The part of your foot you DON’T want to land on first when running is under the big toe! Landing big toe-first when running was found to be a costly mechanical mistake directly linked to bony fractures in the foot as well as ankle sprains! To avoid this injurious scenario, making initial ground-contact under the 4th and 5th toes (lateral forefoot) when running was proven to be a safer landing strategy, even safer than landing heel-first (heel strike). Read more here on the mechanical relevance and advantages of initially touching-down under the 5th toe, not the big toe in forefoot running.
Bretta Riches
"I believe the forefoot strike is the engine of endurance running..."
BSc Neurobiology; MSc Biomechanics candidate, ultra minimalist runner & founder of RunForefoot. I was a heel striker, always injured. I was inspired by the great Tirunesh Dibaba to try forefoot running. Now, I'm injury free. This is why I launched Run Forefoot, to advocate the health & performance benefits of forefoot running and to raise awareness on the dangers of heel striking, because the world needs to know.
BSc Neurobiology; MSc Biomechanics candidate, ultra minimalist runner & founder of RunForefoot. I was a heel striker, always injured. I was inspired by the great Tirunesh Dibaba to try forefoot running. Now, I'm injury free. This is why I launched Run Forefoot, to advocate the health & performance benefits of forefoot running and to raise awareness on the dangers of heel striking, because the world needs to know.