Influence of cadence manipulation on running biomechanics in high school cross-country runners

Increasing cadence is an intervention to reduce injury risk for adolescent long-distance runners. It is unknown how adolescents respond biomechanically when running with a higher than preferred cadence. We examined the influence of increasing cadence on peak joint angles, moments and powers, and ground reaction forces in long-distance runners. We collected three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics for 31 high school cross-country runners during overground running at their preferred cadence (baseline), +5%, and +10% baseline cadence. We performed repeated-measures ANOVAs to compare peak joint angles, moments and powers, and ground reactions forces among cadence conditions. Increasing cadence reduced peak pelvis, hip, knee, and ankle joint angles (p ≤ .01), peak knee moment and powers (p < .001), peak ankle power (p ≤ .01), and peak ground reaction forces (p ≤ .01) but increased peak hip moment and powers (p < .001). Increasing cadence by 10% elicited greater magnitude changes compared to increasing cadence by 5%. Increasing cadence may be a beneficial intervention to reduce lower extremity peak joint angles and knee kinetics for adolescent long-distance runners. The increase in hip kinetics when running at a higher than preferred cadence indicates this intervention increases the loads applied to the hip for adolescent long-distance runners.