Pain Poof Your Run

Your running form affects your skeleton. Shortening your stride can reduce your likelihood of a stress fracture, according to a new Iowa State University study.

When runners used proper form and shortened their strides by 10 percent during a 3 mile run, the impact of their footfalls was lowered and their risk of bone damage dropped 33 percent.

Good form and smaller steps during the run can also reduce the force your muscles apply to the bone, says study author Brent Edwards, Ph.D. If you are running in a gym on a treadmill, use mirror to make sure you not slouching and count the number of steps you take for a specific time period. Then work on increasing that number by 10 percent to reduce step length, he says.