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Forefoot strikers exhibit lower running-induced knee loading than rearfoot strikers
Kulmala, Juha-Pekka; Avela, Janne; Pasanen, Kati; Parkkari, Jari
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: (in press)

 

I blogged about this study here. Made this observation:

 

Interesting study. However I have always understood that it is not a matter of where the foot strikes but more about how it strikes i.e accelerative or decelerative, if the foot is moving forward at 1st contact this generates a decelerative force that can only be absorbed proximally, however if the foot is moving backwards the converse is true and the force is directed into moving the body forwards, rearfoot strike or forefoot strike it doesn't really matter as long as the foot is moving backwards at contact. A decelerative strike is almost inevitible if there is insufficient knee lift in the swing phase. I would hypothesise that the majority of forefoot stikers do have sufficient knee lift so as to ensure an accelerative strike, rearfoot strikers vice versa?

 

lol :bash:

Here is the title of the paper when in abstract form and presented at a conference:
Effects of striking strategy on lower extremity loading during running.

 

At least they were listening.

 

Here are anterior-posterior GRF read-outs for forefoot versus rearfoot strike running from a research study with n=19. Which of these GRF patterns is the most accelerative and which is the most "decelerative" to the centre of mass (CoM) at strike/ first half of stance and why? I've added the vertical components from the same study, so you can judge which were more "decelerative" from this too. We can ignore "wind resistance" for now. I appreciate that using iterative models of GRF to infer CoM displacement without taking into account whole body kinematics might be erroneous to a point, but how does the whole body kinematics of forefoot versus rearfoot strike running overcome the obvious findings from these GRF patterns and their iterations?

 

Thankyou Craig and Simon for your helpful and informative replies. You will probably have grasped that I am more of a pragmatic activist than an academic. The prediction of knee injuries in rearfoot strike and Achilles injuries in forefoot strikers is also very interesting. Here in the NW of England we have a somewhat localised speciality of fell running. We see very few of these with knee problems but lots of Achilles and especially inversion injuries. Thanks again.
Regards,
Tony h