Seeing my shadow on the ground whenever I run has always made me think that maybe my running form is not the best. I slouch forward (an entire blog post has been dedicated to this), my hips don’t move (as much as Shakira’s do) and it doesn’t look as if I’m comfy at all.

Every runner has their own form, their own way of swinging their arms and legs but I started to think that maybe if my form is that bad, it surely must be slowing me down when I run. So I went looking for professional advice.

I happened to see that Mari Naude, a biokineticist who I met through fellow runner @TanyaKovarsky a few years back, was offering running technique sessions. She had helped me a few years ago when I struggled with plantar fasciitis so I made an appointment to see her.

Within 5 minutes of the session, she had me running on a treadmill, taking a video of my running form. That was followed by flexibility tests of my hips, my back, even down to my toes, the big toe in particular. Then came the analysis…

My right foot is weak. Very weak. Even though my hips are flexible, they seem to stiffen up when I run due to the amount of pounding of my heel when I strike the ground. My legs are too straight when I run which is why my hips don’t have any movement. I am crossing my arms too much and using my upper body to do all the work. The slouching comes from fatigue and partly due to the fact that I’m not leaning forward with my hips correctly.

With a flood of info, all I could remember was that I have a spastic foot. Mari did say that correcting things would take many months of work and then showed me the first set of drills she wants me to perform. By the time I left her office, I was sweating!

What I loved about the session is that the videos were taken on my phone which means that I’ve watched them over and over. I’ve giggled so many times and thought I’d be brave enough to upload one and show you. LOL, enjoy!

Now the (not so funny) hard work begins.