Heel-to-Hamstring Running Form Mental Exercise

Visualize your way to more energy return while running.

Author Ken Lane demonstrates the” heel-to-hamstrings” technique in his garage with a jump rope. Video below.

For runners, it can be tricky to know:

A. Where your power should come from

B. How your body should be positioned

I’m eager to share one mental trick that has helped answer both of those questions.

My favorite running coach, Keith Bateman (co-author of Older Yet Faster with his wife and podiatrist, Heidi Jones), was a guest on a podcast. Sometime during the podcast, Keith was asked to elaborate on running technique—which he does quite masterfully in the episode and his book. But to help internalize what proper running feels like, he said this: (and I’m paraphrasing)

A mental exercise to have while running is the sensation of your whole foot landing in such a way under your pelvis that the returned energy from the whole leg sends your heel back up toward your hamstrings as you go—not to pull your heels into your hamstrings, but that that’s where the return energy sends them.

I tried this mental exercise and found myself setting a half-marathon personal record.

Here I am describing and demonstrating this method with a jump rope:

I hope this helps! Let me know.

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