You did your research, compared different models or prices and finally settled on the perfect treadmill. Congratulations on your purchase. But before jumping on your treadmill, you need to understand your prime stride length if you’re to avoid injury when clocking those miles.
What Is Stride Length?
Although many factors contribute to running speed, the main ones you need to concentrate on are your cadence and stride length. Here cadence refers to the frequency of your steps or the total number of steps you take per minute. Stride length, on the other hand, is a measure of the distance of your steps. In simple terms, it is the distance (in a straight line) or amount of ground you cover in one step. When running on a treadmill, this is the distance from where the foot leaves the treadmill mat to where it lands next.
However, you need to keep in mind that your foot travels in a circular path-not a straight line- between two points. This becomes more obvious when running. So if you consider this circular motion, your stride length is the circumference of the circle. To measure it, you determine the size of this circle instead of how far your foot stretches in front of your body.
Continuing with this analogy, if you want to increase your stride length (the circumference), you have to focus on making a bigger circle by increasing its diameter. You can achieve this simply by lifting your knee higher as you run while keeping the level of your hips and upper body unchanged. You can get the gist of it by observing elite runners in motion.
Increasing Stride Length Safely And Efficiently
When trying to increase their running speed, most people correctly assume that they have to adjust their stride length. Unfortunately, they try to do this by overstriding in an attempt to travel further forward. This not only decreases their running efficiency but also puts them at risk of injury.
Here’s how to safely do it:
- Increasing your hip extension. Your prime stride length is limited by the range of motion of your hips and thighs. To increase the range of your upper leg, you need to have good hip extension. Doing deep lunges and glute-specific stretches will greatly increase your hip extension as you run.
- Practicing as you run. The best way to practice increasing your stride length is indoors on a home treadmill. First, begin by running at a pace that’s slightly fast and uncomfortable-but one that you can easily maintain. Then still at this pace, practice running at a slower speed without reducing the treadmill’s speed. You’ll realize that you naturally adjust your stride length to keep running at that constant speed.
- Learning how to lift your knees. As mentioned before, lifting your knees higher will help you increase your stride length and running speed. Marching drills or hill running will help you improve this technique.
Understanding and mastering your prime stride length will save you from injury and help you increase your running speed and efficiency.