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Coach Dex I help runners improve their technique to run further, faster, and without pain!

09/28/2026

Same pace. Different efforts!

On the left, I’m bent forward at the waist, reaching my leg out in front of me and landing farther away from runner’s pose.

That reach increases braking and keeps me on the ground longer.

CHECK OUT THE KNEES!

Because of the overstride, I’ve got more braking, and more time on support. After I land, my knee continues to bend while it’s supporting my bodyweight. My quads have to work eccentrically to control that flexion and manage the load.

That’s a whole lot of unnecessary work every stride.

On the right, I stand taller, stop reaching so far in front of me and focus on getting my back foot in.

Now it’s easier to maintain a quicker cadence. I get to runner’s pose sooner, spend less time on the ground, and there’s noticeably less knee flexion happening under load.

And remember, the treadmill is moving at the exact same speed in both clips.

I don’t need that giant reaching stride to cover the same ground.

Stand tall. Stop reaching. Get the back foot in.

Same pace. Less work. 🫡

09/24/2026

One of the most useful running cues I can give you is simple:

Back foot in.

That’s what I’m talking about when you hear me say pull back to pose.

In runner’s pose, your center of mass is stacked over your support foot and your swing leg is pulled in underneath your hip.

Once you start moving forward, that support foot gets left behind.

Outside, your foot stays where it landed while your body continues moving forward over it.

On a treadmill, your body stays relatively stationary while the belt carries that support foot behind you.

Either way, you end up in the same situation.

Your support foot is behind you.

If you want to keep the cycle going, you have to recover what got left behind.

Back foot in.

Pull that foot back underneath your hip and recover runner’s pose on the other side.

Then it happens again.

Every foot that lands becomes your support foot. Every support foot eventually gets left behind. Every stride gives you another opportunity to pull it back in.

You don’t need to think about reaching your other leg forward.

Focus on recovering what gets left behind.

Back foot in.

You can see it happen every single stride.

Now make it your focus. 🫡

09/23/2026

Cadence does not equal speed.

I’m running 6 mph on one side and 10 mph on the other, but I can maintain a quick cadence at both speeds.

Cadence is simply how often you choose to change support.

Pose on one side. Pose on the other.

The quicker you change support, the less time you have available for reaching your foot out in front of you, or leaving your foot hanging out on the ground behind you.

When you overstride, your foot lands farther ahead of your body. Now you have to absorb that landing, brake, wait for your center of mass to get back over your support foot, and then finally fall forward into a position where you can change support.

That takes time.

Land closer to pose, spend less time on the ground, switch support sooner.

There is good research showing that even small increases in cadence can reduce some of the loading at the knee and hip while also reducing overstriding.

For your easy pace, keep the fall small. Keep the rhythm quick.

CHOOSE a quicker cadence, squad. Get after it.🫡

09/18/2026

If you want to increase your cadence, start here 👌

First, you need to get used to moving your feet more quickly.

Hopping drills, pulling drills, or drills that combine both, like foot tapping and running in place, help teach your body rhythm, quicker changes of support, and more elastic movement.

But the biggest thing?

You have to stop overstriding.

You can’t move from one stride to the next until you arrive at and then pass through the runner’s pose.

The farther you reach away from pose, the longer it takes to get back there.

Longer time to pose = lower cadence.

That’s why trying to force a quick cadence while still overstriding feels awkward and difficult.

You’re trying to switch support quickly while your stride mechanics are slowing the cycle down.

Pull to pose.
Land closer underneath you.
Get off the ground quicker.

That’s where cadence starts improving naturally.

Follow to tighten up your stride and run lighter. 🖖

09/17/2026

If every time you try to increase your cadence you also start running faster, you need to learn how to separate cadence from speed.

Cadence is simply how often you choose to change support.

Pose on one side. Pose on the other side.

Do that rhythmically and you’re running in place.

You can do that at 180 steps per minute, 190, 200, whatever you want, and you’re still moving at zero miles per hour.

Speed comes when you add the fall.

Allow your center of mass to move slightly ahead of your support foot and you start moving forward.

Allow a little more fall and you run faster.

So if you want to run slowly with a quick cadence, keep the change of support quick and keep the fall small.

That’s what we’re practicing here.

Start by running in place and establish your rhythm.

Once you’ve locked into that cadence, allow a very small amount of fall and start moving forward while trying to maintain the same rhythm.

Keep the fall small enough that your pace stays easy.

This is also why increasing your cadence doesn’t have to mean increasing your effort or heart rate.

You’re not trying to run faster.

You’re choosing to switch support sooner while controlling how much you allow yourself to fall.

Quick cadence. Small fall. Easy pace.

Get comfortable separating the two. 🫡

09/14/2026

If you want to feel lighter on your feet when you run, foot tapping is one of my favorite drills to work on.

The whole idea is to build better perception of pulling your foot into runner’s pose.

Start by just hopping in place.

Think up, up, up. You’re not trying to push down into the ground like you’re doing calf raises. Stay springy and let the ground give that energy back to you.

Once you have that rhythm, start pulling one foot into pose.

Two feet, pull to pose.

Two feet, pull to pose.

The important part here is that you never think about putting your foot down. You’re pulling one of your support feet off the ground and into runner’s pose, and allowing your support foot/feet to land naturally.

Once that feels good, add a little fall and start moving forward.

You don’t need much. If you fall too much, you’ll move through space faster than you can maintain the drill.

Then start alternating sides and keep that same rhythm going.

As you get better at it, the movement should start feeling quicker, lighter and more natural.

You’re getting some bounce from your feet and lower legs while your hamstrings handle the pull back to pose.

Then take that feeling directly into your run.

Don’t finish the drill and immediately go back to reaching your feet out in front of you.

Keep the same focus.

Pull to pose. Stay light.

Get after it. 🫡

09/14/2026

Same pace. Different work loads.

In the first clip, I’m bent forward at the waist, reaching my leg out in front of me, overstriding, and spending a lot of time on the ground.

In the second clip, I’m standing taller and focusing on pulling back to pose.

One thing you’ll notice is that my cadence comes up.
Not automatically... Cadence is a choice, but when you stop overstriding, it becomes a whole lot easier to choose a quicker cadence.

You can’t switch support until you arrive in pose.
The farther you reach away from pose, the longer it takes to get back there.

The longer it takes to get back to pose, the longer it takes to switch support.

That’s why overstriding and low cadence tend to go together.

Clean up the posture. Stop reaching so much. Pull back to pose.

Now it’s easier to move your feet quickly, spend less time on the ground, and keep the stride feeling light.

Same pace.

Just a lot less work.

Follow to tighten up your stride and run lighter. 🫡

09/13/2026

A quicker cadence doesn’t automatically mean a faster pace.

Here I’m showing two different speeds at the same cadence, so cadence isn’t what’s controlling the speed.

Cadence is a choice.

It’s how often you decide to switch legs.

You can run in place at a quick cadence, which means you can run slow with a quick cadence.

A quicker cadence usually means:

- Less time on the ground
- Less braking
- More elastic/springy movement

A slower cadence usually means:

- Longer time on the ground
- More load on your body each step
- More reaching and overstriding

That’s where things start to feel heavy

It might feel a little off at first. Your heart rate might go up as you focus to keep the rhythm.

As you get used to it, it settles down

Also, if you want to run fast, you need that rhythm anyway!

If you only use a quick cadence when you speed up, now you’re trying to move your legs faster and deal with higher forces.

If the rhythm is already there, all you have to do is manage a bigger fall and the stride that comes with it.

MOVE THOSE FEET, PEOPLE!

Follow to learn how to tighten up your stride! 🖖

05/18/2026

If you’ve been watching here, make sure to follow me at Coach Dex to keep getting the goods!!

05/18/2026

You do not run by leaning from the ankles like this. That’s one of the biggest misunderstandings of the Pose Method idea of falling.

People hear “lean forward” and think they need to actively do something, so they end up bending at the waist trying to force a lean. But that’s not really what’s happening in running.

When your foot first lands slightly ahead of your body, you’re not leaning from the ankles.

Then your body catches back up over support and you’re balanced again.

From there, gravity and momentum continue carrying your center of mass forward into the next fall. That’s the part people confuse as “leaning,” but it’s not something you’re actively creating. In fact, it would actually take effort to stop it from happening.

The fall happens because you allow it to happen while maintaining posture and continuing to change support underneath yourself. You’re not trying to force your body forward. You’re trying to stop interrupting the forward movement that’s already there.

That’s why I’d rather people think about falling than leaning. Leaning sounds active. Falling is something you allow.

Get after it 🫡

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