Motor Preferences for Runners: Why the Same Advice Doesn't Work for Everyone

Land midfoot. Raise your cadence. Lean from the ankles. If you run, somebody has given you this advice. Some runners hear it and improve within a week. Others follow it to the letter and end up slower, heavier and more tired than before.

The advice is not wrong. It is simply written for one kind of runner.

Two engines, one sport

A grounded runner spends longer in contact with the ground, drives backwards, and generates power through the hips and thighs. They tend to feel strong on climbs, on soft ground and on long efforts.

An aerial runner spends less time on the ground, works with rebound, and returns energy through the calf and Achilles rather than pushing. They tend to feel light on firm ground and quick over shorter distances.

Ask a grounded runner to bounce and you remove their engine. Ask an aerial runner to push and you make them heavy. Most of the frustration I hear about running technique comes from exactly this mismatch.

What changes once you know your profile

Cadence. An aerial runner naturally sits at a higher step rate. Forcing a grounded runner up to the famous 180 steps a minute often just costs them energy without changing anything useful.

Shoes. Stack height, drop and midsole rebound do not behave the same way under the two profiles. The shoe your training partner swears by may be working against you.

Training. Grounded profiles tend to respond to strength work and heavy concentric loading. Aerial profiles tend to respond to elastic and plyometric work. Same programme, opposite results.

How I assess a runner

A set of movement tests first, then treadmill running filmed from behind and from the side. I am looking for what you do spontaneously, not for faults against a model. The tests come before the treadmill on purpose: once you know you are being filmed, you start performing.

From there we work on footwear, custom insoles, taping and form cues, chosen around what your body already does well rather than against it.

I have worked with runners for over fifteen years, including at the Paris Half and Full Marathons. Sports performance appointments are available in the Cambridge area and at my Paris practice in La Defense.