Forefoot Running is Better for Your Arches Than Heel Strike Running

When it comes to improving running economy, there are elastic structures in the lower leg that can make your stride more energy efficient. However, these structures can only contribute to better running economy if they are used properly.

One component that can directly affect the metabolic-saving properties of the lower leg’s elastic structures is foot strike pattern. For example, one elastic structure of the lower leg, the arch of the foot, was found to recover roughly 17% of the mechanical energy produced at each step when running!

What is more, some research has shown that foot strike pattern when running can either profoundly enhance or impair the elastic properties, and therefore, energy economy contributions, of the arch.

Is Forefoot Running Better for Your Arches? — Landing with a forefoot strike (*shown above*), meaning landing just ahead of the arch, when running is much better for the arch than heel strike running (landing behind the arch) because it enhances the elastic power of the arch while reducing impact severity on the arch, too!

Landing with a forefoot strike when running enables more involvement of the arch in contributing more elastic energy. The advantage of this is it reduces the amount of muscular effort it takes to propel the body forward as compared with heel strike running.

For example, firm evidence from a study in the journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, revealed that one reason forefoot running does a better job at increasing the amount of elastic energy in the arch than heel strike running is by enabling the arch to undergo what is called “three-point bending” shortly after touchdown. This type of bending enables the arch to stretch and expand more, which was found to load more elastic energy through the arch than landing heel-first when running.

Is Forefoot Running Better for the Arch? — Forefoot runners have more efficient feet than heel strike runners because landing forefoot-first when running (*shown above left*) engages the arch in a 3-point bend which was found to significantly enhance spring-loading in the arch, and the increases in spring energy in turn enhances running economy. Conversely, there’s less elastic energy drawn from the arch in heel strike running (*shown above right*) because the heel-to-toe-landing configuration impedes 3-point bending and the arch is more stiff and less able to compress. This results in extra muscle energy from the leg, and elsewhere in the body, as a compensatory means for the loss in spring power from the foot.

In heel strike running (shown below), elastic strain energy from the arch is less abundant because the center of mass lands behind the arch at heel strike. This was found to cause the arch to stiffen which restricted arch compression and less elastic energy was recovered.

Worse still, after heel strike, the downward force exerted by the body when the foot rolls heel-to-toe was found to increase the rate of the ground reaction force on the arch, adding more complications to its spring properties.

Is Heel Strike Running Bad for the Arch? — Unlike forefoot running, the increases in impact on the foot in heel strike running provides no benefit for the spring properties of the arch and will quickly make you injury-prone and even uneconomical!

In contrast, another benefit of forefoot running is it makes the arch less prone to injury because there are weaker impact forces acting on the arch, which is another reason why the arch contributes more elastic energy efficiently than heel strike running.

Last but not least, the arch of the foot isn’t the only elastic structure forefoot running does a better job at enhancing, it also enables the Achilles tendon to contribute more elastic strain energy, too! Here’s my article on that: Is Forefoot Running Faster than Heel Strike Running?

References:

Ker et al. (1987). The spring of the arch of the human foot. Nature,325:147-9.

Pear, DP., Daoud, AI and Lieberman, DE. (2012). Effects of footwear and strike type on running economy. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 44(7):1335-43.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, you’ll love my content over at my YouTube channel, here, where I go into more detail about the evidenced-based facts on the performance and injury preventative advantages of forefoot running vs heel strike running.

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