Running in barefoot sandals was found to do a better job at promoting foot health, especially strengthening the foot’s arch, while preventing a force-intensive heel strike and over-striding during, and instead, facilitated a low-impact, more stable forefoot strike landing.
The best foot strike technique for running is the forefoot strike because it reduces nearly all the forms of impact linked to injury, even if you run barefoot on the hardest surface, you will not produce any more impact if you land forefoot-first. Conversly, landing heel-first sets off a shockwave that damages the shins, knees and even lower back!
Minimalist running shoes are intended for landing with a forefoot strike, not a heel strike, because forefoot striking, whether in conventional cushioned shoes or barefoot-inspired minimalist shoes does significantly more to reduce injury to the knee, shins, hips and lower back by breaking the flow of high impacts and driving better footstep stability.
Heel strike running produces an impact variable, known as an impulse wave, that is primarily responsible for long bone injuries, such as a femur fracture, as compared with forefoot running, which was found to sufficiently counter this damaging impact.
Unlike forefoot runners, heel strike runners have the highest risk of abnormal bone loading and strain, and therefore bone injury, because regardless of thick shoe cushioning, heel strike running always produces the highest amounts of the vertical ground reaction force (high burst in prolonged collision impact) and peak accelerations (opposing forces on the bones).
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