Why Heel Strike Running is Bad for Shins

Forefoot running, especially at faster running speeds, was found to cause less mechanical overloads to the shins than heel strike running, farther reinforcing the fact that how you use your feet when you run is a key factor in preventing injuries, namely shin splints.

How to Treat and Prevent Shin Splints — Forefoot running naturally results in a smoother placement of the foot on the ground which was found to do a better job at un-stressing the shins as compared with heel strike running.

As for running faster, although it may seem risky, that is only true if you run with a heel strike because all the forms of impact unique to heel strike running grows in proportion to your weight and speed and are strongly linked to injury.

Likewise, when you run slower than an 8min/mile coupled with landing heel-first (heel striking), you thud harder with the ground. The foot’s ground-contact time also increases which allows more time for over-pronation which produces a variety of straining forces, like frictional, rotational and torsional forces, to be produced and amplified.

Forefoot Running Prevents Shin Splints vs Heel Strike Running — In a forefoot strike landing, the front of the foot points down towards the ground upon and at landing, as seen above. This orientation of the foot is called ‘plantar-flexion’ and the clinical relevance of it is it was found to do the most good in toning down impact loads to the shins.

Luckily, landing with a forefoot strike when you run significantly eases tension from the shins because prior to touchdown, the foot is in a plantar-flexed position (shown above), which means the front of the foot points down towards the ground. This not only results in a smoother placement of the foot with the ground and reduces jarring, it also reduces tibialis anterior muscle (front of the shin) activity, which also reduces the accompanying energy demands that fuels muscle activity. These effects contribute to reducing vulnerability to shin splints while reducing energy use.

Other studies have also found that when compared with heel strike runners, forefoot runners had significantly less muscle activity in the tibialis anterior during the late swing phase of which a compliment response of this, again, would be reduced muscle metabolism, suggesting that forefoot running has more mechanical energy-saving mechanisms while doing a better job at safeguarding the shins than heel strike running.

Furthermore, a 2014 in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport discovered that increases in running speed directly increased plantarflexion at touchdown which as expected decreased muscle activity in the tibialis anterior, but also reduced ground-contact time (less time for increased force production), suggesting that when you run fast, especially with a forefoot strike, you have less stress on the lower leg than expected because energetically-taxing muscle activity in the tibialis anterior is more offline and the foot spends less time engaging with the ground.

What Does the Tibialis Anterior Do?

The tibialis anterior muscle controls the movement of the forefoot whereby forefoot posture (i.e. dorsiflexion [forefoot lifts up] and plantarflexion [forefoot points down]) directly affects muscular engagement and activation of this muscle.

Increased plantarflexion and therefore less dorsiflexion at touchdown means the tibialis anterior muscle is more relaxed or passive of which a compliment response is reduced muscle activity as well as reduced muscle metabolism.

Forefoot Running May Prevent Shin Splints — *Left*, shows a heel strike runner with high dorsiflexion (forefoot points back) at touchdown to allow initial ground-contact on the heel. The downside to hyper-dorsiflexion at touchdown during running is that it increases muscle activity at the tibialis anterior because more muscular effort of the tibialis anterior is needed to pull the forefoot back in order to heel strike at each step which in turn leads to higher rates of strain and tension. This repetitive overuse can be stressful on the shins, making them more vulnerable to injury. Conversely, reducing dorsiflexion at touchdown by increasing plantar-flexion, like in forefoot running, *shown right*, has proven effective in sharply reducing muscle activity and therefore demanding work in the tibialis anterior, which is an important component for preventing shin splints.

Last but not least, another point worth mentioning is that both plantar-flexion at touchdown and forefoot striking while running is consistently seen in habitual barefoot runners, suggesting that this directional movement of the foot is an evolutionary adaptation that evolved to help our barefoot ancestors run long distances without injuring.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, you’ll love my content at my YouTube channel where I speak more on forefoot running vs heel strike running as well as the health and performance advantages of barefoot running and minimalist running.

References:

Moore, IS., Jones, AM and Dixon, SJ. Relationship between metabolic cost and muscular coactivation across running speeds. J Sci Med Sport, 2014;17, 671-76.

Yong, JR., Silder, A and Delp, SL. Differences in muscle activity between natural forefoot and rearfoot strikers during running. J Biomech, 2014; 47, 3593-97.

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