What is running cadence ?
Running injuries can be frustrating injuries. They stop us doing what we love to do and often they seem to come out of nowhere and hang around like an unwanted guest at your party.
Is the secret to getting rid of these injuries lie in the cadence of your running ?
Quite simply running cadence its the number of steps that you take per minute.
A simple way to calculate this is to count how many times your left or right foot strikes the ground in a minute when running and multiply it by 2. Bingo there’s your cadence.
There are apps on phones that will count cadence when you run and also smart watches that can measure it.
If you do this on a treadmill take note of the speed you are running at as your cadence will tend to change with speed.
What does running cadence have to do with running speed ?
Running speed is cadence (often called stride frequency) x and your stride length.
If you increase your stride frequency (cadence) and/or your stride length then you will run faster.
However you want to find the most efficient way to run so you can run a specified distance as fast as possible or run for a specified amount of time. Cadence is part of the equation that accounts for your technique.
For running, the magic number seems to be around 180 steps / minute for most people.
Why is cadence important in preventing running injuries?
Reduced cadence and Over-striding is a common technical error we see with running. A reduction in the cadence to generally around 160 steps / minute will lead to an individual overstriding.
The most common sign we see with over-striding is a large heel strike with the foot often far in front of the knee, rather than the heel landing underneath the knee and only slightly in front of the hip. You may often see heavy wear at the heel of the shoe if you are an over strider.
So why does over-striding matter with running?
When you land hard on the heel this causes force to be transmitted up the leg. In a more ” normal ” stride length this force is absorbed by the muscles in the leg.
With overstriding your muscles are less efficient at shock absorption and as result the joints take the brunt of it.
This presents most commonly as :
- Anterior knee / Patello femoral joint pain.
- Increase risk Achilles tendinopathy
- plantar fascia injuries.
Due to the heel not landing under the knee, it often slows the running speed down, making the body work harder to keep up the average pace.
video analysis of their running pattern is a common method used to determine if someone is over-striding. Slowing the video down and pausing it enables us to directly determine the heels positioning on initial contact.
There are also a multitude of other concerns we look for using video analysis including:
- pelvic movement,
- knee position and movement at heels strike and midstance
- ankle and foot mechanics during running.
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So how do we fix our running cadence?
Well this is where cadence becomes so important. Fixing the number of steps we run per minute will automatically transfer to having a smaller stride length and less force being transmitted up the leg.
What are the ways to do this ?;
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Simple cues for cadence:
Olympic running coach Greg Mcmillan suggests the following cues:
- Focus on fast feet and a very quick turnover that matches the beat of the metronome. Flick/pull your feet backwards. Don’t reach out in front to go faster.
- Imagine a ladder is on the ground and your feet must land in between the rungs of a ladder. So, instead of striding out to go faster, think of short, quick steps to increase your speed.
2. Running metronome cadence phone apps
There are metronome running apps or smart GPS watches, such as Garmin, that you can set your desired cadence and run along to it with the appropriate technique cues. Even simpler is using a step counter with a Fitbit or smart watch.
3. Music playlists for running cadence.
On spotify or itunes you can select playlists that have music that has a rhythm of 180bpm that you can run to
What change will I notice in changing running cadence ?
If you notice you’re an over-strider, start by increasing your cadence slowly by 8-10 steps a minute. Starting slowly and allowing your body to get used to the change in running will minimise the chance of other injuries occurring. It should take at least a few weeks up to 3 months to increase from 160 to 180 steps per minute. 
Now this doesn’t mean increasing how fast you’re running. I could see how that would be quite intimidating. But instead, just shortening your stride, and aiming for more steps over the same distance should keep your pace the same.
You should feel a difference in the landing pressure of your foot. Rather than it previously being more back of the heel, if done correctly, it should be more mid foot and almost flat footed.
You should also notice then the foot lands under your knee instead of out in front of the body; this helps with shock absorption. The picture shows an exact example of this.
Should everyone change their running cadence rate ?
Don’t change for change sake.
Any change in running technique should be with a specific goal. That may be to improve performance or reduce running related injuries not because some blog or article said you should. You may already be running at YOUR cadence rate quite naturally.
Hope that helps unravel the mystery of cadence and running , if you have any running related injuries you contact us here for assessment or to go through our running strength program.
Cheers
Dave
