What do your arms have to do with running?
Here’s a fun experiment. Stand tall, place your hands on the outside of your thighs so your arms can’t move, and run.
How did that feel? A little wobbly and unbalanced, perhaps?
As humans, we’ve adopted a way of walking and running that involves rotating around our centres. As we step forward with one leg, the other leg swings behind us. Without a counterweight, that heavy lower limb would pull our whole body around with it. So the opposite arm swings back too, and we stay balanced and facing forward. You could perhaps feel how much more your body ends up rotating side to side when your arms aren’t involved.
We tend to think of running as a lower body movement. But it’s a whole body movement, and the arms have an important role to play. Not only do they help keep us stable, they influence how the legs swing, where the foot lands, and how balanced we feel as we subtly fall forwards.
Learning to use your arms well can transform how your running feels. I call it your ‘secret power up.’
What does ‘using your arms well’ look like?
‘Back-relax’
To begin with, we want the active part of the arm swing to happen behind us. The legs tend to follow the arms. So when the arms are moving rearwards, it encourages your leg swing to open up behind you, rather than reaching forward and overstriding.
Stand tall and relaxed, gently lifting from the crown of the head. Notice if your shoulders are elevated, or if there’s any tension in your neck, chest or upper back and see if you can soften and let that go.
Imagine someone has attached strings to your wrists, and these strings gently pull your forearms upwards, bringing your arms into a roughly 90° angle, without creating any tension or lifting in the shoulders. Forearms are angled in slightly, hands closer together than elbows.
Now swing your arms as if you’re running. Think of actively swinging your elbows behind you, then allow them to relax forward. ‘Back-relax.’
Imagine elbowing someone behind you, rather than punching someone in front.
Arms swing freely
Next, we want the arms to relax and swing freely, while the shoulders stay relatively quiet. The upper body is an area where many of us hold tension, and I often see runners whose arms barely move at all. Instead, it’s their shoulders that are swinging side to side, creating excessive rotation that the legs have to work against to try to keep the body stable.
To get a sense of how a relaxed and free arm movement feels, try swinging one arm at a time, with the opposite hand on your shoulder to keep it anchored.
If you tend to hold a lot of tension in your upper body, imagine your arms are resting on something and supported, so your shoulders can let go. Tense and release the shoulder area a few times, so you can feel when they soften and relax.
Arms move in the direction you’re running
Finally, we want the path the arms travel as they swing to be forward and back, rather than side to side.
Swinging the arms across the body again creates instability and more work, whereas a ‘forward and back’ motion encourages the legs to follow the same path.
It can be tricky to sense what your arms are doing as you run. Ideally, have someone video you while you’re running so you can see what’s happening. Or check into how your arms are moving (or not), by allowing your forearms to gently brush your sides every so often as they swing behind you.
Your secret power up
Here’s another fun experiment: on your next run, when you’re warmed up and into your rhythm, try exaggerating that rearward arm swing. REALLY elbow the person behind you. Can you feel your secret power kicking in?
When I want to speed up on that final 100m of parkrun, it's my arms I turn to first. I drive my elbows backwards, and suddenly I find a whole new gear.
Focusing on how your arms move is a simple way to improve how your running feels, from reducing the work for your lower body to finding a new burst of speed. Have a play, experiment, and let me know what you discover. 😊