How important is the cadence for runners to get right?

Inside running community there is commonly a lot of discussion and in some cases obsession with the running form or technique with plenty of opinions, a great deal of assertions from guru’s with a lot of dogma but not much research to understand most of the claims. The viewpoints from the so-called gurus and the way a runner ought to actually run can be quite diverse and quite often contradictory, which commonly leave the typical athlete somewhat perplexed. There are plenty of factors to the different running techniques for instance how and where the foot strikes the ground along with the position with the knee and hips. One that just lately received a lot of consideration was the cadence. The actual cadence is related to how fast the legs turn over, commonly measured as the number of steps taken each minute.

There are a variety of ways to look for the cadence and you will find applications you can use to figure out the cadence. It's just a matter of counting the number of steps the athlete takes in a time frame after which standardizing that to one minute. There was clearly a short while ago an increasing movement advocating for runners to cut short their stride length and increase the speed which the legs turn over ie raise the cadence. The dogma was that when you can find the cadence to around 180 steps/minute then that is in some way a key technique to lessen the chance of injury while increasing overall performance. This particular 180 steps/minute was made popular by the famous athletic coach Jack Daniels. He centered this on his studies of athletes and step cadences at the 1984 Olympics. Daniels widely promoted the 180 being an well suited for most athletes to achieve.

Subsequently, the research has demonstrated that the cadence in athletes is naturally very varied with some as low as 150-160 while others are about 200 steps a minute. It can appear to be a really personal thing without any one best cadence. It does appear that each individual will probably have their own suitable cadence and will also differ between individuals. Shortening the step length to increase the cadence may appear to have some positive aspects which is backed up by a number of scientific studies, but just what isn't supported is raising it to that particular mythical 180 which has been greatly suggested. It could help with runners who are overstriding and make them learn to not reach so far ahead when running. It does appear to assist runners that have troubles with their knee joints since it could reduce the stresses there, but it will however increase the strains in another place, so any alterations needs to be done little by little , cautiously and progressively.

What is most important for athletes to appreciate is that this is quite individual and it is an issue of working out all on your own or by making use of a skilled running technique instructor what is most effective for you as the individual. One point that comes out around most of the buzz around cadence would be to never be enticed by the latest trend or guru and seek out the more well balanced and considered viewpoints.