Running drills: the warm-up that makes you faster

Running drills are short, exaggerated versions of parts of the running stride: A-skips, B-skips, high knees, butt kicks, bounds and strides. You do them after an easy jog and before a workout or race. They make a solid warm-up, they rehearse moving fast before you have to, and they're good coordination practice.

What they aren't is a substitute for running. Ten minutes of skipping won't fix a training plan that's all medium effort, and no drill turns a 30-minute 5K into a 20-minute one on its own. Used properly, they're the part of the session that makes the rest of it go better.

This guide covers what running drills actually do, a 10-minute routine, the form and sprint drills worth knowing, and where they fit in your week. If you'd rather not plan any of it yourself, an app that adjusts your runs to how you recovered can put the drills where they belong.

What running drills do (and what they don't)

The honest version, because the internet is full of the other kind.

They work as a warm-up. A systematic review and meta-analysis of warm-up studies found warming up improved performance in 79% of the criteria examined, with little evidence it does harm (Fradkin, Zazryn and Smoliga, 2010). That review covered warm-ups in general, not drills specifically, but drills are a practical way to turn an easy jog into a proper warm-up.

They're not the same movement as running. A 2025 biomechanics study had long-distance runners perform A-skips, B-skips, bounding, heel flicks and straight-leg running alongside normal running, and found clear differences in foot and ankle mechanics. Bounding, for example, produced more positive ankle power than running (Abran et al., 2025). Drills are related to running, not copies of it, which is why coaches pick them for specific jobs.

They're not magic on their own. In a 15-week study of recreational runners doing interval training, adding running drills didn't produce performance improvements over the same training without them (Azevedo et al., 2015). One study, one population. But it lines up with the coaching consensus: drills are a supporting act, and the training is the show.

So, why bother? Because a good warm-up makes the session after it better, because practicing quick, coordinated movement is useful for anyone who wants to run fast, and because ten minutes is a cheap price. If you're new and following a beginner plan with running and lifting, a short drill routine before your faster sessions is a habit worth building early.

Where drills fit in your running week

Drills belong before sessions where you'll run fast:

• ›Before intervals, tempo runs and races. This is their main job.
• ›After an easy run, with strides. A short set keeps your legs used to moving quickly without a full workout.
• ›Not before every easy jog. You can, but an easy run is already its own warm-up.

For a 5K build, drills and strides before the weekly quality session are standard practice, and a 5k to 10k training plan is exactly the kind of program where they earn their place. The sessions they prepare you for, fartlek, tempo and intervals, have different jobs, and there's more on fartlek and the rest of the hard-run family elsewhere.

Drills are one piece of the bigger picture. The main ingredients of getting quicker are covered in a guide to how to run faster, and if you're working toward a specific race time, a guide to how to improve running pace covers goal paces and how to train them. In a longer build, like a guide to how to train for a half marathon, drills keep showing up before the weekly quality session, while easy and long runs carry the volume.

For hybrid athletes, drills and hill sprints also make a decent bridge between the gym and the track. Both are short, explosive and low-volume, and they fit at the start of a lower-body session as easily as before a run.

The 10-minute running drill warm-up

This is a solid default before any hard run. It assumes you've already jogged easily for 10 to 15 minutes.

Walk or jog back between reps. You're not trying to get tired. If the drills leave you breathing hard, you're doing them too fast or too long.

A good general sequence is easy jog, mobility if you need it, drills, strides, then the session. That's the core of how to warm up before a run, and it scales down: before a short tempo you might jog, do three drills and two strides, and go. The other end of the session is simpler than people make it. Do you need to cool down after running mostly comes down to a few minutes of easy jogging or walking so you're not standing still and gasping.

Running form drills

These are the classic drills for running form. Do them in good posture, with relaxed shoulders, and quality over speed.

A-skips and B-skips

The A-skip is a rhythmic skip where you drive one knee up to about hip height, keep the foot under the knee, and bring it down quickly under your body. It drills a quick, active foot strike and a good knee drive.

The B-skip starts like an A-skip, then extends the lower leg forward and pulls it back down and under you, like a paw. It's harder to coordinate, so learn the A-skip first. A-skips and B-skips are the two drills most coaches reach for first, and both get easier with a few weeks of practice.

Common mistakes: leaning back, landing in front of your body, and turning a skip into a sprint.

High knees and butt kicks

High knees are quick, short steps with the knees coming up and the feet landing under you. Butt kicks bring the heel up toward the glutes with relaxed hamstrings. Both are simple warm-up drills and good for rhythm.

Ankling

Short, quick steps where you barely leave the ground, pushing off the balls of the feet with a stiff ankle. It's one of the simplest drills for learning quick, light ground contact.

Carioca

The side-step grapevine: step across in front, then behind. It's a coordination drill and a gentle hip mobility move, useful before trail runs and anything with turns.

Running sprint drills

These drills are for speed and power. They need more recovery and should be done fresh.

Strides

Strides are 80 to 100 meter runs where you build to roughly the pace you could hold for a mile, hold it for a few seconds, then ease off. They're relaxed, not all-out. If you only do one thing from this page, do strides after a couple of easy runs a week. What are strides is the most common question about them, and the short answer is: short, fast, relaxed and done after an easy run.

Bounding

Exaggerated running strides where you spend more time in the air, pushing hard off each foot. It's demanding, so keep the volume low, start with a few short reps, and do it on a soft, flat surface.

Hills

Hills are drills in disguise. Running uphill forces a strong knee drive and a powerful push-off, and the slope reduces the pounding compared with sprinting on the flat. Short hill sprints of 8 to 10 seconds with full recovery are a common way to start. Longer hill repeats build strength and fitness, and hill running covers technique and workouts.

No hills nearby? A treadmill works. For a hill workout on treadmill, raise the incline rather than the speed and stick to short efforts.

Running drills for runners who also lift

If you lift, you already have a head start on the power side. Drills sit naturally next to strength work:

• ›Before a lower-body session. A few skips and bounds make a better warm-up than five minutes on a bike.
• ›Before hard runs, not after heavy legs. Skip the bounding the day after heavy squats.
• ›Keep it short. You're priming movement, not adding another workout.

The rest of the running skills toolkit

Drills are one of several skills that make running easier. A few more come up again and again:

• ›Timing. Morning runs need a longer warm-up, because nobody's fast five minutes after getting out of bed.
• ›Fueling. For short, easy sessions, should you run on an empty stomach is a personal call; for hard ones, most people go better with something small first.
• ›Breathing. How to breathe when running mostly means relaxing and letting the pace set the rhythm. If you can't breathe comfortably on an easy run, it isn't easy.
• ›Stitches. Nobody fully agrees on how to get rid of side stitch when running, but slowing down and breathing deeply is a common first move.
• ›Pacing. Negative splits mean running the second half faster than the first, and drills plus strides before a race make an even start easier to hold.
• ›Weather. People ask about running in the heat benefits a lot. The practical rule is simpler: run hot days by effort, not by the numbers on your watch.
• ›Volume. Drills don't replace mileage. How many miles a week should you run depends on your goal and the rest of your training.
• ›Mobility. A few minutes of mobility exercises for runners before drills can help if you're stiff from sitting all day.
• ›Walking with weight. Rucking for fitness is a low-impact way to add aerobic work on non-running days.

How exrsz handles drills

exrsz builds a periodized plan from your goal, your schedule, your level and your equipment, with running and lifting balanced in one plan. It adapts each week to how you trained and reshuffles missed sessions, so the hard sessions you warm up for land on days you can actually run them hard.

FAQ

What are the best running drills for beginners?

Start with A-marches, A-skips, high knees, butt kicks and strides. They're easy to learn, need no equipment, and fit into a 10-minute warm-up before your faster runs.

Do running drills make you faster?

They help indirectly: they make a good warm-up, and warm-ups have been shown to improve performance in most studies reviewed. On their own, drills aren't a substitute for consistent training, and one study found adding them to interval training didn't improve performance.

When should I do running drills?

After an easy jog and before a workout, race or strides. Doing them before every easy run is optional.

How often should I do running form drills?

Most runners do them before one or two faster sessions a week. That's enough to keep the movements familiar without adding much fatigue.

What are running sprint drills?

Drills aimed at speed and power, like strides, bounding and short hill sprints. Do them fresh, keep the volume low, and take full recovery between reps.