Is there any research on running cadence as it relates to impact forces in the foot? Well, great question and that is what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
I have recently gotten a bunch of questions on one of the episodes I did where I mentioned somebody who had a stress fracture, and I had suggested that she should increase her cadence to try to decrease some of the impact forces through that particular bone when she was running and getting back to training now that she is really started to recover in a meaningful way. Specifically, what we are talking about here is your cadence.
First of all, whether or not this particular episode and the advice I gave to her is going to be appropriate for you, I have no idea. However, I think that since I have gotten so many questions about it, if you are interested in the idea of cadence and impact forces, this might be useful for you to get some clarification. So, most of those questions want to know really and truly like, not is it just a routine that I use, but is there any evidence-based medicine or research that backs it up to show that it might really be worth even trying to change your running cadence at all? Well, the short answer is yes.
There was a research study actually published in 2021 in the medical journal, International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy. And the title of the particular study that I’m referring to was called Effect of Increased Running Cadence on Peak Impact Forces in an Outdoor Environment. So, what we’re talking about is if you increase the number of times your foot hits the ground in a given mile, it forces you to shorten your strides. As a consequence, this research article was looking at whether or not that actually decreases the impact forces, the stress and strain applied to the structures in your foot when you’re running outside.
I will make sure that we put a link to this particular article on the podcast show notes page for this episode under the podcast tab at www.docontherun.com. And if you’re even thinking about this, it’s probably worth checking out. So, the main finding from this study was that what the researchers discovered was that by increasing the running cadence by about 7%, which is not a lot, when you’re running outside, that actually resulted in a decrease in the peak forces during a 2.4-mile run. Because of that, the author suggested that using something like a metronome, which is a thing I discussed in a previous episode, that might be helpful as an effective tool to help you alter your cadence in order to decrease some of the impact forces and stresses applied to structures in your foot like the metatarsal bone or the plantar fascia or anything else that is getting a stress-induced injury.
The conclusion that you get from that might imply that if you have a stress fracture and you’re going to try to return to running, the whole thing that I talk about over and over and over is that the main strategy is that when you get a stress-induced injury, like a stress fracture, you have to decrease the stress to that one particular bone, just that one bone, and there’s lots of ways to do that.
If you take pads and you put them in your shoes so you put pressure somewhere else other than that one bone, that will decrease the forces applied to that bone when you walk, run, stand, or anything. If you do something like increase your cadence in a way that decreases the overall stress applied to the bones during your run, that will also help. This is a math problem. You’re trying to increase the volume of training as much as possible to restore your running fitness as much as possible without re-injuring the bone. Increasing the cadence is one of the tools you can use to do that.
If you really want to learn more about the strategies I use that actually help you return to running without crossing over that threshold for re-injury, I’ve put those things together in the Stress Fracture Masterclass. It’s free and you can get it if you go to www.docontherun.com/stressfracturemasterclass.
I’ll have a link to that as well as a link to the article I referred to that talked about decreasing impact forces when you increase your cadence. If you go to this episode of the show notes at www.docontherun.com under the podcast tab. Go sign up for the Stress Fracture Masterclass and I’ll see you in the training.
Citation:
Musgjerd T, Anason J, Rutherford D, Kernozek TW. Effect of Increasing Running Cadence on Peak Impact Force in an Outdoor Environment. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2021 Aug 1;16(4):1076-1083. doi: 10.26603/001c.25166. PMID: 34386286; PMCID: PMC8329321.
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