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Is heel striking bad? I am not a runner, but I've practiced heel striking while backpacking to give myself more foot-stamina. Maybe there's a better way?
Coaches usually say bad but even among elite it’s common. For me mid foot is more efficient but I’ve seen too many runners with what looks like terrible form clock 2:30 marathons to think there’s a universal rule
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Heel striking is generally considered suboptimal from an efficiency and injury risk standpoint. But there are major variations in what works best due to individual physiology and type of shoes worn. There are a few elite distance runners who have had long, successful careers with heel striking even though it's supposedly "bad".
Most elite distance runners heel strike. There's no good evidence for any of the claims made r.e. heel vs. forefoot striking.
> You’ve probably seen it on TV multiple times. Exhausted, depleted of energy, and barely capable of taking another step, elite race walkers collapse as soon as they reach the finish line. I'm not sure if I have unusual TV habits or if the author is overestimating the amount of watch time and coverage race walking gets.
There are more efficient modes of running that aren't really available when walking, and any experienced marathoner knows how to exploit this. It took me years of occasional running before it all clicked, despite more experienced friends having shared youtube videos on the subject. I'd always been running in a fashion more like a slowed down sprint when trying to pace myself. But that's not the efficient way, the eff…
There are more efficient modes of running that aren't really available when walking, and any experienced marathoner knows how to exploit this. It took me years of occasional running before it all clicked, despite more experienced friends having shared youtube videos on the subject. I'd always been running in a fashion more like a slowed down sprint when trying to pace myself. But that's not the efficient way, the eff…
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Most elite distance runners heel strike. There's no good evidence for any of the claims made r.e. heel vs. forefoot striking.
I watched a lot of footage of Olympic runners, all seem to have fore/mid foot strike. Can you share some names of elite heel striking runners?
Here is a study showing that, among a pool of elite distance runners, most are heel strikers: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31147098/
Here is a meta analysis arguing that there is no evidence that forefoot striking is superior: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-019-01238-y
Here is a paper arguing against the arguments for forefoot striking: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC6189005/
The heel strike vs. forefoot strike debate is not driven by evidence. Proponents of forefoot strike are making an argument from naturalness (some say that people run on forefeet without shoes, though this is disputed and may depend on the surface) and that, intuitively, landing on your forefoot seems like it would do less damage. Those arguments may be right but there's no solid evidence for them.
[1] https://news.sanfordhealth.org/orthopedics/over-striding/#:~....
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I don’t think the “hard on your body” part is true anymore (if it ever even was) if you use proper footwear.
"proper footwear" is subject of controversy, I could never run without getting shin splints in any kind of athletic shoe, I could never figure out how not to heel strike... Finally I tried barefoot shoes and cautiously increased my distance, I can finally get to that point of leaning forward and hitting mid-foot and feeling the springiness, feels way easier but now my heartrate is the bottleneck.
I started running with classmates without learning proper form and had joint pain in knees and hips within the first 5 km. It never felt good and I never got faster.
I started practicing barefoot a couple times a week to work on form. After the first few (painful) lessons I managed to improve my form and I could run faster and for longer distances.
Eventually I realized I enjoyed the barefoot training sessions more than running in shoes and I (slowly) switched all my runs to barefoot shoes and sandals, though that may not be the right approach for everyone. I've done a few marathons since then and now my bottleneck seems to be free time -- I'd love to try a 50k but those longer runs eat up so much more time.
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I watched a lot of footage of Olympic runners, all seem to have fore/mid foot strike. Can you share some names of elite heel striking runners?
I started running three years ago and looked into this quite a bit as I had plantar fasciitis for about 6 months this past summer. My conclusion was that there's no good evidence that foot strike matters in itself. Mostly everyone agrees that "overstriding" [1] is an issue but there's also no evidence for that. Also, not all heel strikers are driving their feet brutally into the ground. For distance running, most peo…
As to your studies: the first one doesn't include elite runners so isn't very relevant. The other one looks like meta analysis of other older studies. I am not arguing that heel strike is definitely wrong btw I am just yet to see an elite runner using it. My intuition is that it's mainly about striking the ground when your foot/leg already moves back. It just doesn't feel natural to do it heel first at least not to me.
I am not sure why you think sprinting is about forcefully driving your foot into the ground btw. It's the opposite. It's about lightly "brushing" the ground to "push" it horizontally behind you. See for example this footage: https://youtu.be/RD_TtokBUKc
The heel doesn't even hit the ground. It's the same when you look at the elite 10k or marathon runners although there heel usually lands on the ground for a while, especially in marathon: https://youtu.be/V4L113lP_54
With those new Nike shoes it almost look like heel strike because of the heel to toe drop in the shoe.
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I may start long jogging sessions to see if I can break the 20km threshold. Any advices?
You would need much more than just long jogging sessions to go to 20km, like tempo runs, strength, power etc. My advice is to do: 1. Couch to 5K 2. Beginner 5K https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/5k-training/novi... 3. Beginner 10K https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/10k-training/nov... 4. Intermediate 10K https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/10k-training/int... 5. Intermediate 21K https://www.…
I think training plans depend a lot on what you're wanting to do - I just wanted to complete the distance; I could probably do it faster with a proper training plan but I've found running without worrying about time (too much) to be enjoyable (and I have still got respectable results for my age).
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I had knee and slight back pain, anf always tried to mechanically aim at the smoothest impact (landing on foot ball, ensure enough forward momentum) yet,unless a high enough speed, I found it harder on my joints. To the point where jogging heel striking like a newb felt nicer. I'm still dumbfounded.
It takes months to years for bones and non muscle tissue to adapt to new stresses. Took me 1 year of regular runs to adapt to non heel strikes, but it happens eventually.