Your foot contact is the initiation of each step. What is proper foot contact? How do you know if you are contacting appropriately, efficiently, effectively? How do you know if you are setting yourself up for success with each contact? Especially considering how many points of contact you have each day, not to mention each run, these questions impact more than your race times.
While foot contact in gait is a less important criteria than the shin angle at contact, we find it helpful to discuss various foot contact locations, as well as the pros and cons of each. We will explore angles of shin/lower leg at contact in subsequent articles.
The common factors used to measure how appropriate or effective a given gait strategy is, are how it affects injury risk, running economy, and running performance.
The research assessing injury risk for various foot striking strategies is much less conclusive than it is on running economy and performance. Studies primarily look at the difference between rearfoot and forefoot striking patterns since they provide the most contrast, and often lump midfoot striking patterns in with forefoot. There is no conclusive evidence showing that any one of these strategies are “safer” than the other, they simply cause greater levels of stress on different areas of the body.
Rearfoot strikers tend to incur more patellofemoral stress (stress at the front of the knee) while forefoot strikers tend to have increased stress on the ankle joint, plantar aspect (bottom) of the foot, and achilles tendon.
Rearfoot strikers tend to have an “impact peak” of force that is higher than a forefoot strike, but then have a lower rate of active force while in stance phase when compared with forefoot striking. In injuries such as shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome) both the magnitude and the rate of force are important risk factors. Rearfoot striking tends to have a reduced rate of impact force and a reduced overall magnitude of impact force following initial contact. This means a lower risk of shin splints.
There are a few interesting considerations when assessing running economy and running performance.
- Metabolic processes are impacted by foot strike. Research comparing forefoot, midfoot and rearfoot striking showed rearfoot strikers have considerably less carbohydrate oxidation (usage). This means that those runners depleted their muscle glycogen stores slower than the forefoot strikers and were less likely to “hit the wall”.
- The angle of a runner’s knee and shin when contacting the ground are significant for both performance and economy. The more extended (straight) a runner’s knee is and the more vertical their shin angle, the better the individual will run. Now tying this back into foot strike, the more dorsiflexed your foot is when you are contacting the ground results in two things: more pretension of the achilles and greater knee extension.
This means that rearfoot striking will help you start stance phase with a straighter leg, utilize the stretch shortening cycle of the calf musculature to reduce your shin angle while you are on the ground, and will more efficiently use muscle glycogen stores. These factors result in increased performance and running economy.
That was a lot of information and you might be wondering, “What do I do with this?”
The first step is always awareness, you need to know where you fall in these respective groups. A quick & dirty way to check right now is to look at the bottom of your running shoes. Where does the tread start to look worn? A more detailed way to check is to set up your phone or have a friend take a video of you running. Once you know what kind of foot strike you tend to implement, you may ask yourself if you should change what you’re doing.
This is where it gets tricky. The overview I have just taken you through is very general. How you might apply this information to your own gait is very specific. There are a number of factors that come into play such as distance of your runs, if you are on a slope, what shoes you run in, how long you’ve been running, and injury history to name only a few. If you are running uphill there is very little hope of you even achieving a rearfoot strike let alone that being the efficient option to choose. There are a few general considerations to leave you with.
- If you are a forefoot striker and a long distance runner, switching your striking pattern is low hanging fruit for you to improve.
- Changing your gait mechanics is a challenging task, do it slowly. Your body is used to one method, don’t over stress it by changing overnight.
- If you are currently a rearfoot striker and you have pain there is an underlying strength imbalance.
- Regardless of how you hit the ground, you must give yourself a solid foundation by incorporating strength & reactive strength exercises for the lower leg musculature.
To summarize everything above, the three main components we evaluated were how different foot striking patterns influence injury risk, running economy, and running performance. There are varied injury risks with each foot strike. We know that rearfoot strikers have increased patellofemoral stress compared with forefoot strikers, and we know that forefoot strikers have increased foot, ankle, and achilles stress. Rearfoot striking provides a lower metabolic cost that directly impacts the depletion of muscle glycogen stores. Lastly, performance is directly related to how straight your leg is while in contact with the ground. This includes how perpendicular both the thigh and the shin are to the running surface. A rearfoot strike is the best way to ensure you achieve optimal knee & shin angles to share ground reaction force between all three major joints of the lower extremity.
If you want help with this process, even just to ask a few questions, schedule a free virtual consult with us. We are always here to help.