Chapter 9 - The Interaction of Foot Strike and Footwear in Runners

Abstract

Although we have been running for over 2 million years, running injuries appear to be a fairly recent phenomena. There is consensus that the etiology of running injuries is multifactorial. However, there is much debate in the running community regarding which are the most important factors. Central to this debate are the issues relating to optimal footstrike patterns and ideal running footwear. While we have spent most of our running history barefoot or in minimal shoes, running footwear slowly began to change 50 years ago. Shoes have progressively changed from being very minimal to highly cushioned and highly supportive. There is evidence that these changes altered our running mechanics, to include changing footstrike patterns. While most barefoot runners land on their forefoot, 95% of runners in today's footwear land on their rearfoot. A rearfoot strike pattern results in a vertical impact force not typically present in a forefoot strike runner. This impact force has been shown to be related to a number of running-related injuries. As a result, some runners have tried to transition to a forefoot strike pattern in traditional modern running shoes. However studies have shown that a forefoot strike pattern is best accomplished when wearing minimal shoes. Those that want to retain a rearfoot strike pattern should not do so in minimal shoes as they do not provide adequate cushioning for the impact. The purpose of this paper is to review the mechanical factors related to footstrike and footwear and to describe the important interaction between them.