The best foot strike running technique is a forefoot strike (shown here), not a heel strike because 80% of joggers land with a heel strike and the injury rate among these runners is around 80% whereas forefoot striking improves ankle, knee and hip-joint mechanics which prevent impacts from rising to injury-inducing levels, while shortening ground-contact duration, resulting in less time for abnormal foot motions to take hold. And, forefoot striking is also more economical because it maximizes energy return in the Achilles which helps propel you forward with less muscular effort!
In addition, recent studies (references below article) on Kenyan barefoot runners who rarely injury, and who mostly land with a forefoot strike, not a heel strike, suggests that forefoot strike running is the correct running form for distance runners simply because it’s safer:
- Shown below, forefoot strike running eliminates the heel strike-transient and leads to positive changes in the elastic properties of the Achilles tendon.
Researchers have also learned that forefoot running allows anyone to run safely barefoot, even on the hardest of surfaces! This is all because of the role forefoot running plays in eliminating a burst in collisional impact that is produced in heel strike running:
- Lieberman at el. found that forefoot strike running is safer on harder surfaces because the heel strike-transient does not occur.
- no relationship between surface hardness and higher impact production exists in forefoot strike runners because impact production relates to foot strike pattern, not surface hardness!
- in the case of heel strike running on pavement, the impact-transient produced reflects the heel strike pattern, not surface hardness, and is the reason heel strike running on grass or in a thickly cushioned running shoe does nothing to reduce, nor prevent the impact-transient.
The Take Home Message
In running, foot strike type really matters because it enormously influences impact production by influencing every aspect of your stride from your upper body posture to your ankle-joint mechanics whereby forefoot striking is consistently linked to delivering more improvements in key stride parameters that account for the biggest reductions in net physical stressors.
Its even better that forefoot running allows you to run on virtually any surface, regardless of surface hardness, and regardless of your footwear. This means that if you run barefoot or in a barefoot-inspired shoe on pavement, you wont produce any more impact if you land with a forefoot strike, but if you heel strike, even the thickest cushioned shoe, you will always produce nearly all the forms of impact linked to injury. Need more convincing on this? Here are over 30 ways heel strike running causes injury vs forefoot running!
References:
Lieberman D. E., Venkadesan M., Werbel W. A., Daoud A. I., D’Andrea S., Davis I. S., et al. (2010). Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners. Nature 463, 531–535. 10.1038/nature08723
Perkins et al. The risks and benefits of running barefoot or in minimalist shoes: a systematic review. Sports Health, 2014; 6(6):475.480.
Perl D. P., Daoud A. I., Lieberman D. E. (2012). Effects of footwear and strike type on running economy. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc 44, 1335–1343. 10.1249/mss.0b013e318247989e
Zhou H., Ugbolue U. C. (2019). Is there a relationship between strike pattern and injury during running: a review. Phys. Activity Health 3, 127–134. 10.5334/paah.45