Can You Run In Barefoot Shoes? Yes, But DON’T Heel Strike!

Running in barefoot shoes can bring tremendous improvements in improving your running form by enabling a forefoot strike (shown below) over a heel strike. The forefoot strike is a mechanical imperative to running more injury-free as it prevents increases in impacts from reaching pain and injury-predisposing levels.

Forefoot Running Prevents Impact-Related Injury. Heel Strike Running Causes Them — Unlike thick cushioned running shoes, which are well-known to encourage a forceful, injurious heel strike, the reason **barefoot shoes** keeps your mechanics in a safer range that includes a light forefoot strike is the flat sole, with no extra padding under the heel, leverages you up on the balls of your foot, while allowing your heel to pull back closer to your center of mass. The clinical significance of this is not only a forefoot strike, but also a shorter stride, more foot stability and less ground-contact time, which collectively, does the most good in reducing all-around impact levels, especially on the foot.

Another important aspect to remember is the vast majority of elite runners and world record holders across all running distances do not heel strike because of the high impact conditions which cannot be corrected with increased shoe cushioning. But what happens if you were to heel strike when running in a barefoot shoe? Its just as injurious as heel striking in a cushioned running shoe. Here’s why:

Heel strike running in barefoot shoes was found to increase the risk of a stress fracture in the foot, particularly a stress fracture on the 2nd metatarsal head of the forefoot.

Dont Heel Strike in Minimalist Running Shoes — This worst thing a runner can do is heel strike, especially in **barefoot shoes** because it increases peak pressure beyond tolerance at the front of the foot.

According to extensive research in the journal, Orthopedics, (references linked below article) discovered that a metatarsal stress fracture on the 2nd head was the result of maintaining a heel strike landing during running after switching from the standard running shoe to a pure barefoot shoe (a barefoot shoe that feels most barefoot).

The researchers suggested that runners with a long-standing heel strike running style who transition to barefoot running shoes without specific gait retraining (i.e. switching to a forefoot strike), have a higher likelihood of developing a stress fracture on the 2nd metatarsal head.

The study focused on 2 case reports where both runners switched from running in the standard running shoe to the Vibram Five Fingers and maintained daily mileage = Mistake #1. failing to transition gradually.

One runner reported a mild pain on top of the 2nd metatarsal head and continued to run anyway, but with a mildly antalgic gait –an unnatural gait that develops to avoid pain while running. = Mistake #2. running with an antalgic gait!

In both cases, the runners maintained heel strike while they ran in the Vibram FiveFingers = Mistake #3. heel striking in pure minimalist shoes.

Footwear and Foot Strike Effects Plantar (Foot) Pressure Patterns During Running

Like all barefoot shoes, the Vibrams are intended for a forefoot running gait, which involves landing under the 5th and 4th toes (as shown above). The advantage of forefoot striking in the Vibram’s is reduced plantar (foot) pressures on the 2nd metatarsal head because these pressures are shifted towards the 5th, 4th, and 3rd metatarsal heads, giving a more maximal level of safe plantar pressure distribution, since the lateral area of the foot is made up of smaller joints and bones that help the foot roll better with the ground, with minimal jerk and jolting forces. This is not the case in a heel strike running.

How Runners Can Get a Stress Foot Fracture — M2, 2nd metatarsal head, *red-line* indicates the plantar pressure distribution pattern of a heel strike landing. **M5-M3**, *blue-lines* indicate the area of which plantar pressure is distributed in a forefoot strike landing. Plantar pressures distribute over a larger surface area in a forefoot strike landing and pressure over M2 is minimal.

In heel strike running (shown above), plantar pressures travel in a straight line starting at the heel, traveling up the 2nd metatarsal head which ends up bearing much of the center of mass during stance. In this case, the 2nd metatarsal head takes most of the body weight thereby increasing bone load magnitudes.

The main conclusion is switching from a cushioned heeled running shoe to a pure minimalist running shoe doesn’t cause stress fractures; the failure to undergo full gait retraining, and maintaining a heel strike, does.

How you run affects the stress on your feet whereby the landing configuration of a forefoot strike, especially in a barefoot shoe, does more. to un-stress the foot than heel strike running in any shoes.

Need more convincing that heel strike running is the worst way to run? Here are almost 40 reason heel strike running causes injuries, while being less economical than heel strike running.