Optimal Turnover for Efficient Running

by Ken Mierke

Few runners understand what a critical role stride length and stride frequency play in running efficiently and without injuries.  The very best runners use high turnover instead of long strides to run fast.  Running with quick, short steps decreases the energy cost of fast running, decreases the stress on the muscles, and minimizes landing impact.

Long strides are inefficient for a number of reasons.  First of all, the more distance a runner covers with each stride, the more he must run up and down.  This wastes energy at push-off and increases impact stress, dramatically raising the risk of injuries.  Imagine you throw a baseball to someone only 15 feet away.  If you threw the ball fairly hard, you could throw it on basically a straight line.  If you were throwing it to someone 50 yards away, you would have to throw it higher in the air.  The same applies to runners.  Longer strides demand more vertical movement which is terribly inefficient.  Efficient runners move almost perfectly horizontally.

Longer strides also demand more work from the muscle fibers that are designed more for sprinting than for endurance.  The endurance fibers cannot create enough power at push-off for long strides, so the sprint fibers are called into play.  Unfortunately, the sprint fibers don’t have much endurance.  Short, quick strides allow the endurance fibers to contract frequently and repeatedly at high running speeds, and decrease reliance on sprint fibers.  That means you can run longer at a fast pace!

Perhaps most critically, using short, quick steps maximizes the “free speed” gained through elastic recoil.  Every time an efficient runner’s foot hits the ground, his muscles and connective tissues stretch out like a rubber band.  These tissues then snap back powerfully.  This is called elastic recoil and it provides propulsion that requires no energy expenditure.  Running with high turnover is the key to optimizing elastic recoil.  When you stretch muscles and connective tissue and let go, they snap back like a rubber band, but when you stretch and hold them – they just stretch!  Running with long, slow strides causes the energy return from elastic recoil to dissipate because the tissues are stretched for a prolonged period.  Learn to take short quick strides and take advantage of this “free speed.” 

Running with quick, short strides is quite unnatural for taller runners, who have been told to take advantage of their long legs by using a long stride.  To gain the “free speed” of elastic recoil, tall runners must use the same high turnover as shorter runners.  This means they must learn to use steps which seem proportionally shorter for their leg length.  I have had tremendous success teaching tall runners to take quick, short strides and increase their efficiency.  My wife, who is 6 feet tall, learned to run with high turnover and as a result won a triathlon national championship last year.

Certain biomechanical techniques are key to increasing turnover to maximize efficiency.

1.      Efficient runners have no pause at the completion of the leg’s follow through.  The leg pulls back to provide propulsion and then immediately the knee drives forward.

2.      During leg recovery, the knee is driven forward powerfully by the hip flexor muscles at the front of the upper thigh.

3.      The foot lands directly beneath the hips to prevent braking, instead of landing out in front.

Make sure that you do not attempt to increase turnover by pulling the leg back faster during the weight bearing phase of running.  That will increase both turnover and stride length, leading to premature fatigue.  That isn’t efficient fast running; that is sprinting.  Work toward a significantly higher turnover with slightly shorter steps and you will increase speed without increasing energy expenditure.

Most efficient runners take very close to 180 steps per minute.  At this high turnover rate, a runner can cover ground at a very respectable rate without needing long steps. 

Many of the athletes we coach use metronomes during running.  A modern metronome is just slightly larger than a credit card and will beep at any rate you set it for.  (Most music stores carry these devices)  We usually have runners determine their natural turnover and gradually increase it over time, with the ultimate goal being approximately 180 steps per minute.  We generally have runners increase turnover by three to five steps-per-minute each week until approximately 180 steps per minute feels natural. 

Learning to run in a relaxed manner at high turnover with short to moderate stride length takes concentration, effort and patience, but these techniques will help almost every runner to maximize efficiency and minimize the risk for injuries.

Ken Mierke, two-time World Champion triathlete (Disabled Division, 1997,1998) and exercise physiologist, developed the techniques of Evolution Running.  Ken has coached 13 National Champions and 28 Team USA athletes.  Ken  for Joe Friel’s Ultrafit and also owns his own coaching company, Fitness Concepts.  Find more about Ken at www.Fitness-Concepts.com or www.EvolutionRunning.com