Cadence: the one technique tweak with backing

Running technique gets talked about a great deal and proven very little. There’s one exception with reasonable backing: raising your cadence a little, that is, the number of steps per minute.

What happens when you take shorter steps

A systematic review pooling eighteen studies found that a moderate increase in cadence, of between 5% and 10%, produces consistent improvements: it lowers ground reaction force, lowers the rate at which that force is applied, shortens the stride and improves leg alignment. Reductions in peak knee impact of around 20% have been described.

And it doesn’t stay in the lab: in runners with patellofemoral pain — the most common injury of all — a 10% increase in cadence improved both mechanics and symptoms, at 4 weeks and at 3 months.

160 steps/min · long stride

175 steps/min · short stride

How to do it

• First measure yours: count the footfalls of one foot for 30 seconds and multiply by 4.
• Raise it by 5% to 10%. If you’re at 160, aim for 168-176. No more.
• Take shorter steps, not faster ones: your speed doesn’t have to change.
• Practise it in 1-2 minute stretches inside the session, not for the whole run.
• Give it weeks. It’s a motor change, not a switch.

What you won’t find here

Advice on whether to land on your heel or your midfoot. That debate has gone unresolved for years and there’s no solid evidence that changing your footstrike by decree reduces injuries — in fact it can shift the load from one place to another. Raise your cadence and the footstrike tends to sort itself out.