I just going to leave this one there with no commentary… Is changing footstrike pattern beneficial to runners? Joseph Hamill & Allison H. Gruber Journal of Sport and Health Science; 28 February 2017 Some researchers, running instructors, and coaches have suggested that the “optimal” footstrike pattern to improve performance and reduce running injuries is land […]
Tag Archives | running form
Impacts and injury and the transition to minimalist running shoes
I struggled to come up with a title for this post as in the study below two key points came out and the points that come out of the study are not necessarily related to each other. Here is the study: Injuries observed in a prospective transition from traditional to minimalist footwear: correlation of high […]
Monday morning laugh
Not any evidence based review or anything like that today. Remember all the propaganda, rhetoric and vitriol about heel striking being evil? I will just leave this Rio Marathon Facebook comment here: As always, I go where the evidence takes me until convinced otherwise ….and a Facebook comment is not evidence, but I think we […]
How Good are Runners at Self Identifying Their Foot Strike Pattern?
They’re not: There is now more evidence from when I last wrote about this. Shorten (2014) “In the lab: of 17 runners that said they were heel strikers, only 14 really were; of the 20 that said they were midfoot strikers, not one them actually really were; of the 7 that said they were forefoot […]
Impact Related Factors and Running Injury
I have blogged before (Just How Significant are Heel Impacts at Causing Injury When Running?) and repeatedly commented that the evidence that links impact related factors to running injuries is far from compelling. I am not saying they don’t, it is just that the evidence supporting the link is not strong (and one study has […]
Foot strike pattern and injuries in ultramarathoners
The preponderance of studies on foot strike pattern and injury risk have shown that there are no differences. In terms of injury rates, they are the same regardless of the foot strike pattern. Yet despite that evidence, I fail to understand why there is still a debate and so much rhetoric on this. It is […]
Foot Strike Pattern and Injury Rates
Hot on the heels of the prospective study I just reviewed on injury rates between barefoot and traditionally shod runners that showed that there really weren’t any differences we have a publication showing that here were no differences between different foot strike patterns as well. I have already discussed this study as it was first […]
Differences in injury rates between…
… barefoot vs shod? … foot strike pattern? This just showed up in my alerts: The Science of Running: Factors Contributing to Injury Rates in Shod and Unshod Populations MacKenzie, Ryan; MacKenzie, Lene; Martinez, Alicia; and Cardoza, Marisol Student-Faculty Research – School of Physical Therapy. Paper 6. 2014 This appears to be a poster presentation […]
How poor are runners at self-identifying their foot strike pattern?
I previously reported on some comments from a running conference last year: In an online survey via Runners World that got 2,169,282 responses, the self reported foot strike was 15.7% forefoot strikers; 40.9% heel strikers; 43.4% midfoot strikers BUT; observed in slow motion videos of 11000 runners at the 2013 Boston Marathon: 95.6% heel strikers; […]
Effects of a seven week transition to minimalist footwear
One of the criticisms of some studies comparing the mechanics of minimalist vs traditionally shod footwear is that the intervention is acute and the effects were not measured after a period of appropriate acclimation to the different conditions. The results may or may not be the same after that acclimation or transition – we simply […]
Muscle Activity Differences in Forefoot and Rearfoot Strikers
Different running techniques load different tissues in different runners differently which has implications for subject specific differences in running economy and running injury risk profile. In that context it was nice to see this turn up: Differences in Muscle Activity between Natural Forefoot and Rearfoot Strikers during Running Jennifer R. Yong, Amy Silder, Scott L. […]
Heel striking in a cushioned shoe with a 10mm drop and he still managed to break the world marathon record!
If you have been following all the propaganda and rhetoric of recent years, then Dennis Kimetto should not have been able to run 2:02.57 to knock 26 seconds off the world marathon record a few days ago in Berlin … go figure! I have held off for a few days from commenting here (been busy commenting […]
Trunk biomechanics, hip and knee kinematics in patellofemoral pain
Hot on the heels of posts on: This modelling on core muscle activation and knee loads. This study that showed that more of a forward lean of the trunk at the hips resulted in less knee loads, greater hip loads and no effect on ankle loads compared to a forward lean at the ankle results in […]
The influence of running speed on ankle and knee joint moments
I have long suggested that the number one biomechanical risk factors for an overuse running injury and determinate of running economy is joint moments. That is generally affected by variations in joint axes positions. The loads in the tissues and how hard a muscle has to work is determined by the joint moments. Different ways […]
Muscle strength in shod, minimalist and foot orthotic wearing runners
I going to start off with this image¹: There is plenty of the usual propaganda and rhetoric about foot orthotics weakening muscles in the crankosphere blogosphere, therefore they are evil: Truth or lie? I already addressed the issue of running shoes weakening muscles (they don’t); but that has not stopped the fan boys still claiming that they […]