Is Toe Strike Running Bad?

Toe strike running is defined as landing high up on the balls of the foot, or on the toes, without allowing the entire foot to flatten on the ground during the stance phase of running. That is, the heel never makes contact with the ground in toe running.

Is Toe Strike Running Bad?

A study by Nunn et al. reported that toe running produced and increased early plantar flexor moments and was associated with greater ankle stiffness compared to a forefoot strike, midfoot strike, and heel strike landing pattern, suggesting that the plantar flexors may exhaust at a faster rate in toe running.

Another problem is that the absence of heel contact in toe running increases the moment arm about the ankle thereby contributing to greater ankle plantar-flexion moments.

  • greater ankle plantar-flexion moments require greater eccentric muscular control to stabilize the position of the ankle during stance

Thus, overloading is greater on the plantar flexors and Achilles tendon in toe running compared with other foot strike patterns.

In the same study, toe running increased plantar pressure on the M1 and M2 region of the forefoot, a region considered to be more vulnerable to metatarsal stress fractures than the M3-M5 regions of the forefoot

Forefoot Running Not to Be Confused with Toe-Running

It is a misconception to equate forefoot running with toe running as the two foot strike patterns differ mechanically and kinematically.

In forefoot strike running, contact is not made high up on the balls of the foot, but rather on the lateral-medial region of the forefoot before the heel is lowered down.

Toe Strike Running
Above (top), shows a toe running landing pattern whereby the angle of which the heel is elevated off the ground is significantly greater than the heel elevation relative to the ground in a forefoot strike landing pattern, above (bottom).

Unfortunately, not all forefoot strike landings are created equal. Some forefoot strike learners, especially those who were heel strikers, often make the mistake of landing higher up on the balls of the forefoot, or the toes which may account for the marked increase in Achilles injury in barefoot runners who learned forefoot running independently, without proper instruction.

Therefore, the typical caution when learning forefoot running is to avoid toe running, and instead, relax the foot-ankle complex and aim for a more flatter foot placement.

More From Run Forefoot:

Best trail running shoes for forefoot strike runners.

Wearing cushioned running shoes at an early age leads to weaker feet in adulthood.

Debunking common myths on running-related ITBS.

Most of Achilles tendon pain is due to poor running technique.

References:

Nunns et al. (2013). Biomechanical Characteristics of Barefoot Foot Strike Modalities.

Samaan et al. (2014).  Reduction in Ground Reaction Force Variables with Instructed Barefoot Running.

Lieberman et al.  (2010). Foot Strike Patterns and Collision Forces in Habitually Barefoot Versus Shod Runners.

Run forefoot, because you are faster than you think!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the Run Forefoot Facebook Page, it's a terrific place to ask questions about forefoot running, barefoot running and injury. I'm always happy to help!

8 Comments

  1. “Suggesting that….may….”
    is hardly evidence of anything. Our ancestors ran down prey with digitigrade stance (toe running) and the male female marathon world record holders both won while digitigrade running in Olympics.
    Native American Indians and East Indians still employ barefoot toe running as u call it (digitigrade) with little to no injury. Forefoot running is just bad technique from white people wearing shoes for centuries and thinking they’re toe running when in reality they’re not.

  2. Flatter foot placement leads to greater ground impact and stress fractures and injury. don’t listen to this lady who doesn’t have the calves to run on her toes.

  3. My quad muscles would shake even attempting to balance and lower
    down on my left leg or carry out a simple heel faucet on that one facet.
    I even began quietly singing to myself the Nineteen Sixties ‘Jump within the Line Shake, Senora’ calypso song by Lord Kitchener, while
    watching my quad muscle shake and trying to steadiness.
    The neck incorporates multiple muscle tissue that assist head place, posture, and breathing.
    “Centurion” refers back to the one hundred kettlebell swings you complete through the workout, and that’s on top of the 2 different shoulder-focused workout routines.

    Assume about pulling your shoulder blades toward your spine on the
    lifting phase, somewhat than simply lifting it straight up, cues Saini.
    Click here to return to our list of strength coaching applications and workouts.
    Again, feel free to take the biceps exercises
    and do them as a stand-alone exercise or
    as part of your again or chest exercise.
    As A Substitute, you depend on your back exercises to
    care for your biceps, too. To carry out body weight
    curls, you want something to connect TRX-style bands to that may hold your weight.
    TRX (Total-Body Resistance Exercise) is a selected model and
    not an inexpensive one at that, however you have to
    use gymnastic rings, that are very fairly priced, instead.

    How a lot training do you wish to dedicate to your shoulders each session? An common or ideal week should include three to 4
    dumbbell shoulder exercises two to three days.
    You can also maintain dumbbells horizontally at your shoulders or rotated in a
    hammer grip.
    The elevated vary of movement with one-arm flyes produces an especially robust contraction within the posterior
    deltoids, due partially to a stronger mind-muscle
    connection. The Mirror Image Shoulder Exercise is a workout that
    I designed to construct massive, spherical shoulders. This exercise
    makes use of two forms of exercises to hit each of the three
    deltoid muscle heads. The first half of the exercise (the first facet
    of the mirror) uses free-weight workouts to maximise the overload on the muscles for maximal
    progress.
    Lifting to get wider shoulders requires attacking the side delts.
    The broad physique is a mix of a giant higher again and lats with a smaller
    waist via decreased body fat. In my experience, nothing will grow your higher again like the snatch grip high pull
    from the blocks. When we dive into the research, we see probably the
    most vital activation of the facet delts is during the lateral increase exercise in comparability with any other train [1,2].

    Bear In Mind, with TRX workouts it’s necessary to maintain your body in a relatively straight line across your heels, hips, and shoulder blades.
    All of those can be used to load some weight if
    you’re at home and don’t have access to dumbbells/barbells.
    With these exercises you’ll be able to undoubtedly develop nicely defined cap-like shoulders with
    full frontal, center, and back shoulder heads. If you’ve a pair of dumbbells and a TRX
    suspension trainer, it could assist. You should practice your trapezius
    muscle tissue twice per week, with a gap of hours between periods.
    In this text, I’ve carefully curated the 12 finest dumbbell
    workouts you are able to do at home for full trap improvement.

    As with the opposite shoulder workout routines, begin off with a lightweight weight, as you’ll slowly however absolutely really feel increasingly
    fatigued as you’re employed your means by way of the repetitions.
    The dumbbell shoulder press primarily works the entrance deltoids.

    By utilizing dumbbells, you force all sides of the muscle to work independently while also recruiting the stabilizer muscles of the shoulder joint.
    Building strong, well-defined shoulders is key to
    achieving the enduring Alpha male physique. Broad shoulders give you the width that
    enhances the hanging V-shaped upper physique. With all three deltoid muscle heads totally
    developed, you’ll appear highly effective and broad,
    whether or not you’re rocking a t-shirt or dressed
    up in a suit. Instead, you want to elevate your arms preserving them straight with palms going through the floor, and lift them out to the
    facet by initiating the contraction from the deltoids.

    The shoulders are some of the active muscle teams, as they
    assist almost all movements of the upper arms. Due to how
    lively the shoulders are for push movements, people typically
    will practice them with triceps or chest. Folks usually blast the traps at the
    end of their shoulder workout with a couple of
    shrugs. Shrugs have a very short range of motion, so change to
    larger reps within the range somewhat than going heavy for low
    reps. One of my favorite workout routines, the Arnold Press, hits all three heads of the shoulders in a single
    motion. Although it is not the most effective exercise to hit the lateral delts, it still does.

    Like the lats, your higher back will spherical out the extensive powerful look.
    Capped extensive delts with no meat surrounding them make you look skinny
    and weak. Slabs of muscle across the traps, upper back, and lats with the shoulders will make the wide shoulder physique extra prominent even and not using a tiny waist.

    By internally rotating your arm, you’ll shift the focus from the
    biceps brachii and place extra stress on the brachialis and brachioradialis.
    Drop your dumbbells to your sides, toes at shoulder
    width and glutes tensed (A). With a slight bend in the knees, push your hips
    again and slowly decrease the bells in path of the ground (B), maintaining
    a flat again. When you’re feeling a stretch in your hamstrings, pause and explosively return to an upright position.
    These muscle tissue stabilize the shoulder joint and management inside and
    exterior rotation. Progressive overload, where each session is
    slightly more challenging than the last, is an important predictor of continued hypertrophy.
    You can progressively overload your deltoids by adding
    extra weight, doing extra reps, enhancing your kind, or experimenting
    with tempo and pauses. A calorie surplus is the place the variety of energy
    consumed exceeds the number of calories burned. This will provide the body with
    extra calories than it truly requires which is ready to enhance muscle recovery after energy training periods.
    With Out this surplus, growing muscular measurement is challenging, if not unimaginable.
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    The movement required for the dumbbell front increase is identical to the lateral raise; the one difference
    being the plane in which the arm moves. This time, begin with
    the dumbbells on the front of the thighs and
    look to boost straight arms instantly up till approximately
    aligned with the shoulders. As the name suggests, this isolation train locations essentially the most demand on the anterior head of the delt.
    Building sturdy arms and shoulders requires the right combination of workout
    routines. A good workout ought to include movements that
    focus on the biceps, triceps, deltoids, and supporting muscular tissues.

    Each of those workout routines hit some distinctive muscle
    fibers within the target muscle.
    With minimal shoulder joint stress but maximal muscle activation, it’s a good
    way to train your delts even if you have painful shoulders.
    Decide a few dumbbells and stand with them by your sides,
    palms going through your physique. Keeping your higher physique
    nonetheless – meaning no swinging – raise the dumbbells out to your aspect with
    a slight bend at your elbows.
    Check out our articles on the most effective cable shoulder exercises or these barbell shoulder exercises.

    Plus, you could have already accomplished a standing overhead press with the push press, so it is good to throw some
    position selection into the combo. It’s a strong transfer
    that uses explosiveness to propel the load upward, which ought to
    allow approximately 30% more weight than a regular shoulder press.
    When performing isolation workouts, I choose utilizing the cable
    machine over dumbbells because it permits a clean, constant force from any angle.
    The overhead press is notoriously tough because of the biomechanics, and because of this, many lifters simply are inclined
    to keep away from it. But, bear in mind, your shoulders will all the time be weak if you don’t practice them.

    This train creates a novel blend of muscle engagement, from
    stabilizing your shoulders to powering the rowing
    movement, all focusing on the rear deltoid muscular tissues.

    Not sure how to construct your deltoids using cables as an alternative of
    free-weights? Use them in conjunction with barbell and dumbbell overhead presses or instead.

    The aspect and rear delts can have extra direct
    training quantity as they are not the primary primary movers
    for many pressing motion (i..e overhead presses, push ups).

    The entrance delts will be a major mover for many urgent motions.
    So they can be topic to overuse should you train them with
    the identical volume as side and rear delts when doing shoulder
    specific workout routines.
    This is tips on how to get shoulders large enough to carry the weight of
    your accomplishments. The traps play a key role in maintaining good posture and assist to each stabilize
    and move, aiding movements such as shrugging, tilting, and shifting the neck.
    The shoulder is a complicated joint containing multiple layers of
    superficial and deep muscle tissue. All The Time seek the assistance of with a
    certified healthcare professional previous to starting any food regimen or train program or taking
    any dietary complement. The content material on our
    web site is for informational and academic purposes solely
    and is not meant as medical advice or to switch a relationship with
    a certified healthcare skilled. This is based mostly mostly on research with beforehand untrained
    participants, and it is likely that you’ll require slightly greater coaching volumes to continue to grow
    as you get more educated. Keep Away From utilizing momentum or
    swinging the burden up using your hips, as that may take away work from the meant working muscles.

    This article coated the best arm and shoulder workouts along with exercise
    routines for various fitness ranges. A home exercise plan was
    additionally included for those without health club gear. Beginning with gentle weights and
    progressively growing resistance helps construct energy and muscle over time.
    What I actually love about this train is that it maximizes vary of movement, where you are able to convey the
    working arm way behind your physique. With any two-arm rear delt flye, you received’t
    have the power to attain again quite so far.
    Nevertheless, incorporating varied workout routines into your routine can effectively target all three heads of the shoulder and supply a well-rounded shoulder exercise.
    It could be particularly efficient when used with a bodyweight barbell, machine, or cable to build the biggest,
    strongest shoulder possible. Many variations of the dumbbell lateral raise problem your muscle tissue even more and help construct strength and
    definition. A dumbbell entrance increase is an excellent exercise to isolate the
    anterior deltoid Muscle. This exercise helps to build muscle mass in the front head of the deltoids.
    It is one of the best workouts for building shoulder mass and energy, particularly the front and side deltoid muscle tissue.

    Dumbbell Shoulder Press exercises are a superb variation of barbell shoulder Press.

    This isn’t nearly looking good; it’s about keeping your shoulders
    strong and injury-free. A cable shoulder Workout is extremely beneficial for anybody interested in building a
    wider shoulder and who desires to achieve strength.
    The number of reps you must do is dependent upon your targets, whether or
    not they’re to increase power or construct muscle mass and endurance.
    It is good for growing unilateral upper-body power and enhancing your balance and
    the power and stability of your core. This unilateral version makes it potential
    to lift your hand greater and get an extended stretch at the backside,
    thereby generating more work for the posterior deltoid.

    So, if you’re on the lookout for the 5 greatest workout
    routines to do to assist grow bigger, stronger, well-rounded muscles – here’s the
    list. Rear delt flys goal the posterior deltoids, which are often neglected however important for balanced
    shoulder development. As such, when designing your deltoid
    workout, it’s important to choose the proper train for the deltoid head
    you need to develop. He’s a author and editor with a decade’s worth of experience overlaying health, fitness, tech and sports.

    Before the bench press grew to become the world’s favourite upper physique
    exercise, the barbell standing press was the king
    of the lifts. Overhead presses build muscle mass and would possibly and are a real take a look at
    of strength. They’re additionally top-of-the-line methods to
    develop large shoulders. When it comes to building a strong, aesthetic physique,
    well-developed shoulders are a game-changer. Broad, muscular shoulders not only improve your total
    look but additionally contribute to upper body energy and
    performance.
    Besides the place otherwise noted, always depart two reps in your tank on each set,
    for the sake of safety. In other words, should
    you really feel you have 15 reps in you, carry out solely thirteen. Search to enhance your performance
    by one rep each time you repeat the exercise. Front raises are a good way to isolate the anterior deltoids and are a very popular motion amongst gym-goers.
    Whether Or Not its shoulders and triceps or shoulders and biceps, you’re complete upper body is going to
    look jacked when you end. The profit of coaching shoulders with back or chest is that your delts
    are going to be warmed up totally from training those other muscular tissues.
    So this is a nice way to burn them out and exhaust the muscle.

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