
Try incorporating these exercises into your running warm-up routine as activations and/or your strength training routine.
For warm-ups, keep the volume light (1-2 sets of 8-15 reps) so that you don’t fatigue the muscles too much before the run.
In your strength training workouts, you can include these exercises 2-4 times per week starting with 2 to 4 sets of 6 to12 repetitions of each.
With the cues, try not to overdo them. Start with about 1 minute of focused corrective effort out of every 5 minutes that you are running. Your body will adapt to the new mechanics over time if it feels more efficient and stronger.
If you want personalized guidance to improve your running mechanics, build strength, and stay injury-free, check out the Running Training Program. Your trainer will design a program tailored to your goals, training history, and individual needs so you can run more efficiently and confidently.