You strap on the Garmin, set your heart rate zone, and ten seconds in you’re already over the limit. Sound familiar? Your cadence is the reason.
The first time I tried low heart rate training, I couldn’t do it.
My calculated target heart rate was so low that actual running sent me straight into the red. I had to slow down. Way down. I had to walk. It felt ridiculous.
That’s when I started paying attention to what my body was doing — and I didn’t like what I saw. I was overstriding. My foot was landing way out in front of me, braking with every step. My cadence was low. My form was a mess.
That discovery led me to the Pose Method. Upright posture. Foot landing underneath my body, not ahead of it. Short, quick steps.
I took it to our local lake path — the popular one, where everyone sees you.
My heart rate stayed low. I was taking quick little steps, moving slowly, and I was getting passed. By baby strollers. By people walking their dogs.
Embarrassed? Yes. Humbled? Absolutely.
But I knew I was onto something.
And it only got better from there.
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If you’ve been fighting to keep your heart rate low on your runs, your cadence is probably the real culprit — not your fitness. Here are three reasons raising your cadence changes everything.
1 - Raising Your Running Cadence Protects Your Joints from Every Pounding Step
I see a lot of older runners overstriding, and running at a low cadence
Every time your foot lands in front of your body, you’re slamming on the brakes. That braking force has to go somewhere. It travels up through your heel, your shin, your knee, your hip, your lower back.
Do that a thousand times a mile, over thirty or forty years of running, and your joints will eventually tell you to stop.
Bryan Heiderscheit and his team at the University of Wisconsin studied this directly. They found that increasing your cadence by just 10% — say, from 155 to 170 steps per minute — reduced peak loading at the hip and knee by more than 20%.1
That’s not a rounding error. That’s the difference between finishing the year strong and spending October on the couch with an ice pack on your knee.
Here’s the mechanism. When you shorten your stride and quicken your feet, your foot lands underneath your body instead of way out in front of it. Your body weight stays over your foot instead of crashing into it. The Pose Method calls this “falling forward” from the hips. Less braking. Less impact. Less wear.
If you still run with a heel-strike-first, long-stride pattern as an older runner, you are making daily deposits into future knee surgery. Cadence is how you fix it.
2 - Raising Your Running Cadence Unlocks Low Heart Rate Training
This one took me a long time to figure out, and it’s the one I get the most emails about.
When I first tried low heart rate training, I couldn’t stay under my target. My heart rate was past 140 bpm just jogging. I thought I was just out of shape. Turns out, I was working against my own mechanics.
A study by Jonathan Folland and colleagues in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise confirmed that a higher cadence significantly improves running economy — meaning you use less oxygen, and less energy, to cover the same ground.2 When you’re more efficient, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to carry you forward.
If you’re one of the many older runners fighting aerobic deficiency syndrome (ADS) — where your heart rate spikes the moment you break into a jog — cadence is the lever you’re not pulling. Fix your form. Raise your cadence. Suddenly you can run at 130 bpm without walking.
This is exactly what Dr. Peter Attia has been preaching about Zone 2 training. Your aerobic base is the foundation of longevity. But you can’t build that foundation if every step sends your heart rate through the roof. Cadence is what makes Zone 2 running physically possible for most of us over 50.
Quick Garmin Check
On your next easy run, look at your average cadence. If it’s under 170 and your heart rate won’t settle below 130 bpm, you’ve just found your bottleneck.
3 - Raising Your Running Cadence Extends Your Running Life by Decades
Dr. Peter Attia talks about the “Centenarian Decathlon” — the idea that what you do today determines what you’ll physically be able to do at 90. Running is on a lot of those lists. Most runners I know want to still be lacing up at 75, 80, even 90.
You don’t get there by pounding yourself into the ground.
A long-running study out of Stanford tracked recreational runners over 50 against non-runners for more than two decades. The runners had lower rates of disability, chronic pain, and all-cause mortality.3 They stayed sharper, stronger, and more independent — but only the runners who adjusted their training as they aged.
Adjusting your training means running in a way your 80-year-old self will thank you for. That means protecting your joints. That means building efficiency instead of grinding out miles. That means treating every run like a deposit in your retirement account, not a withdrawal.
Cadence is one of the cheapest, simplest deposits you can make. You don’t need new shoes. You don’t need a coach. You don’t need a lab test. You need about four minutes of drills, once or twice a week, and a Garmin with a built-in metronome.
How to Fix Your Cadence (Without Ruining Your Runs)
Here’s the practice I use myself, and the same one I recommend to the runners I coach.
The Pose form: While standing straight, lift one leg up until your thigh is parallel to the ground. From the side this should look like the number 4. To loosen up, try marching in place for 10 steps. Now, only bring your thigh up half way. This is your new running form. Again, march in place for 10 steps to get the feel of this.
Test Run: To test this, go from marching in place to running in place, matching your current cadence. Then lean forward at the ankles to start running.
The 8 -Minute Cadence Reset: On your next easy run on level ground, pick four times during the run to do this sequence. Two minutes per round. That’s it.
10 quick pulls on your left leg. Bring the heel up under your hip, fast, like a mini butt-kick. Ten clean pulls.
10 quick pulls on your right leg. Same thing, other side.
20 mini alternating pulls. Left, right, left, right — under your hips, quick feet, short steps. This is the Pose Method in motion.
One full minute at a higher cadence than usual. If you normally run at 155, aim for 160. Use the built-in metronome on your Garmin or phone app and match your footstrike to the beat.
Bump your target cadence up by 5 spm every week or two. Don’t jump from 150 to 170 in a single run — your calves will punish you for it. Creep up on it. Your body rewards patience and ignores force.
The Takeaway
Your cadence is not just a number on your watch. It’s the difference between braking and flowing. Between beating up your joints and protecting them. Between running hard and running easy.
Three reasons to raise it: it protects your joints, it unlocks low heart rate training, and it adds years to your running life.
Imagine running your favorite loop at 130 bpm — short, quick steps, no pounding, no heaving breath. Just a steady rhythm you could hold for an hour. That’s not fantasy. That’s what the right cadence feels like. And you’re maybe 30 days of drills away from it.
What would your running look like if every step protected you instead of punishing you?
What’s your current average cadence — and what’s your first move to raise it? Hit reply and let me know.
Have a great week!
-Herb
Run Smarter, Live Longer
P.S. Ready to go deeper?
The Forever Runner Method is a proven, step-by-step framework built specifically for runners over 50 who are tired of getting hurt and are ready to run smarter. If you want to discover how, Grab a copy of my book at Foreverrunner.com.
1 Bryan C. Heiderscheit, Elizabeth S. Chumanov, Max P. Michalski, Christa M. Wille, and Michael B. Ryan, “Effects of Step Rate Manipulation on Joint Mechanics during Running,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 43, no. 2 (February 2011): 296–302.
2 Jonathan P. Folland, Sandford J. Allen, Martin I. Black, Joseph C. Handsaker, and Stephanie E. Forrester, “Running Technique Is an Important Component of Running Economy and Performance,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 49, no. 7 (July 2017): 1412–1423.
3 Eliza F. Chakravarty, Helen B. Hubert, Vijaya B. Lingala, and James F. Fries, “Reduced Disability and Mortality Among Aging Runners: A 21-Year Longitudinal Study,” Archives of Internal Medicine 168, no. 15 (August 2008): 1638–1646.