The only proven way running damages the knees is if you land with a heel strike, but not with a forefoot strike, shown below. In fact, forefoot running is the only running style that completely safeguards the knees long-term, and has also been pegged as a literal cure for runners knee (chronically painful knees).


What’s more worse, to remedy this knee pain, most heel strike runners invest in hick cushioned running shoes with a heel counter, but sadly, heel counters only worsens knee pain by encouraging the runner to strike higher and harder on their heels!
- Heel counters increase the rate of absorption at heel strike, but do not lower deceleration, or compressive forces [1], suggesting that heel counters do not stop cumulative stresses on the knee during heel strike running, and therefore should be avoided.

This is why for heel strike runners the efforts to reduce impact needs to go beyond thicker shoe cushioning, rather the best, most sustainable solution for optimal knee health is forefoot running (click here to see what a proper forefoot strike looks like) because its been proven over and over to do the most good at stopping the flow of high impacts to the knee as well as elsewhere along the body.
More on Why Forefoot Running is Safest for Your Knees
As mentioned briefly above, forefoot striking automatically causes the knee to slighly bend at landing, which also makes the knee more flex, and not stiff like in heel strike running. A flexed, and therefore, bent knee at landing allows the knee to be more compliant knee which was found to be an effective shock reducing mechanism because not only does a compliant knee make the knee better at absorbing impact, a bent knee at landing ensure a foot position that is closer to the center mass (your hips). This ensure a shorter stride, a wider stance and a higher cadence, all of which are the only way to over-come high impact condition, not with shoe cushioning!


Landing this way also takes less energy than reaching out with your foot! In fact, click here to find out why forefoot running is more economical than heel strike running.

References:
[1]. Jorgenson, U. (1990). Body load in heel strike running: the effect of a firm heel counter. The American Journal of Sports Medicine 18, 177-181.
If you’d like, you can support Run Forefoot and help keep it going by making a donation in any amount of your choosing:
Or, you can support Run Forefoot by shopping at the BEST Barefoot Shoe Brands, and be sure to bookmark these links 🙂
Lonowear: https://lonowear.com/?ref=cedsholh
Saguaro: https://www.saguaro.com/?ref=9bVA8fEkmDvB-I
Vibram FiveFingers: https://amzn.to/3VQLAUI
Vivobarefoot: https://amzn.to/3vycQOY
Be Lenka: https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7600968-13947200
Xero Shoes: https://xeroshoes.com/go/Run_Forefoot
Iguaneye: https://www.iguaneye.com/?ref=8tfXVc92
Soft Star Shoes: https://shrsl.com/3mp1b
Wilding Shoes: https://bit.ly/3lIygQP