Inside running community there is frequently a large amount of chat and in some cases obsession with the running form or method with a lot of opinions, plenty of comments from guru’s with lots of dogma and not a lot of scientific research to understand nearly all of it. The ideas from the so-called experts and just how a runner should actually run can be varied and sometimes contradictory, which will leave the average athlete rather puzzled. There are numerous factors to the numerous running techniques such as where and how the foot contacts the ground as well as the position from the leg and hips. The one that a short while ago got a great deal of interest was the cadence. Your cadence is related to how fast the legs turn over, generally assessed as the number of steps taken each minute.
There are a number of methods to figure out the cadence and there are applications you can use to determine the cadence. It’s just a matter of keeping track of the quantity of steps the athlete normally takes in a time frame and then calculating that to one minute. Clearly there was just recently an increasing movement advocating for athletes to shorten their stride length and increase the speed that the legs turn over ie increase the cadence. The dogma is that when you can find the cadence to around 180 steps/minute then that is somehow a crucial way for you to lessen the possibility for injury and increase performance. This 180 steps/minute was popularized by the well-known athletic coach Jack Daniels. He centered this about his observations of athletes and their step rates during the 1984 Olympic games. He widely pushed the 180 as a possible perfect for almost all athletes to focus on.
Consequently, the research has demonstrated that the cadence in athletes is normally quite variable with a few as low as 150-160 yet others are approximately 200 steps a minute. It does appear to be a quite individual thing without any one best cadence. It does appear that every runner will probably have their own ideally suited cadence and will also vary between runners. Reducing the step length to boost the cadence does appear to have some positive aspects and that is backed up by a number of scientific studies, however what isn’t backed up is increasing it to that particular mythological 180 which has been commonly suggested. It may help with runners that are overstriding and make them learn to not reach so far in front when running. It does appear to assist runners who have complications with their knees because it can lessen the loads in the knee, but it will on the other hand increase the strains somewhere else, therefore any alterations is required to be accomplished little by little , cautiously and step by step.
What is most significant with regard to athletes to appreciate is that the cadence is highly individual and it is an issue of working out all on your own or with the assistance of a skilled running technique instructor precisely what is most effective for you as the individual. One matter that has come out around all of the buzz around cadence would be to never be seduced by the most recent craze or guru and look for the more sensible and regarded opinions.