For the last few decades, debates about how to improve running form have often gone something like this:
Enthusiast: We can all learn to run better and more efficiently! You just need to [stop landing on your heels / increase your cadence / switch to barefoot shoes / sign up for my six-part webinar / etc.].
Skeptic: But scientists tested that, and literally everyone got less efficient when they tried it.
Enthusiast: That’s because they didn’t give it enough time! Of course you get less efficient initially, because it takes a while to retrain your neuromuscular patterning. After a year, I bet they would have been more efficient.
Skeptic: But everyone quit after four weeks.
Enthusiast: Well, don’t blame me when they get shin splints.
There’s some truth to both sides of this debate. Our brains and bodies are extremely good at saving energy and eliminating inefficiencies, so most reasonably experienced runners have converged on a running form that’s efficient for their unique body. If you ask them to change just about anything (cadence, a.k.a. step rate, is the most well-studied example), they’ll typically get less efficient, meaning they’ll need to burn more energy to sustain a given pace.
On the other hand, it’s also true that learning new motor patterns takes time. When you’re trying to execute a new action, it requires your explicit attention and you’ll probably be inadvertently contracting some muscle fibers you don’t need and wasting energy. Over time, the new pattern will become second-nature—and, in theory, might end up becoming more efficient than how you started.
Vanishingly few studies have actually tested this proposition, though. That makes a new paper in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, from a research group at the University of Liège in Belgium led by Guillaume Abran, particularly interesting. It offers some intriguing evidence that the enthusiasts are right—but with an important skeptical caveat.
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