Heel Strike or Midsole strike?

curaldo

Hello all,

I have been thinking about changing my stlye of running lately due to a persistant knee injury(10 years). My only concern is that to do this I would be going against what nature has thought me to do for so long. who are we to change what comes naturally to us? When we walk we heel strike and the the foot rolls on to the ball of the foot and pushes off(I think). It's the same when running. so to go against that has me in a quandary. But sure i have nothing to lose. I was just wondering what others thought on this subject. Has anyone changed their style? What was their experiences.. etc etc?

thanks

Andrewf20

Yep, I changed my style earlier this year, although from photos I noticed I sometimes go back to landing on my heel, particularly when tired.

Have to say it takes a little practice (although Im only running 2 years), but I found running up hill on my forefoot (almost tippy toes style) helped alot. I found it hard going at first - very hard on the calves and achilles. I was watching Alistair Brownlee and noticed he lands on the outside of the foot near the front (http://nimg.sulekha.com/Sports/original700/australia-triathlon-world-2009-9-12-7-41-6.jpg). This definetly feels like it softens the loads on the legs, but paradoxically I have a bit of a shin splint on the left leg since transitioning to this style. Having said that when I used to land on my heel, I have awful left knee pains.

Improvements? 6 seconds off my 5k PB on the treadmill, other than that - its hard to know. Sometimes I think I try to go too far forward, but because my legs arent fully developed, I actually find its slightly more energy sapping than normal which cancels the better foot contact in the 1st place. I think im trying to emulate young Brownlee too much in doing this(trying to run on tippy toes almost). So therefore to counteract this I try land a little further back on the foot. (i.e I reckon the front 2/3s on my runner takes the brunt of the contact force. The runner sole wear patterns give evidence to this theory.

tyler71

Heel strike is NOT the natural way to walk, we only heel strike when we walk because of the way shoes are designed, similarly running shoes were originally designed to accentuate heel strike - but this is changing. If you do heelstrike if you think about it, you are hitting the ground with your leg infront of the rest of your body so you're actually braking yourself a bit and taking that impact into your legs, hence knee injuries, etc. There are a few new running techniques out there worth looking at - the Pose technique, Chi running, etc - I'm a big fan of Chi running - haven't had a injury since I started using the technique two years ago. Forefoot running is quite popular at the moment especially with the Newton shoes, but my experience of it is also bad shinsplints. If you want to stop yourself heelstriking, try relaxing the front of your foot when you're running and let it naturally drop to the ground, that should move you into a more midfoot position.

Running Bing

curaldo wrote: »

Hello all,

I have been thinking about changing my stlye of running lately due to a persistant knee injury(10 years). My only concern is that to do this I would be going against what nature has thought me to do for so long. who are we to change what comes naturally to us? When we walk we heel strike and the the foot rolls on to the ball of the foot and pushes off(I think). It's the same when running. so to go against that has me in a quandary. But sure i have nothing to lose. I was just wondering what others thought on this subject. Has anyone changed their style? What was their experiences.. etc etc?

thanks

Well pick up a golf club, or a tennis racket or a cricket bat...do what comes natural and you probably wont get very far.;)

I know some people will argue it but for me a heel strike is never correct...it acts as a brake and puts huge pressure on the knee's.

I actually think a mid/forefoot strike is far more natural, the faster you run the more you run towards the forefoot...sure when somebody starts running the first thing they will do is probably heel strike but they'll also do a lot of other things that are mechanically incorrect.

I think shoe companies have a lot to answer for in this respect with the big clunky heels they put on shoes that should really be redundant imo.

Rio 2016

All the posts on this thread seem to be very good.

If you were to run barefoot you would never heel strike but rather you would land midfoot. Running shoes and their big heel are certainly the reason why we heel strike, as was mentioned by previous posters.

I have only ever been injured following a period where I did no running in my barefeet.

The trouble with this is that most places are not safe to run barefoot.

thirtyfoot

Has heel strike ever been the way to run? Don't think so. I, since the age of 7, was told to land on the midfoot with foot dorsiflexed (although we didn't call it dorsiflex back then). I don't think its a 'new' way of running at all and Pose and Chi are just packaging correct running form very nicely and selling it.

Although the element of heel strike will be dependent on you speed but if you are hitting the ground correctly there will be an element of heel strike (if your foot is dorsiflexed).

Its a dodgy one to be trying to change in my opinion without the guidance of someone with a great eye for biomechanics. I find it very hard to 'see' correct biomechanics in real time and with the naked eye.

Even drills which are designed to produce correct foot strike etc are regarded by some as pointless as such motor learning techniques may not be the best way to reproduce when running for real. Dodgy enough area to be thinking about too much if you don't have the expert advice in my opinion.

Rio 2016

Tingle wrote: »

Has heel strike ever been the way to run? Don't think so. I, since the age of 7, was told to land on the midfoot with foot dorsiflexed (although we didn't call it dorsiflex back then). I don't think its a 'new' way of running at all and Pose and Chi are just packaging correct running form very nicely and selling it.

Although the element of heel strike will be dependent on you speed but if you are hitting the ground correctly there will be an element of heel strike (if your foot is dorsiflexed).

Its a dodgy one to be trying to change in my opinion without the guidance of someone with a great eye for biomechanics. I find it very hard to 'see' correct biomechanics in real time and with the naked eye.

Even drills which are designed to produce correct foot strike etc are regarded by some as pointless as such motor learning techniques may not be the best way to reproduce when running for real. Dodgy enough area to be thinking about too much if you don't have the expert advice in my opinion.

+1 to that.

And it must not be forgotten that everybody possesses their own unique running style and it is extremely hard to cahnge that.

MrCreosote

Tingle wrote: »

Although the element of heel strike will be dependent on you speed but if you are hitting the ground correctly there will be an element of heel strike (if your foot is dorsiflexed).

Its a dodgy one to be trying to change in my opinion without the guidance of someone with a great eye for biomechanics. I find it very hard to 'see' correct biomechanics in real time and with the naked eye.

Even drills which are designed to produce correct foot strike etc are regarded by some as pointless as such motor learning techniques may not be the best way to reproduce when running for real. Dodgy enough area to be thinking about too much if you don't have the expert advice in my opinion.

Totally agree with this. I once tried to learn to run more on front of the foot. It just crocked up my achilles and felt pretty unnnatural really. Basically the faster you go the more you'll move forward from your heels- try sprinting on your heels, or walking on your tiptoes. Doesn't work for long. It's the chicken and egg thing- do fast runners go fast because they land further forward, or do they land further forward because they go fast?

curaldo

Thanks for all your opinoins. There is a definite concensus here that a heel strike is not natural. Have since bought Danny Dreyer's book on chirunning and have found out Catherina McKiernan runs a workshop on it. Has anyone gone on this course and what did you think?

Have thought alot about the way i land and am not convinced i heel strike or land on the ball of my foot but i do place my landing foot infront of my body. which does seem like brakeing. Is the only way to figure this out for sure through gait analysis?
Thanks again

tyler71

Have been on the Catherina McKiernan course and she's very impressive. She'll video you running and pick up your major issues immediately. Afterwards you think that you could video yourself and do the same thing and possibly that's the case but she really knows what she's at.

Trekkie Monster

Walking with the heel striking the ground first at initial contact is the natural way of walking. At heel-strike, the positioning of the ankle with respect to the heel in order to reduce the oscillations of the centre of mass is one of the six optimisations of gait (Saunders et al., 1953).

Running is slightly different in that some people don't heel-strike at initial contact but most do (about 70%). There is a slightly misplaced belief that because people run a certain way barefoot, that makes it more 'natural' and therefore better than running in man-made shoes. Well I wear man-made glasses and it's a lot better than trying to see with my natural eye-sight!

The best approach is to run as normally as you can - your gait pattern has been developed over so many years that it's difficult to change. Of course there are small changes you can make through resistance training, drills, etc. but I wouldn't try to change completely. At faster speeds athletes will land more towards their midfoot (usually on the lateral side).

estariol

IMO you should certainly try to midsole strike if you have joint pain, however, this may require some muscle work to the resultant stresses.
Notwithstanding above I would urge any serious/casual runner to spend time on form, probably the most significant improvement in my running over the last few years. I try and do at least one form run a week, personally I find treadmill with mirror the best way to scrutinise and improve form.

asimonov

Good article and follow up discussion here on the science of sport website. They look at a study of foot striking by elite HM runners that was done in Japan in 2004.