One of the best distance running coaches in history, Alberto Salazar, emphasizes with verifiable facts that forefoot striking is the correct foot strike, and heel striking is not.
There is a right and wrong foot strike pattern. Heel strike running was found to be at the core of the high impact generation responsible for most major injuries, like long bone injuries as compared with forefoot running. This is because landing forefoot-first when running naturally sets in motion a safely positioned shin, knee and upper body angles that leads to silencing major impacts forces and other physical stressors linked to all kinds of injuries.
Studies consistently point to heel striking when running as a major risk factor for hip injury because landing heel-first comes with mechanical outputs that keep impact loads too high on the hips as well as the knees as compared with forefoot running.
Forefoot running promotes energy efficiency by making all of the elastic structures in the lower leg do a better job at storing and releasing energy-saving elastic power. This was found to greatly improve running economy by dramatically reducing energy-expensive muscle costs as compared with heel strike running, which not only fully impedes the elastic properties of the arch and Achilles, it also damages these structures in a continuous way.
Research shows if you run barefoot on harder surfaces, the only way it can be done most safely is if a forefoot strike is used, not heel strike. Because forefoot running eliminates the burst in collisional impact, reduces high brake forces while reducing all-around impact forces, allows anyone who runs barefoot to run safely on the hardest of surfaces.
Copyright © 2025 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes