Running Cadence and Knee Load: What a 5% Increase Does in the Lab

In a 2021 study that followed 224 recreational runners for a year, 46% had a running injury that cost them training time or needed medical advice. The knee made up 27% of the injuries and the Achilles tendon and calf together 25%. Lab studies suggest that taking slightly quicker, shorter steps at the same speed lowers the load on the knee at each step.

This guide covers what cadence means, what the lab and outdoor studies found, what a 2025 review concluded, what the evidence says about injuries, and how to raise your cadence step by step. Most of the evidence measures load on the body over a single session. It does not yet show, in trials, that raising cadence prevents injuries.

What cadence means

Cadence is the number of steps you take per minute when you run, counting both feet. Studies also call this step rate, and this guide uses both terms for the same thing. Your speed comes from how many steps you take and how long each one is. At the same speed, a higher cadence means shorter steps.

A 2025 review by Figueiredo and colleagues reports that recreational runners typically run at 150 to 170 steps per minute, while elite runners often exceed 180. The lab and outdoor studies below did not ask runners to hit a set number. They changed each runner's own preferred step rate by a small percentage.

What the lab study found

In 2011, Bryan Heiderscheit and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison tested 45 healthy recreational runners with an average age of about 33. All ran at least 24 km a week and had no recent leg injury or current pain. Each person ran on a treadmill at their own preferred speed under five step rates, in random order: their preferred rate and 5% and 10% above and below it, while cameras and force sensors measured their movement. Their preferred step rate averaged about 173 steps per minute, above the 150 to 170 range the review calls typical, at an average speed of 2.9 metres per second, about 5:45 per kilometre.

Energy absorbed at the knee is a lab measure of how much work the muscles around the knee do to slow your body as each foot lands. It is one marker of knee load in a single session, not a measure of joint wear or injury. When step rate rose by 5%, the knee absorbed about 20% less energy at each landing. At 10% above, the knee absorbed about 34% less, and the hip also absorbed less. When step rate fell by 10%, every joint absorbed more energy. Step length, the up-and-down movement of the body and the braking at each step all fell as step rate rose. These figures are per step. At 5% more steps you also land about 5% more often per kilometre, and the authors note that the total load over a run might be the same.

The runners rated the effort as harder only at 10% above their preferred rate. The authors suggest this might reflect the extra concentration needed, rather than a real rise in energy cost. Among the limits they note: it is uncertain whether the changes last beyond the short term, and the tests were on a treadmill rather than outdoors.

What happened outdoors

In 2021, Taylor Musgjerd and colleagues asked 15 healthy recreational runners, 8 women and 7 men recruited from university students, to run 2.4 miles outdoors twice in their usual running shoes. The first run was at their natural cadence. On a later run, a metronome cued a cadence 10% higher while runners tried to hold their first-run pace. The runners reached an average increase of 7.3%, and average peak force measured by insoles fell by 5.6%.

The authors note that the group was small, that all runners were free of past leg injuries and surgery, and that weather and traffic varied between runs. They did not test whether the new cadence lasted once the metronome was removed.

What a 2025 review concluded

The Figueiredo review included 18 studies of different designs, some of them earlier reviews, and summarised them in words rather than pooling the numbers. It reports that a moderate rise in cadence, typically 5% to 10%, led to consistent changes linked to lower load: lower ground reaction forces (the force of the ground pushing back on the foot), lower loading rates (how fast that force builds at landing), shorter steps and better leg alignment. It found that cadence changes did not raise energy cost and that sound or music cues helped runners stick with them.

The review also lists clear limits. Many studies were small, most measured load on the body rather than injuries, and several did not keep running speed constant, which makes the effect of cadence alone hard to isolate. It says high-quality long-term studies are needed, and that cadence change should be one part of a wider plan that includes technique guidance, strength training and managing training load.

What the evidence says about injuries

The evidence here is weaker. A 2016 study by Lace Luedke and colleagues followed 68 high school cross-country runners, average age 16, through one season. At a fixed speed, runners at 164 steps per minute or fewer had about 6.7 times the odds of a shin injury of those at 174 or more. The 95% confidence interval, the range of values the data support, was wide, from 1.2 to 36.7. Overall, 19.1% of the runners had a shin injury, and most injuries cost 7 days or fewer. Front-of-knee pain was not significantly linked to step rate, though only about 3 runners had it.

That study shows a link in teenage runners. It did not test whether raising cadence lowers injury risk, and the authors call for studies that do. The review's authors were more positive, citing a trial of 320 novice runners in which gait retraining cut injury risk by 62% over 12 months, but that was a broader gait retraining programme, not cadence alone. In our view, the evidence shows that a higher cadence lowers load in the short term, while proof that it prevents injuries is still to come.

Who should take care

Both cadence experiments excluded runners with a leg injury in the past 3 months or past leg surgery, and the outdoor study took runners with no history of leg injury. In the 2021 study of 224 recreational runners, a past injury was the only factor linked to more injuries, at about twice the rate.

In our view, if you are running through pain, have a current or past leg injury, have had leg surgery or have knee arthritis, see a physiotherapist before you change your technique. Change one thing at a time: keep your pace and weekly distance the same while your cadence adjusts. If new pain starts during a run, go back to your usual cadence. If the pain stays or gets worse, stop the run. If it returns on your next runs, see a physiotherapist.

How to raise your cadence

These steps are ours, built from the studies above. They are not a tested programme.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

In a 2011 lab study of 45 healthy runners, a 5% higher step rate at the same speed cut the energy absorbed at the knee at each landing by about 20%, and a 10% rise cut it by about 34%. An outdoor study of 15 runners found 5.6% lower peak force with a 7.3% rise in cadence. A 2025 review of 18 studies found consistent drops in load with 5% to 10% increases, but many studies were small and most measured load rather than injuries. A study of teenage runners linked a low step rate with more shin injuries, but no trial in these sources has shown that raising cadence alone prevents injuries. In our view, a gradual 5% rise at the same pace is a low-cost change worth trying alongside strength work and sensible training load.

Related reading

• •Is running bad for your knees
• •Best exercise for knee osteoarthritis
• •Eccentric training and strength
• •Zone 2 training

Sources

• •Desai P, Jungmalm J, Börjesson M, Karlsson J, Grau S. Recreational runners with a history of injury are twice as likely to sustain a running-related injury as runners with no history of injury: a 1-year prospective cohort study. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy 2021. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33356768
• •Heiderscheit BC, Chumanov ES, Michalski MP, Wille CM, Ryan MB. Effects of step rate manipulation on joint mechanics during running. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2011. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20581720
• •Musgjerd T, Anason J, Rutherford D, Kernozek TW. Effect of increasing running cadence on peak impact force in an outdoor environment. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 2021. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34386286
• •Figueiredo I, Reis E Silva M, Sousa JE. The influence of running cadence on biomechanics and injury prevention: a systematic review. Cureus 2025. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40964543
• •Luedke LE, Heiderscheit BC, Williams DS, Rauh MJ. Influence of step rate on shin injury and anterior knee pain in high school runners. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2016. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26818150