What's a good running cadence? Probably close to your own

What is running cadence?

Running cadence, also called step rate or step frequency, is how many times your feet hit the ground in a minute, left and right counted separately. Speed is cadence times step length, so any pace can be run with longer, slower steps or shorter, quicker ones. Cadence is the half you can change most easily.

Mind the units: a stride is two steps, so 85 strides per minute in a lab paper is 170 steps per minute. Watches, including Apple Watch, show steps per minute, and every figure here is in steps.

Where does the 180 steps per minute rule come from?

The 180 figure is usually traced to the coach Jack Daniels, who counted the steps of runners at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It was an observation of elite racers at race pace, never an experiment, and never meant as a target for an easy run at a much slower speed.

Round numbers travel well, and this one often points the right way: many recreational runners take long, slow steps that land well ahead of the body. But it says little about a tall runner on an easy hour, or a beginner jogging at 7 minutes per kilometer.

What cadence do elite runners use?

A wide range. At the 2016 100 km World Championship, Burns and colleagues measured the step frequency of 20 elite runners across the whole race: the average was 182 steps per minute, but individuals ranged from 155 to 203. That spread, in a world-class field, is the strongest evidence against one universal number.

Two rules fall out of the table. You step quicker when you run faster, so your easy cadence will always sit below your race cadence. And taller runners, on average, step a little slower at the same speed. Neither is a fault to correct.

Does a higher cadence reduce impact on your knees?

In the lab, modestly, yes: when runners take shorter, quicker steps at the same speed, the body bounces less, the foot lands closer under the hip and the knee absorbs less energy with each step. Whether that lowers injury rates has not been shown.

In the best-known study, Heiderscheit and colleagues had 45 recreational runners hold their usual speed at their preferred step rate (on average 172.6 steps per minute at about 2.9 meters per second) and at 5 and 10 percent above and below it. Higher rates shortened the step and reduced both the vertical movement of the center of mass and the braking impulse.

A systematic review of 10 studies found the same direction: a higher stride rate went with less vertical bounce, lower ground reaction forces and less energy absorbed at the hip, knee and ankle. What cadence marketing leaves out: none of the studies tested whether changing cadence leads to fewer injuries or helps an injured runner recover.

Lieberman and colleagues add the mechanism: braking force rose the farther the foot landed ahead of the hip, not the knee, and every 10 extra steps per minute brought the foot about 6 percent closer to the hip. Quicker steps are one simple way to stop reaching out in front.

What is the most efficient running cadence?

It differs by runner. Each of us has a cadence at which running costs the least energy, and most people choose one a little below it. The cost curve is shallow near the bottom, so small changes cost little, while large changes in either direction cost more.

In de Ruiter and colleagues' study, trained and novice runners both chose a cadence below their optimum, the trained ones closer to it. Van Oeveren and colleagues found the optimum held steady between 2.4 and 2.9 meters per second while chosen cadence crept up with speed. Lieberman found a clear optimum in 12 of 14 runners, spread across almost 30 steps per minute.

So most people sit slightly below their optimum, and a small increase is cheap and may be slightly cheaper. It also explains why forcing 180 can feel awful: for a runner whose optimum is near 166, 180 is well up the far side of the curve.

How do I increase my running cadence?

Measure it first, at your normal easy pace on flat ground. Then add about 5 percent and practice it in short stretches at the same pace. The studies above measured single sessions, not months of retraining, so a gradual change is the sensible default.

1. 01

   Find your baseline

   Run 10 easy minutes on flat ground and read your average cadence from your watch. Without one, count your right foot for 30 seconds and multiply by four.

2. 02

   Read it against your speed and height

   If you are tall or your easy pace is slow, the 150s or 160s can be entirely normal. What matters is whether your foot lands far ahead of your hips, not a figure.

3. 03

   Add about 5 percent

   Multiply your baseline by 1.05: 160 becomes 168. Run a few minutes at the new rate with a metronome or tick, at the same pace, so the extra steps shorten your stride rather than speed you up.

4. 04

   Keep the effort the same

   Your pace should not change. Ragged breathing or a climbing heart rate means you have sped up; ease off until it feels like your normal easy run.

5. 05

   Let it become yours, then check again

   Use short blocks in a few easy runs a week. When it feels natural, measure again before adding more.

Aim for the change, not the number. Going from 158 to 166 is exactly what the lab studies tested. Forcing 180 on day one is not.

Should your cadence change on hills?

Yes. Uphill, steps naturally get shorter and slightly quicker, and that is the right response. Late in a long run, the elite runners in the 100 km study held their cadence steady, so keeping your rhythm as you tire is a habit worth practicing.

In 18 high-level male runners on a treadmill, Padulo and colleagues found a 7 percent slope raised step frequency and shortened steps by about 4 percent each, while energy cost rose by about 53 percent. Downhill, short, quick steps help you avoid braking with a long reach. More in how to run hills.

How does Gears coach cadence?

Gears measures your steps on every run, on Apple Watch or iPhone alone, and you choose how much it says. Cadence in Settings has three choices: Off says nothing about your steps; Coach tells you when they slow, then plays twelve ticks at your target; Tick plays a quiet tick on every step at your target, under the coach and your music, and the coach stays silent on cadence.

The target starts at 170 steps per minute and can be set from 150 to 200, say at your baseline plus 5 percent. Steps are never coached in recoveries, cool-downs or walks. The tick plays on iPhone only for now; the coach's cadence lines and the twelve-tick beat play on both devices. After the run, cadence has its own chart in the run's details, and Quick feet is one of the six skills tracked across your graded runs. More on the running cadence metronome.

What it doesn't do: Gears doesn't detect overstriding or how your foot lands. Technique lines such as 'Quiet feet' are spoken on a timer and never claimed as detected. And it cannot tell you the right cadence for your body; it holds the target you choose.