What do you do with your arms?

[Eric Jeppsen]

There's plenty of information out there on stride mechanics and what to do below the waist, but what about the arms?

After the SLTC training series, my wife commented that I seem to hold my arms higher than the other runners around me. At first I assumed that it was nothing more than a matter of doing what's comfortable. My arm position has never caused me any trouble, other than my right shoulder getting a little stiff on long runs. But then I came across an article in the New Yorker about Ryan Hall, in which the author mentioned Hall's low-arm style, which was something he forced himself to adopt in high school after watching videos of another runner:

"He kept his hands low, and his arms swung on a straight line from front to back. That was, in part, a Moroccan touch: when Ryan was in high school, he and his father watched tapes of Hicham El Guerrouj, the greatest miler of his generation, and they changed Ryan’s arm carriage accordingly."

So I looked up youtube footage of Hall, and hands do look low to me. It seems to make sense--I can spend energy keeping my arms up, or I can let my arms hang low and spend that energy running. But, counterintuitively, when I tried running with "Hall hands" this morning it seemed to require more energy to let my hands hang low than to hold them high. Of course, that could be because of the effort required to retrain my muscles to adopt a new habit.

I assume the most efficient use of the arms for distance running falls somewhere in between hanging straight down (like Dwight's brother, Mose, on The Office) and pumping wildly (like the T-100 on T2: Judgment Day). But is there an accepted standard, or "best,"use of the arms? 

[Bonnie]

There are pictures of people who wear shoulder harnesses to keep their arms in the correct position.  I think that the "low carriage" is actually not as beneficial as a little higher, because slightly higher arms will expand your chest better.  I think the key is "relaxed" in the shoulders but your arms should lie about 4/5" below your pectoral muscles.  I like this article because it shows Lauren Fleshmen's arm carriage, she has a really nice form when running http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/training-whats-the-biggest-form-running-form-problem/

[Sasha Pachev]

Weird arm motion is an indication of a problem, but I do not believe the right way to fix it is to force your arms to move "correctly". The question I would be asking is why it is comfortable for you to hold the arms the way you do, and then look for and address the underlying imbalances.

However, I believe it is important to follow the ladder of progression. Step 1 - get the aerobic endurance. Step 2 - use the aerobic endurance to build sustained neuromuscular power (via speed work, tempo runs). Step 3 - once Step 1 and Step 2 fixed everything that can be fixed with those steps, the true biomechanical deficiencies are now exposed, and you can attack them from the structural perspective.

Here is a good test to see if the form is what you should worry about. Run 100 meters as fast as you can from a jogging start. If you are under 15.0, but cannot break 2:45 in the marathon, your weakest area is aerobic endurance. The lion share of your improvement will come from mileage.

[Matthew Rowley]

I don't know if I with Sasha that you should not worry about your form until you are running 60 + miles a week to address your form. 
True increasing miles, endurance, will help you improve your time.  I believe you have to train your body how you want it to run.  If you wait until you are putting in large amount of running your body will have a hard time changing its form.  Start now by every few minutes do a form check.  Are my arm to tight.   If your hands are to high shake them out and put them where you want them. 

My form is not perfect, I am not sure there is a perfect form.

[Sasha Pachev]

I've worked my form for the last 10 years and have tried just about every imaginable gimmick - hold arms high, hold arms low, run with light weights, alter foot strike, drive the knee up higher, up the leg turnover, lean forward, etc. I've also tried to stretch and strengthen every imaginable muscle that has anything to do with running. I've tried various kinds of drills as well. End result - zero improvement in efficiency above what I had already attained via mileage and speed work. 

After giving this some thought I realized the results make perfect sense. Efficiency comes from the essence, not the form, while all of the above techniques could only change the form. There are some eternal laws involved in this. The essence is within, and cannot be forced to change by superficial attempts.  1 Samuel 16:7 comes to mind : "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

So how do we change the essence? On the level of brain-muscle connection, the essence is perfected through mileage and speed work. Reduced weight will help with the essence as well. However, it can only go that far.  Most people will have a structural barrier that will severely limit their efficiency. Those barriers will need to be solved via some form of therapy. However, it is important to make sure that the brain-muscle connection is perfected first. In other words, you can visualize running smooth, you have an idea what it should feel like, you get to the point where you feelings can be described with "and Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing". You must know the tune, you must feel acutely that you are singing off key before you go after the structural barriers. Otherwise you could waste a lot of effort fixing problems that are not true efficiency-limiting barriers and never get to the essence of things.

[Steve P]

I read something recently about Haile Gebrselassie, world record holder in the marathon. He used to run 10K to school every day, carrying a load of books in one arm. He said that's the reason he now carries his arm down slightly when he runs. Just thought that was interesting.