I'm Opening a Can of Worms: Do Strike Heel or Ball-of-Foot First When Running?

[Giygas_84]

Let me just start of by saying I don't run very much because of my lifting routine (running plus a squat and deadlift workout in the same week is hard to do). I still ocassionally do a 2-mile route though. But lately, I've noticed slight knee and shin discomfort while running.

I know this is due to a problem with my stride, my question is how to correct it.

Advocates of "barefoot running" insist that striking primarily on the heel transfers too much energy to the knee joint, while striking on the ball of the foot allows the calf muscles and tendons/ligaments in the ankle to absorb the impact. Whether or not you run barefoot, you can still apply this principal and land on the ball of your foot and not on your heel.

Here is a couple of pictures demonstrating this:




Notice the runner on the right is striking on the ball of his foot. His knees are also more bent, instead of "shuffling" his feet along like a more "modern runner" would do.

I offer an anectode: I used to play "dorm hall football" in college and would always be in socks. Even back then I noticed that when I ran in socks I would land ball first and it felt fine. When I run in shoes, I always feel like I am shuffling my feet along and barely bending my knees when landing on my heel.

I apologize if this has been debated before in this thread, buy I want to know how to fix my stride before I do any lasting damage. I don't want to be one of those guys who complains about their knees or shins when I get older. The thing is I deadlift and squat heavy all the time, and never had any issues until I decided to get back into running.

[BudMan]

Ive always heard for speed you want to make sure you run on your toes....

[halfmoon_]

you wqant to run on your midfoot, strike down and follow through its all body mechanics man

[TMMAray]

The best way I've found to teach oneself to strike midfoot is to begin by slowing down and shortening your stride, which should make it much easier to land on the midfoot while still maintaining a natural running feel, then work on lengthening your stride and increasing foot turnover once you're used to the feel of a midfoot strike.

Note also that for distance running, you want to land on the midfoot first, not the toes or ball of the foot.

[FSUfightfan06]

From what I've read and experimented with both are appropriate for different things, barefoot runners promote landing on the ball of your foot but two things, one when Neo man was running from sabre cats and mastadons we ran on leave covered forrest floor not pavement, and modern barefoot runners typically run on these types of surfaces and use very thin shoes that accomodate this kind of stride, try running on asphault and see how long you last, my guess is not long because we didn't evolve to run on such a hard surface.
Enter the modern running shoe, most modern runners strike heel and role to push off the ball of the foot, while this may not be "natural" modern shoes have excellent padding in the heel and are pre formed with a curve to promote this stride style. Maybe you've notice but landing on the balls of my feet with a modern running shoes makes me feel very off balance because of the curve I seem to be perpetually about to tumble forward.
I don't know if this solves your problem but perhaps help some. My philosophy is if it hurts, stop. But if you are only running once a week like it sounds your shins may not be acclimatized to this stimulus. As for your knees, do you have a neutral, pronating, or supinating stride? Properly fitted shoes can make you go from painful limping to sprinting like superman, I can tellu form experience.

[Ian Coe]

There's a book called chi running that advocates running on the balls of your feet

[TMMAray]

Originally Posted by Ian Coe

There's a book called chi running that advocates running on the balls of your feet

The balls of your feet, even for distance?

...just seems like you'd need calves like a clydesdale to maintain that.

[changes2008]

when your any distance that isn't a sprint for you... Almost all runners push off toes (backfoot) when you strike its heel then your foot goes flat and you repeat.

If you're having knee problems, you might want to make sure you're wearing the right shoe. Shoes can cure lots of problems with your toe off and heel striking. Go to a local running store. IE: Fleet Feet. They will put you on a treadmill have you run in your current shoes and show you what is going wrong. Then they will put you in a pair of shoes and redo the test and you can see how it effects your running.

That would be the best place to start. You might want to so stretches for the parts you're having problems with. Do them several times a day for awhile. Also, make sure you're warming up AND cooling down. That is just as, if not more important than the run. You're cheating yourself and begging for injuries if you skip those steps.

Good luck.

[PimplePopper MD]

I always had knee and shin pain when I ran when I was wearing "modern" running shoes (i.e. lots of padding in the heel, etc.)

After reading some stuff on pose running I tried switching to a flatter shoe with less padding, the Nike Air Zoom RS

http://1miletogo.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/zoomrs.jpg

Shin splints were reduced a bit, knee pain was gone and I was faster. The farthest I ran in these was about 20 miles and I was generally clocking 25 - 30 mile weeks.

Then I switched to the Nike Zoom Jasari

http://www.shoeguide.co.uk/media/pro...ens-2007-4.jpg

This is a bit lighter with a slightly lower heel, but more even padding throughout the entire length of the foot.

I ran a full marathon in these with no discomfort (and was back running the Thursday after a Sunday marathon) with shin splints and knee pain completely gone.

Through this whole process I was focusing on landing mid to fore foot (actually just concentrating on not landing on the heel). I noticed that I took shorter, more frequent strides, and I was generally faster.

On one occasion I went for a run at my in-laws house and all I had were an old pair of "modern" style shoes. I ran about 5 miles in them and I had pretty bad shin pain after just one run.

For the most part, shin splints are due to landing on your heel and having the front of your foot slap down onto the pavement. This obviously doesn't happen when you land mid to front foot.

Over the past 6 months, I have been running in Puma H-Streets:

http://felixwong.com/news/wp-photos/puma_h-street.jpg

They are really light, have virtually no padding, no arch support, and are simply amazing to run in (except for the first time or two when your calves will be sore for the days after a decent length run).

I am faster, injury free, and enjoying running with these.

Longest run to date with them is 10 miles. Running the Chicago Rock and Roll half marathon with them in August.

Reading this article gives a lot of insight into what others have to say about this subject. Basically it says that the whole modern shoe industry is built on marketing and hype and no science at all.

The painful truth about trainers: Are expensive running shoes a waste of money? | Mail Online

By the way, I'm 5'10" 190 pounds, not some 130 pound cross-country sprite that bounces around like a gazelle.

Best part is, you can get a pair of Puma H-Streets on sale for $30. So, you can give them a try and if you don't like them to run in, you have a decent pair of casual shoes for cheap.

[Son0fEire]

I always stay on my toes, I thought that was where the saying came from lol