Not all forefoot striking is equal

NewsBot · May 17, 2019

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Not All Forefoot Striking Is Equal
Alessandra Matias, Jereme Outerleys, Isabel Sacco, Irene
Davis.
ACSM ANNUAL MEETING
May 28 – June 1, 2019 – Orlando, Florida

Rearfoot strike (RFS) runners typically exhibit an impact peak in their vertical
ground reaction force caused by heel impact. This impact is associated with high load
rates that have been linked to running injuries. The vast majority of forefoot strike
(FFS) runners do not exhibit this impact peak and have significantly lower load rates
compared with RFS runners. However, some FFS runners do exhibit an impact peak
and load rates similar to RFS. The heel descent after initial contact in FFS could help
further explain this phenomenon.
PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between heel kinematics and vertical
average loading rate (VALR) in FFS runners.
METHODS: 30 habitual FFS runners from an ongoing study were included (5F,
25M; age: 35.6±9.3). Ground reaction forces and heel kinematics were collected on an
instrumented treadmill at 2.6±0.4m/s. Pearson correlations between VALR and heel
height at initial contact (HIC), time to heel contact (THC), heel descent acceleration
(HDA) and heel descent excursion (HDE) were extracted. These variables were also
compared between runners who exhibit an impact peak (n=9) and those that did not
(n=21).
RESULTS: VALR was significantly (all p<0.01) correlated with HIC (r=-0.514),
THC (r=-0.783) and HDA (r=0.612). A trend was found for the correlation with HDE
(r=-0.33, p=0.08). FFS runners with an impact peak exhibited significantly lower HIC,
a shorter THC and higher HDA (Table 1). A trend for lower HDE was noted in this
group as well.
CONCLUSIONS: Lower heel at initial contact, decreased time to heel contact, and
higher heel descent acceleration were significantly correlated with greater VALR and
were observed by FFS with vertical impact peaks. This suggests that FFS runners with
these impacts should be trained to land with more plantarflexion and greater eccentric
control of their heel descent to reduce their landing impacts.
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