- But the benefits of heel striking over forefoot striking.
Tons of excellent runners land underneath
their center of gravity.
We also don't run on grass and dirt
and natural surfaces like our ancestors.
(bubbly techno music)
- Oh-hoo, that was, ah
would it be 4.6 miles...
in 35 minutes.
I have no idea what pace that is.
So I don't know if any of y'all saw it,
or heard it over the course of the holidays,
but we did a podcast with, hi Pete
(electronic beep),
Josh Amberger, who was first out of the water in Kona.
Came out Christmas Eve, and he said that his coach
has been working on getting him
to actually heel strike more.
And me being a born to run disciple,
where I'm like, "No, you gotta mid-foot strike
"and forefoot strike."
I was quite confused so I did a little research on it.
Turns out there's a lot'a research out there.
But the benefits of heel striking over forefoot striking.
One of the first things that I saw, I wanted to know
what the Kenyans did, because they're amazing runners.
Turns out, there's a study--
Hi Pete, you forefoot strike or heel strike?
- I paw strike, Dad.
- The dan Anak Tribe actually prefers to heel strike.
That's how they're taught and that's how they all run.
And then you start looking at a lot of high end,
like, best in the world triathletes.
Daniela Ryf, Sebastian Kienle,
and Jan Frodeno both heel strike.
And then there was the slow-motion video,
of, I want to say, the 2013 or 2012
Ironman World Championship and all top 10 tri-athletes
in the world then were all heel striking.
And what Josh Amberger said about this is
that in long distance racing at lower speeds,
heel striking is actually more efficient.
So, I did a bunch of research on this
and we're gonna talk about that right now.
So, a few studies that I found said about the same thing.
In one study of about 16 hundred runners,
there was no discernible difference between
the amount of injuries caused when you forefoot strike
on either the toes or the middle of your foot
and the injuries that were caused by heel striking
when you land on the back of your foot.
It was just different injuries.
Another study said that
the only runners who experienced greater efficiency,
from landing on the mid- or forefoot,
the front of your foot,
were really highly competitive college runners.
Recreational runners, however,
actually found a huge efficiency benefit
by going towards heel striking.
And the thought was that, think about
if you were to try to forefoot land
just while you were walking, you'd have to put yourself
in a really weird position, lifting up your foot,
and it would cause balancing and there would be
a lot of up and down, so you're losing a lot of the power,
just by getting yourself up and down
so that you can get on the balls of your foot
and walk really cool like this.
So, what's a girl to do, you might ask?
Do you concentrate on heel striking or forefoot striking?
Well, there's a few things to understand.
Number one, is what they found was the clear benefit
where it becomes more beneficial to mid- or forefoot strike
versus heel strike happens at around 6-30 per mile.
You're faster than that, there's definitely
a potential benefit to mid- or forefoot striking.
Number two, is that there is a very clear distinction,
it's like a chicken and the egg thing,
and I think this is where the mid- forefoot,
you have to run as barefoot a shoe
as you can get on the balls of your feet, kind of chaos
came from, it's that there's a misunderstanding
that there's a difference between heel striking
and landing out in front of your center of gravity.
Now, it's easier to land out in front of your body,
out in front of your center of gravity,
causing breaking, but, there is really no difference
between heel striking and forefoot striking
when it lands underneath your center of gravity.
Tons of excellent runners land
underneath their center of gravity with their heels.
So, what the studies have shown is that the best thing
for you to do is get a pair of shoes that are neutral,
that aren't extremely cushioned, they just allow
your foot to move, because those cushioned shoes,
those stability shoes, a lot of them will inhibit
your foot from moving the way it really wants to.
And getting a more minimal shoe, and I'm talking
minimal like six to nine ounces,
not five ounces racing flat, get that type of shoe
and then what the studies say,
the more you run like literally, just running more,
will allow your body to figure out a better,
more efficient way for you personally to run.
Now that most efficient way for almost everyone
is going to be landing underneath your center of gravity
so concentrate on that, not out in front, braking,
but whether you land on your heel or your forefoot,
it doesn't really matter because if you have shoes
that aren't inhibiting your body motion,
it's going to figure out the way that it wants to move.
So there you go, midfoot and forefoot lovers,
I know that I just probably lost a few hundred subscribers,
because you're going to say, "Hey, hey, hey, Taren,
"go try running barefoot," well, you know what,
we don't run barefoot.
We also don't run on grass and dirt and natural surfaces,
like our ancestors did, we run on concrete
and pavement, so yes we need shoes and yes,
we need to adapt our biomechanics to modern day running.
And Pete is taking over the video.
So I'm gonna end it there.
Later, trainiacs. Go inside.
Let's let the comments blow up, okay?