Knee pain with running?

Knee pain with running?

Consider increasing your cadence, or number of steps per minute.

There is wide variability of running styles, even with elite runners, and we can see unusual patterns with very successful long-distance runners. This is okay!

If you run on a regular basis, your body will usually find a comfortable pattern, and you will fall into a routine stride and cadence.

Your body build affects this, as taller runners generally have a lower cadence than shorter runners. (Think of the step rate of an adult walking next to a child.)

Many studies have been done trying to pinpoint specific traits that may put a runner at risk of injury, but with mixed results, and the overriding conclusion seems to be that runners can adapt to unique gait patterns and variability between these patterns can be healthy and does not necessarily cause pain.

However, if you are having knee pain with running, increasing your steps per minute may help. A study showed that with increased cadence, the subjects had less knee flexion during stance, decreasing the force required of the quads, and thus decreasing the patellofemoral joint load.

So, if you’re having pain, figure out your steps per minute, and then increase it a little, maybe by 10 percent. You can use a metronome (there are apps for this) or set your music tempo to your goal of steps per minute. You can increase your cadence without increasing speed, and you may find that this simple change makes all the difference!

Lenhart RL, Thelen DG, Wille CM, Chumanov ES, Heiderscheit BC. Increasing running step rate reduces patellofemoral joint forces. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Mar;46(3):557-64