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Imagine that you are on a jog through the woods along the river’s edge. The morning is crisp and clear, and you are having a great start to your day. At least, until you start to feel a little twinge in your knee. The natural thing to do in this scenario is to stop your run and walk back home. But is this the best solution?
Before you walk back home, maybe you can try one little change. Increasing your cadence. Cadence is defined as the amount of steps you take per minute. Think of it as the number of times your feet touch the ground in one minute of running. It will feel goofy to speed this up at first, but it has a myriad of benefits.
Here is a short list of benefits from making this simple change, and some guidelines to help you improve your running.
Increasing your running cadence will:
A 5% running cadence increase can decrease the load on your knee by up to 15%. This makes running significantly easier on your knees when you use a higher cadence.
To figure this out, count the number of times on foot hits the ground in 30-seconds. Then multiply that number by 4 to get your cadence for both feet for a minute.
Now, using a calculator, multiply that number you just found by 1.05. This will give you a new number that is 5% higher and is the cadence you would increase to.
This would mean that if you counted 40 foot falls in 30 seconds, your cadence would be 160 steps per minute. (40*4=160). Now to get your 5% increase, multiply 160*1.05, which yields 168 steps per minute.
This would be your new target cadence.
This is also called decreasing the amount of hip adduction. Stride width is defined as the distance between your foot and the midline of your body when you land during each foot strike. While a narrow stride width works for some runners, for others, it can be a compensation pattern from weakness in the glute muscles. It can also be a result of a low running cadence.
A narrow stride width can be associated with IT band syndrome and patellofemoral pain (or pain around your knee cap) , both of which are common in runners. Increasing your cadence could help prevent those injuries or help you return to running if you are currently experiencing them.
It is no secret your gluteal muscles are super important for runners. The glutes stabilize your entire leg on both landing and pushing off when running. The glutes also produce the power move the leg backward as you push off during each stride. Stronger glutes promote a powerful stride and improve your stability, increasing your running speed and efficiency.
Increasing your running cadence will also increase your glute activation before your foot hits the ground. This will improve your stability, efficiency, and shock absorption when you land.
A 5% running cadence increase can decrease the load on your knee
by up to 15%.
A low cadence has been associated with “overstriding,” which is when your foot hits the ground too far in front of your body. With every stride you take, the amount of force your foot puts into the ground is matched by the ground. This is called ground reaction force.
When your foot lands too far in front of your body, your ground reaction force is actually in the opposite direction in which you are trying to move, acting as a brake. That landing force is now actually slowing you down. This decreases the amount of energy you have available to propel yourself forward, decreasing your efficiency, making running even more difficult.
Furthermore, decreased efficiency allows for your muscles and tendon to fatigue more quickly, increasing the chance of an injury. Running with a higher cadence actually decreases the total amount of ground reaction force, decreasing the amount of impact your body has to absorb, making running easier.
Well, it could potentially decrease your symptoms by offloading any sensitive or irritated muscles, tendons, or bones in your leg. In other words, it can allow you to keep running.
So how do you go about changing your cadence? First, find out what your typical running cadence is. If you use a Garmin or Apple watch, that will track it for you.
Otherwise, you can use the math in section #1 above. Alternatively, if you don’t have a running watch, counting the number of steps you take in one minute. That number is your cadence. Next, try running at a cadence 8-10 steps per minute above your normal cadence.
It is normal for your running to feel more awkward and difficult after changing your cadence, but your body will adjust quickly. When adjusting your cadence, make sure you are not just increasing your pace. An easy way to prevent just running faster is to run on a treadmill and to use a metronome app on your phone to give you a target pace.
After a couple of runs, you can try increasing your cadence another 5-10 steps per minute and see how it feels after a couple of runs. Try to find the cadence that works best for you. If running feels worse after increasing your cadence a second time, then go back to the lower cadence. Each runner has an optimal cadence that works for them. For some people, 168 is their optimal cadence, others feel better at faster cadences. Don’t be afraid to experiment to find out which feels best for you.
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Here are some resources used for this blog:
Anderson, L. M., Bonanno, D. R., Hart, H. F., & Barton, C. J. (2020). What are the Benefits and Risks Associated with Changing Foot Strike Pattern During Running? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Injury, Running Economy, and Biomechanics. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 50(5), 885–917. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01238-y
Brindle, R. A., Taylor, J. B., Rajek, C., Weisbrod, A., & Ford, K. R. (2020). Association Between Temporal Spatial Parameters and Overuse Injury History in Runners: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 50(2), 331–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01207-5
Ceyssens, L., Vanelderen, R., Barton, C., Malliaras, P., & Dingenen, B. (2019). Biomechanical risk factors associated with running-related injuries: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 49(7), 1095–1115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01110-z
Neal, B. S., Barton, C. J., Gallie, R., O’Halloran, P., & Morrissey, D. (2016). Runners with patellofemoral pain have altered biomechanics which targeted interventions can modify: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Gait & Posture, 45, 69–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2015.11.018
2 Responses
Great article about running from your colleague, Alex Ewart. We will surely share it with our daughter and her husband who just finished the Jamestown triathlon sprint.
I, too, will try shortening my stride while going on exercise walks. Maybe it will alleviate the intermittent pain in my knee and hip and allow me to increase my daily number of steps…..to be continued.
Hope those tips and trick help immensely. Thanks, as always, for reading!