News Feature: Running Cadence and Stride Length

Posted by The RunSafe Team on November 28, 2012

In one of our previous posts, we discussed the effect of cadence manipulation on impact injuries. Cadence manipulation - intentionally changing the number of steps in a minute during running - is an indirect strategy that can shorten stride length. By increasing the number of steps per minute, the runner intuitively reduces the stride length.

There is evidence that suggests increasing cadence by even 10% can reduce forces at the knee and hip, and lead to a shorter stride. Adopting this strategy may be particularly helpful to runners with injuries resulting from overstriding, such as stress fractures and joint problems. More frequent, shorter strides can also benefit performance by decreasing wasted vertical motion.

Recently, CBS San Francisco featured UCSF RunSafe experts Dr. Richard Souza and Dr. Anthony Luke for additional discussion on the issue of cadence and stride length: