Is heel strike running bad? Here’s one reason why it may be. At heel strike, the knee is often unbent which creates an over-stride (landing with the feet too far in front of the hips) which in turn creates a large distance separation between initial foot strike position and the upper body, which is also the center of mass (COM). Why could this be injurious? This positional arrangement lengthens the time the COM spends behind initial foot strike position which causes the velocity pattern to change to a dead stop for a longer period of time of which more muscular effort may also be needed to accelerate the body forward as compared with forefoot strike running. Through this kind of continual braking at heel strike, the jerk force may be more pronounced which may put additional loading across the shins and knees. Read more here!
