More Reasons Its Bad to Heel Strike When Running

In the research, there’s little indication that heel strike running prevents injury as compared with forefoot running (see here what a proper forefoot strike looks like). In fact, heel strike running produces many risk factors directly responsible for major injuries, such as long bone fracture to Achilles problems to chronic lower leg pain, but are all resolved just by switching to forefoot running. 

One well-known injurious risk factor uniquely produced in heel strike running is unusually prolonged ground-contact time, causing the foot to bend and twist too much for too long on the ground. The net effect is the excessive bending and twisting motions of the foot is transferred up the leg, resulting in unwanted rotations of the shin bone and knee-joint. Ouch!

• The longer the ground-contact time, the more time for abnormal stresses and movements to occur, and therefore more stress production on the foot/ankle complex. 
• Prolonged ground-time is always induced by heel striking when running, not when forefoot striking (shown below), which produces the least amount of ground-contact time tied to more controlled foot-step stability.

More Time for Bad Stuff to Happen

In looking closer at the problems of prolonged ground-contact time in heel strike running, it triggers abnormal stresses further up the kinetic chain. For instance, one study (references below article) discovered that as ground-contact time increased, excessive foot motions increased which directly caused excessive internal rotation of the shin which in turn placed abnormal rotational stress on the knee-joint!

Another consequence of prolonged ground-contact time is it amplifies the braking effect associated with heel strike running. In this case, the posterior tibialis (back of the shin) works harder to restrain the forward movement of the tibia (shin) over the foot. As a result, angular velocities increase, causing the muscles to work harder to control the foot and knee, resulting in overuse muscle and tendon injuries, such as tendinitis.

The Take Home Message

By its very nature, forefoot running is one of the best and sustainable interventions to prevent wasted movements of the foot, thereby cutting down on cumulative stresses to the body, because of the reduced ground-contact time factor, there is less time for abnormal foot postures and movements to take place.

Lastly, forefoot running improves other parameters of your stride to do more to improve injury prevention and performance. Read more on that here!

If you’ve enjoyed my post, you’ll love my YouTube channel, here, where I show why forefoot running really works, and why heel strike running hurts.

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References:

Bates et al. Lower extremity function during the support phase of running. Biomechanics VI-B, Baltimore, University Park, 1970, pp. 30–39.

Brody, DM. Running injuries.Clin Symp, 1982; 32(4):2-36.

Hamill et al. Timing of lower extremity joint actions during treadmill running. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1992; 24(7):807-13.

James, SL and Jones, DC. Biomechanical aspects of distance running injuries. Biomechanics of distance running. Human kinetics books, Champaign, 1999, PP. 249–69.

McClay, I and Manal, K. A comparison of three-dimensional lower extremity kinematics during running between excessive pronators and normals. Clin Biomech, 1998; 13(3):195-203.

Messier,SP and Pittala, KA. Etiological factors associated with selected running injuries. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1998; 20(5);501-505.

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