Another reason forefoot running may do a better a job at minimizing injury risk than heel
strike running is that when you land with a forefoot strike when running, the foot may
operate from a safer pronation pattern which in turn may help reduce torque, bending strain
and rotational stress on the ankle, shin and knee.
Foot pronation in running is commonly defined as the natural side-to-side motions of the
back of the foot during the touchdown and stance phases of running.
The functional relevance of foot pronation in running is its considered part of the body’s
built-it natural mechanical support and impact protection mechanism.
However, most experts have a long-standing position that too much foot pronation may
translate into less optimal protection because over-pronation may break the neutral alignment
of the foot with the leg which could stress multiple areas of the leg at the same time
and could even amplify impact.
In most cases, to correct overpronation, most experts default to recommending motion control
stability running shoes, however of the ongoing research, the evidence is spotty proving that
these shoes are fully effective in correcting overpronation and preventing all the injuries
linked to overpronation.
In fact there’s actually research showing (which is linked down below this video in
the description box) these shoes, because of their stiffness and narrowness, motion
control stability running shoes may actually force the feet into extreme positions and
may actually encourage overpronation.
One good thing to consider is that once you switch from heel strike to forefoot strike
running, pronation pattern of the foot changes because foot pronation differs between forefoot
strike vs heel strike running whereby the specific pronation pattern of the foot engaged
by landing with a forefoot strike may better constrain heel motions and may work better
at keeping foot pronation within a range of tolerance.
In that regard, the precise movement path of the foot in forefoot running at touchdown
and during stance, and why it may reduce mechanical entanglements and physical stressors on the
foot and leg is as follows: Here, A through D, shows the typical pronation pattern of
the foot in forefoot running.
In picture A, shows the postural orientation of the foot prior to touchdown in forefoot
running and shows the forefoot begins to invert, meaning the forefoot begins tilting outward
away from the midline.
So, what’s the functional relevance of this movement pattern of the foot upon touchdown
in forefoot running?
According to research, which is linked below the video in the description box, forefoot
inversion, or the forefoot tilting outward upon and at touchdown, occurs because it enables
initial ground-contact to made just under the 4th-5th toes, because that’s where the
initial contact point is on the forefoot with the ground in a proper forefoot strike landing.
Initial ground-contact is not under the big toe, rather under the 4th and 5th toes (and
i posted a link to video in the description as well that I did on discussing why a proper
forefoot strike in running actually involves a much flatter foot placement, not high up
on the toes, and why land towards the outer-side of the forefoot.
This postural orientation of the foot (so, forefoot inversion) may allow for greater
control of the foot and accelerates ankle stability, providing sturdier balance control
until the heel is lowered to the ground.
The functional relevance of this configuration of the foot is that it was found to reinforce
sturdier balance control at the ankle and minimize heel impact.
This is mainly why there’s little to no damaging impact at the heel in forefoot running,
which is one reason heel injuries are less frequent in forefoot running, and that cushioned
heeled running shoes aren’t really needed because you’re not landing heel-first in
forefoot running, so there’s no brute force directly applied to the heel like there is
in a heel strike landing during running.
The increased forefoot inversion upon and at touchdown shown in A is followed by rapid
forefoot eversion, so now the inner side of the forefoot begins to tilt inward toward
the midline, enabling the rest of the forefoot begin to make contact with the ground and
flatten with the ground, which is shown in B).
The functional relevance of forefoot eversion shortly after touchdown in forefoot running
is it may engage arch lowering which may make it possible for more elastic strain energy
to be stored in the arch and may also make the arch more effective at absorbing impact,
regardless of arch height, and I posted a link to video in the description box I did
on why that is.
Furthermore, this movement configuration of the foot may also allow the foot to become
less rigid and better able to roll with the ground, or articulate better with the ground,
and another way this forefoot eversion may help prevent high impact from creeping up
the leg is that it may provide more surface area on the foot to spread impact on, making
it easier to avoid overpressure hotspots on the foot from being transferred up the leg.
Forefoot eversion is then followed by the heel beginning to lower down to the ground,
shown in B and C. Here, the forefoot and heel begin to move relative to each other and the
heel lowers down to the ground, initiating the stance phase of running.
The functional and economical relevance of the heel lowering is that it elongates the
Achilles tendon closer to the mass of the body, creating more of a mass on a spring
effect, which may enhance spring-loading of the Achilles tendon which in turn may lower
muscle energy costs for the propulsive phase.
This is then followed by D, where the foot quickly removes and pops up off the ground
as soon as the center of mass (which is the the upper
body) moves more anteriorly, or forward.
So what does all this mean for forefoot running’s role in helping reduce overpronation?
One reason is when landing forefoot-first when running, the contact area of the foot
is larger which helps disperse impact pressure on a wider surface area of the foot, so essentially
it’s more likely that there’s no point throughout the foot that gets excessive pressure
delivered to it whereby if there was impact overexposure localized to one small area on
the foot, may require intense movement patterns of foot, like overpronation, in order to counteract
and dissipate the excessive impact, and so foot overpronation can be induced by abnormal
pressure hot-spots on the foot of which there may be greater pronatory response of the foot
to transfer the higher levels of impact stress to the leg.
Conversely, since impact is better able to spread out over more surface area on the foot
in a forefoot strike landing, the foot may need to try less to correct itself in dissipating
greater than normal impact peaks on the foot.
Secondly, the foot-ground interaction time in a forefoot strike landing is much less
as compared with heel strike running, this is partly because landing forefoot-first naturally
engages a higher step rate (which means the foot spends less time on the ground and more
time in the air) which can be an important parameter for enhancing pronatory control
of the foot because essentially, the less time the foot spends on the ground during
running, cuts down on the timing for abnormal movements and postures of the foot to take
hold.
So overall, another credential to forefoot running’s role in reducing injuries is that
because it results in a larger, more stable contact area of the foot and because it results
in an overall contact with the ground that’s so brief there may less time for the foot
to be pushed into extreme positions, is why forefoot running may have more of a strong
positive effect at correcting overpronation as compared with heel strike running which
involves a completely different movement path and pronation pattern of the foot than forefoot
strike running, and the movement path of the foot with the ground in a heel strike landing
when running may actually cause overpronation, of which i’ll be talking about that in my
next video.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this video.
If you did, feel free to hit the thumbs up button as well as the subscribe button if
you haven’t where you will stay more informed on forefoot strike running vs heel strike
running.
Thank you so much for listening and watching.
Have fun out there on the roads and trails.
Bye for now.