Increasing Step Rate Affects Rearfoot Kinematics and Ground Reaction Forces during Running

Abstract

Relatively high frontal and transverse plane motion in the lower limbs during running have been thought to play a role in the development of some running-related injuries (RRIs). Increasing step rate has been shown to significantly alter lower limb kinematics and kinetics during running. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of increasing step rate on rearfoot kinematics, and to confirm how ground reaction forces (GRFs) are adjusted with increased step rate. Twenty runners ran on a force instrumented treadmill while marker position data were collected under three conditions. Participants ran at their preferred pace and step rate, then +5% and +10% of their preferred step rate while being cued by a metronome for three minutes each. Sagittal and frontal plane angles for the rearfoot segment, tibial rotation, and GRFs were calculated during the stance phase of running. Significant decreases were observed in sagittal and frontal plane rearfoot angles, tibial rotation, vertical GRF, and anteroposterior GRF with increased step rate compared with the preferred step rate. Increasing step rate significantly decreased peak sagittal and frontal plane rearfoot and tibial rotation angles. These findings may have implications for some RRIs and gait retraining.

Gait retraining targeting foot pronation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The main literature search yielded a total of 4562 from which 1702 items remained after duplicate removal. A total of 1688 studies were excluded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria and 15 were included after screening of titles and abstracts for further eligibility check [17,37,[41][42][43][44][45][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. (Fig 1 ) shows the flow diagram, summarizing the selection process and the number of studies excluded at each stage.…”

“…Table 2 summarizes the characteristics of the included studies. There were 12 cross-sectional studies [17,37,41,42,44,45,[50][51][52][53][54]57] and 3 RCTs [43,52,58] assessing the effects of gait retraining on foot pronation.…”

“…Fourteen studies were assessed by Downs and black scale [17,21,37,52,[55][56][57]59]. Any disparities in scoring were rechecked by 2 authors (FKH and SHM).…”

“…Several studies have proposed changes to running techniques (i.e., movement) through running retraining using feedback to reduce impact loads [36]. A study found that increasing step cadence by just 5% significantly reduced peak braking force by 5.7% [37] and 11.4% [38] in long-distance runners. Increasing step cadence with a proportional reduction in the stride length at a constant speed has reduced foot inclination angles and impact forces by 5.6% [39] which decreases the number of initial contacts by hindfoot [40].…”

Healthy Running Habits for the Distance Runner: Clinical Utility of the American College of Sports Medicine Infographic

“…In addition, a higher cadence reduces vertical oscillation of the center of mass, reduces braking impulses and stride width at level or downhill grades (25,27), and reduces the loading impulse at the heel (34). Tibial rotation and sagittal and rearfoot angles are reduced with faster cadence (35). Cueing faster cadence also can help widen stride/step, position foot landing closer to the center of gravity, and reduce excessive bounce.…”