Foot Strike, Running Form, and Injury

https://www.radiantrunning.com: This video is about the relationship or Foot Strike, Stride, Running Form and Injury. As runners browsing the internet for tips on injury prevention, rehabilitation, and performance enhancement, we are bombarded with various theories on foot strike; which foot strike is best, what angles, directions, parts of the foot we are supposed land on and run with, and a litany of suggestions, scientific investigations, and bold unfounded assertions. Hopefully this won’t fall into any of these categories. This is a study that is based solely on observation of runners over the last 25 years working mostly with injured runners on their technique, running form and posture. Collecting a lot of data on what best works for the runners’ body to heal injuries, to improve efficiency and performance, and to increase enjoyment of the sport.
The most consistent observations regarding foot strike and injury is that forefoot striking is hard on the calves, ankles and feet and that young runners can get away with this, but if they want to have any kind of longevity with running they must find some way to get down on their heels so that the impact force is distributed throughout the foot. This has significant impact on injury prevention and on improvement with force mechanics, rebound and ultimately performance.
The other big problem that is the cause of various aches and pains for the runner are faulty stride mechanics that involve full extension at the knee joint just prior to foot strike. This means that your lower leg goes forward as if you were about to kick a ball, and causes increased impact forces back up the leg into the knee, hip, SI joint, and low back. It often results in unbalanced work in the quads and hamstrings causing muscle, tendon, and ligament strain.
As passionately as the gurus of the barefoot running culture may argue that the modern running shoe is to blame, I have found that it is consistent with a running form strategy that is the result of tight hip flexors. I have elaborated on three major variations of posture and running form that contribute to this type of heel strike in the video. And while running barefoot or in minimal shoes may force a runner to avoid this kind of stride and strike, it will not deal adequately with the root cause often resulting in other problems.
And finally, when correcting faulty running form issues, which usually involves more targeted relaxation then stretching (relaxation is usually a prerequisite for retraining movement), runners are able to relearn proper hip flexion and knee extension more easily. And while a heel strike may still be apparent, the upper body mechanics now allow for an underbody ground contact and shorter contact time. This is the way most efficient and successful runners strike the ground.

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