Listen Up, Parents: Running With a Stroller Might Make You Less Prone to Overuse Injuries

Runners often experience conditions like shin splints, runner’s knee and plantar fasciitis, which causes pain in the bottom of the heel. But pushing a stroller’s handlebar seems to make you distribute your weight differently

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

August 17, 2026 10:00 a.m.

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Runners face a constant battle against overuse injuries, from nagging knee pain to debilitating shin splints. But new research points to a surprisingly simple, low-tech tool that could help: a stroller.

A new study published August 12 in the journal PLOS One found that parents who run with strollers are less likely to experience overuse injuries compared with those who run without them. The differences may stem from the way the devices change a runner’s biomechanics.

“When you run with a stroller, you put some of your force through your hands, not just through your legs, so your weight is distributed,” study co-author Allison Altman-Singles, a biomechanist at Penn State University, tells the Washington Post’s Maggie Penman.

She and her colleagues suspect that pressing down on the handlebar helps transfer some of running’s downward impact forces from the legs to the stroller wheels. This seemingly subtle shift “may relieve some of the stress on weight-bearing joints, which may explain why we see fewer injuries among stroller runners,” Altman-Singles says in a statement.

Previous research has suggested that parents who run while pushing a stroller tend to take shorter strides and move at a slower pace. Jogging strollers also seem to slightly change the way runners move their torso, pelvis and hips. A study published last year, also led by Altman-Singles, found that running with a stroller decreases the vertical impact force of each step by 16 percent.

For the latest paper, researchers compared self-reported running and injury data provided by 196 mothers and fathers who ran with a stroller and 53 who ran without one while their children were under the age of 4. They had all been runners before becoming parents, logging at least five miles per week at some point before the birth of their first child.

Just 19 percent of the parents who ran with strollers reported an overuse injury, compared with 30 percent of those who ran without a stroller. Parents who ran while pushing a stroller also experienced a 55 percent lower injury rate per 1,000 miles than those who ran stroller-free, the researchers found.

The two groups were fairly evenly matched in terms of height, weight, age when they had their first child and number of children. However, both groups skewed heavily female, particularly the stroller runners. The researchers also based their conclusions on a relatively small sample size and didn’t account for factors that might affect injury risk, such as breastfeeding status or whether runners had more children during the study period.

Cara Wall-Scheffler, a biologist at Seattle Pacific University who was not involved with the research, considers the study to be a “great start.” However, she tells New Scientist’s Christa Lesté-Lasserre she’d like future studies to include similar numbers of women and men, since hormonal changes during and after pregnancy have the potential to influence injury risk. She’s also curious to know how different stroller pushing techniques—such as using one hand versus two—might affect injury rates.

Overall, the findings hint that strollers could have a protective effect on new parents who want to stay active while their kids are young. They also seem to help parents get out and exercise more: Stroller runners ran 34 percent more miles than non-stroller runners when their child was between six and 12 months old, the new study found.

“Running with a stroller is a safe, practical way for parents to exercise in a challenging phase of life and allows for runners to maintain mileage throughout the baby and toddler stages of parenting,” Altman-Singles tells Newsweek’s Daniella Gray.

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.