Having Pain While Running? Time to Address Cadence
A conversation I often have with my running clients is about cadence. It is amazing what changing your step rate can do to the aspect of decreasing hip, knee, and achilles pain while running. Cadence refers to your steps per minute when on your run. Such a small change can make a drastic difference! Let’s break this down, shall we?
Running cadence is often a metric either people watch like a hawk or don’t watch at all. The importance of it in the rehab setting can vary, but the research is always valuable to follow and there has been concrete information regarding cadence training and ground reaction forces. Ground reaction forces refer to the amount of force exerted back UPON you when your foot hits the ground. So without diving too deep into the science but making sure the point comes across well… more time on the ground means more ground reaction force. More ground reaction force means more general force absorbed into the body. If I have more force absorbed into the body, there runs the chance that the body doesn’t tolerate this well. This is where knee pain or achilles pain while running can occur.
So let’s put this back in terms of cadence.
Higher cadence=more steps per minute=less time spent in a step per minute=lower ground reaction forces per step
For the sake of this conversation, we won’t refer to cumulative ground reaction force because that will vary for each runner depending on if it’s a marathon or a casual 5k. But I have worked with runners of all skill levels who have dealt with this so it isn’t necessarily a distance issue.
The standard thrown around in the research is approximately 180 spm. What I recommend is on your next run, set a metronome to this and try to keep pace with it for 1-3 minutes. If this seems fast for you, then ask yourself this question. Are you physically speeding up your mile pace or are you turning your feet over faster in your stride? It should be the latter! Speeding up your cadence should NOT necessarily speed up your mile time. The goal is to have a quicker turnover in your steps, not just run faster to touch the ground more times in the minute. This is a BIG first step to take, so let’s begin here and see how it goes!
Running cadence changes have helped many of my running clients decrease knee pain, achilles pain, and lateral hip pain. By changing those ground reaction forces, great strides can be made in running pain free!
Need assistance in pain free running? Have your hips or knees been hurting while you run? Let’s chat! I would be happy to discuss further how Loon State Physical Therapy can be a teammate in getting you back to moving and feeling your best! Call us at (612) 405-8503 or book with us online at www.loonstatephysicaltherapy.com for an in-person or virtual appointment.
Until next time!
Andrew Eccles
Owner and Physical Therapist at Loon State Physical Therapy
