Most runners believe that, for better or worse, the stride they're "born with" is the stride they're stuck with. While it's true some are blessed with enviable running form, an imperfect stride is no reason to throw in the towel in favor of lawn bowling or channel surfing. With a little knowledge and discipline, a variety of small but critical adjustments can improve your running, helping to increase your efficiency and reduce your risk of injury.

     The foundation for most improvements in running form is cross training for core strength and dynamic flexibility. While this is a critical form of run training, there are also specific technique improvements you can make. To make these stick you'll need to take the same approach golfers take to improve their stroke: conscious manipulation and repetition.

      It's a two-step process. Step one is to select one specific alteration to your stride that makes it either more efficient or more stable, or both. Step two is to consciously recreate this new pattern with every stride of every run until it's second nature. Allow at least a couple of weeks for this to happen. Then you can make another change. Here are 6 basic technique changes to work on:

1. Reduce your stance pause. One of the key traits of the most efficient runners is the lack, or near total lack, of any pause during the stance phase of the stride. The stance phase is when the foot is flat or almost flat on the ground, between the foot strike and toe-off phases.To reduce your stance pause, begin to retract your leg just before your foot lands with each stride, so that you're already thrusting backward when your foot makes contact.

2. Run tall. Many runners tend to "collapse" at the hips and pelvis when their foot comes in contact with the ground. This wastes energy and can lead to a variety of overuse injuries. To overcome this type of collapsing, concentrate on running more erectly. Imagine wires attached to your shoulders and pulling gently upward. Thrust your hips forward just a bit and gently engage the muscles of your lower abdomen to keep your pelvis neutral.

3. Relax your upper body. Most runners run with unnecessary tension in their arms, shoulders, neck, and even their faces, especially when running hard. All of this tension equals wasted energy. Practice running with loose fingers, forearms and upper arms, and with no hunch in your shoulders and a relaxed facial expression.

4. Land on the midfoot. Landing heel first is like driving with the emergency brake engaged. Not every heel striker can transform himself or herself into a midfoot striker, but many can. A good way to begin the process is to practice running with shorter strides. Use the same technique of retracting your forward leg before foot impact described in tip number one.

5. Use your big toe. The metatarsophalangeal (MP) joint at the ball of the foot was designed to actively plantar flex (flex downward) during push-off. The rigidity of running shoes inhibits the MP joint from actively plantar flexing, reducing the power of your stride. You can get some of it back by consciously pushing off the ground with your big toe, beginning at its origin at the midfoot-forefoot juncture.

6. Bounce less. Runners need to push themselves upward slightly in order to float between footstrikes. By becoming airborne you can take longer strides than you do when you walk. In fact, faster runners spend more time airborne and less time in contact with the ground than slower runners. As much as possible you want to float forward not upward, and, indeed, faster runners tend to keep the top of their head closer to the ground (relative to their height) than slower runners. Practice this "scooting" style of running.

For more information about how to improve your running form, check out Matt Fitzgerald's latest book, Runner's World Guide to Cross-Training (Rodale, 2004).