Cumulative patellofemoral force and stress are lower during faster running compared to slower running in recreational runners

ABSTRACT

Management strategies for patellofemoral pain often involve modifying running distance or speed. However, the optimal modification strategy to manage patellofemoral joint (PFJ) force and stress accumulated during running warrants further investigation. This study investigated the effect of running speed on peak and cumulative PFJ force and stress in recreational runners. Twenty recreational runners ran on an instrumented treadmill at four speeds (2.5–4.2 m/s). A musculoskeletal model derived peak and cumulative (per 1 km of continuous running) PFJ force and stress for each speed. Cumulative PFJ force and stress decreased with faster speeds (9.3–33.6% reduction for 3.1–4.2 m/s vs. 2.5 m/s). Peak PFJ force and stress significantly increased with faster speeds (9.3–35.6% increase for 3.1–4.2 m/s vs. 2.5 m/s). The largest cumulative PFJ kinetics reductions occurred when speeds increased from 2.5 to 3.1 m/s (13.7–14.2%). Running at faster speeds increases the magnitude of peak PFJ kinetics but conversely results in less accumulated force over a set distance. Selecting moderate running speeds (~3.1 m/s) with reduced training duration or an interval-based approach may be more effective for managing cumulative PFJ kinetics compared to running at slow speeds.

KEYWORDS:

• Running
• speed
• kinetics
• patellofemoral joint
• knee

Acknowledgments

Eoin Doyle is a holder of a Research Excellence Scholarship from Macquarie University. We thank Dr Chelsea Starbuck (Swansea University) for assisting with the patellofemoral joint model and supplying model formulae.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are available on request from the authors. The data supporting the study findings are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request, by emailing Eoin Doyle ([email protected]).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2023.2226111.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.