The best starting place in safeguarding your legs from pain and injury is to avoid landing with a heel strike, and instead, land with a forefoot strike, which involves landing on the balls of the foot, not high up on the toes. The major problems with landing heel-first when running is its well on record for increasing knee and hip excursions (a deviation from a regular pattern). The increases in knee and hip excursion were even more pronounced during the absorption phase (a phase of running where the lower leg must be as stable as possible to sufficiently absorb impact). This means landing with a heel strike when running creates a wobbly support surface on the heel, which causes the joints of the lower leg to move too much about their axis where the leg can no longer adequately absorb impact. Read more here!
Bretta Riches
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.
Latest posts by Bretta Riches (see all)
- What Running Style is Best for Your Knees? Forefoot Running NOT Heel Strike Running - 02/05/2024
- Heel Strike Running Causes Bone Pain - 29/04/2024
- Heel Strike Running Causes Slipped Discs - 25/04/2024
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