Stride Rate – 180 steps per minute
Photo by: Mike Baird
The Perfect Beat
Stride rate or cadence is a critical element to running correctly. This is something that all runners should learn early on in their endeavors. How often should my feet hit the ground?
To many, the answer to this question is: it depends on how fast you’re going. This is the wrong answer.
The correct answer is: 180 or more steps per minute. This means that you take 90 or more steps with each foot, per minute.
How can this be possible? If you keep your stride rate even, another variable must change — in this case your stride length. The faster you go, the longer your stride becomes with little to no change in leg turnover.
According to Jack Daniels in Running Formula:
I find that very few (sometimes none out of a class of 25 or 30) take as many as 180 steps per minute. In fact, some turn over as slowly as 160 steps per minute. The main disadvantage of this slower turnover is that the slower you take steps, the longer you spend in the air, and the longer you’re in the air, the higher you displace your body mass and the harder you hit the ground on landing. When you consider that many running injuries are the result of landing shock, it’s not surprising that experienced runners tend to turn over faster than beginning runners do.
That tidbit right there should be enough to convince you that the single biggest improvement you can make to your running form is to ensure you’re getting enough steps per minute.
Imagine what the increased landing shock would do to your barefeet, or minimally protected feet. Imagine all of that shock landing on your heel!
Reaching 180
The easiest way to count your stride is to count every single sided footfall for 60 seconds. When you have that number, multiply by two. Experiment with what it feels like to turn over more quickly, but keep the same pace. Then experiment with what it feels like to turn over as quickly, but lengthen your stride, increasing your pace.
It may help to keep your body in rhythm — there are many folks who enjoy running to music. Many songs can be utilized to keep your cadence.
Some musical ideas are:
- HellaSound – 30 minute custom bpm tracks. 4 to choose from as of now, each a different musical style. I have 3 of these at 180 bpm and find them wonderful for longer runs.
- A discussion on popular music tracks on the dailymile.
- A simple mp3 of a metronome, at 180 bpm.
- You can buy a “running” metronome.
I’ve written extensively onmy blog about 180 BPM music for barefoot running. Some of my favorites are here: http://tinyurl.com/33flu82
Awesome George, thanks for sharing. I’ll check them out.
I’m a really tall guy, espcially legs. Over 39″ inseam, with heavy calfs.
I used to shod-jog 145spm for a 45min 10km.
In my opinion, leg length IS a factor. A longer pendulum (distance from hip to centre of gravity of leg) will naturally swing at a lower rate.
Take a long pendulum, like a 3 foot 2×2 with a weight at the end, swinging freely, and see at which rate it swings. No, amplitude also is not a factor, it will swing at one rate. Trying to swing at a higher rate will require extra energy. Try it, make it swing faster than it wants to.
Now, how to avoid this extra energy consumption? How to win back that added effort in speed (through stride length, obviously)?
It will not be very hard to calculate which leg length is optimal for barefoot running, now that we now the optimal step rate, and knowing a given pendulum length results in a given period (60 times 2 divided by steps per minute).
How do all humans end up with the same cadence? Should there not be a formula incorperating centre of gravity of the leg?
180 spm is a ‘mean’ not a ‘mode’. Daniels found the average cadence was 180, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you should be running 180 spm. The range her explicitly states is 170-190 spm.
My point of the article was that improving turnover to a reasonable rate, and then adjusting stride length from there, will benefit many beginning runners who tend to gallup.
Obviously each of us are unique, and at the end of the day we are an experiment of one. So you are correct in that leg length is surely a factor which individual athletes must take into account.
Thanks Rob.
I can counter my own argument. If you move mostly from the knees (like a barefoot runner possibly), period is reduced due to the short pendulum of the lowe leg.
My argument holds strongest for those who run moving their legs like scissors, I suppose.
Thanks for this useful post. I’ll keep this in mind.
It seems to me that the extra impacts on your feet (180 in one minute vs 160 in one minute) would make up for the difference in severity of impact. Any thoughts on that?
Imagine many light impacts, vs fewer jarring impacts. It’s not a math equation where they equal each other out.
The greater number of strides means changes to your form, along with lighter touches on the ground. An extended stride means greater height as you run, or stretching of your stride and landing differently. Each of those can have serious consequences.
I’ve been running for years with no injuries. I’m used to running at 160-165 spm (please note that I’m 6′ 3″). After hearing and reading so much about how we should aim for higher stride rate, so I decided to give it a try. For about 3 weeks, I worked on increasing stride rate and the most I could do was around 175 and it seemed I had to expend more energy to try to maintain that stride rate and thus breathing harder and I wasn’t going any faster either. I also felt extreme discomfort around my knees, so I decided to go back to my usual, comfortable stride rate, and the discomfort went away. I agree with Skater that the leg length is a factor. I agree with you that the higher the spm, the less risk of injury, but I think the optimal stride rate is different for each person. A shorter person would naturally have a higher stride rate than a taller person. I mean, a pigeon has a much higher stride rate than an ostrich!