The One thing to Improve your Running Performance

Running is a popular form of exercise that can confer many benefits ranging from improved cardiovascular health, improved bone density and can even help improve emotional regulation. Yet every year it is estimated that roughly 50% of runners experience an injury that limits their ability to run, and that at any given time 25% of runners are injured.

While overuse is often considered the culprit for running related injuries, in reality causes can be multifactorial. Amount of training, running technique, and even changes to lifestyle and emotionally stressful circumstances have all been linked to running injuries. As running related injuries are so common, there’s been a lot of research to try to identify ways to reduce the risk of injury and keep people running better (and faster) for longer.

Unfortunately evidence that can be taken and applied to the general population has been scant. While individualized plans and diagnosis/treatment can be helpful in aiding return to running following injury, it seems there’s no golden goose for fixing running injury for good. In fact, in uninjured runners, it’s been found that advising changes in technique can actually increase risk of injury!

There’s been a lot of discussion about the biomechanical factors of running in recent years – things like what part of the foot a runner lands on, and how fast their cadence (steps per minute) is. Thankfully we’re starting to see high quality studies trickle through now to help add some weight to these discussions.

One systematic review, published in 2022, explored the effects of increasing step rate for runners. It found that increasing one’s cadence by 7.5-10% can reduce forces at the knee, hip and ankle. While this cannot necessarily be taken to mean it will help uninjured runners, the same study also found that increasing cadence caused less pain in injured runners, and improved the distance that they could run prior to onset of pain.

Without individual assessment of running style and biomechanical patterns, it can be difficult to provide meaningful advice on how to avoid injury while running. However, as more studies emerge on the topic, it is becoming clear that for those who are already injured and are trying to maintain some degree of running, it may be worth increasing your cadence (by a maximum of 10%) and taking more, smaller strides when you jog. This will initially likely cause an increase in heart rate and increase fatigue in the calves, but should have the end result of reducing joint stresses and pain.

If you would like someone to help make sense of your pain, assess your running technique, our help improve your running performance, please call us at (02) 8411 2050. At Thornleigh Performance Physiotherapy, we can give you an accurate diagnosis and treatment, to help you get back in action as soon as possible. We are conveniently located near Beecroft, Cherrybrook, Hornsby, Normanhurst, Pennant Hills, Waitara, Wahroonga, Westleigh, West Pennant Hills, and West Pymble.

Anderson, L.M., Martin, J.F., Barton, C.J. et al. What is the Effect of Changing Running Step Rate on Injury, Performance and Biomechanics? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports Med - Open 8, 112 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00504-0