New research has found that running while pushing a stroller minimizes the activity’s impact on the body, reducing the overall risk of injury.
A team from Penn State University’s Berks campus analyzed the strides of 38 healthy runners who ran at least five miles a week. Participants ran with and without a stroller over a force plate to measure each step’s impact.
Although the twisting forces of the foot pushing off the ground while behind a stroller increased, the researchers say this isn’t as consistently associated with injuries as step impact.
The researchers observed an 8%-17% decrease in impact per step when the participants ran with a stroller. However, holding onto a stroller’s handlebars can limit upper body rotation, which in turn increases twisting forces under the feet to compensate.
Those additional twisting forces, the researchers note, could potentially be countered with improved stroller designs or running cues to enhance posture.
“This is the first (study) to look at how loading forces change with stroller running,” said senior study author Allison Altman Singles, an associate professor of kinesiology and of mechanical engineering at PSU Berks. “Understanding the ‘biomechanical trade-off’ could inform stroller design, coaching strategies, as well as injury prevention and rehabilitation protocols for those who run with strollers.”
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
