Is There A Perfect Footstrike For Running?

Do you think about footstrike when running and are you trying to change it? Share your thoughts with us 👇

I agree with a lot of the others here. My heal striking caused me a lot of ankle, knee and hip pain over the years. When I finally decided to shorten my stride and focus on a mid-front strike, it was amazing. I ran further and faster with much less joint pain. I definitely think being conscious of your stride while running is important.

Personally, heel striking was wearing away my knee cartilage and changing it improved my life and I no longer need surgery or pain meds. Relearning to walk in barefoot shoes was a very conscious thing.

Heel striking felt natural to me at first, but it caused me shin splints. Been forefoot/midfoot striking since then and those issues pretty much went away over night

Shorter strides and higher cadence is the key for faster run and avoided injuries

I used to run a lot and this was always on my mind if I am running correctly or not. Thank you GTN Team for these small issues that no other people explains in this much detail. 💙

After my second major hip surgery on the same hip I went to a rehabilitation specialist and he created a gym program to assist me change from a heel striker to a midfoot to forefoot runner. I used the gym program, ballet steps, reformer Pilates and an Anti G machine to practice. No injuries since. I was 41 when this happened and I am now almost 51. Chi running also helped. Thanks for the show.

For me, learning to land on my fore foot was like an epiphany. No more joint/knee pain at all and it honestly felt like cheating running like that. My calf muscles took some time getting used to it, but I'm so glad I learned this technique.

I started running at 27 and (without thinking or realizing it) I always did heel striking. After I got new shoes in a good shop (at 35 y.o.) the guy did an analysis and recommended I tried forefoot running for a shorter contact time and for injury prevention. The first couple runs were really hard as I kept trying to focus and "override" my tendency to heel strike (and I also had a lot of sore muscles from places I did not used much before), but slowly I got used to it and now it's natural running between forefoot and middle foot. One fun thing you mentioned happened to me: When I was at the last couple km of the cross triathlon I did last year, I went back into heel striking, because I was too tired to keep the forefoot technique! At the time I remember feeling a bit guilty by it, but thinking "it's just the last couple of kilometres, my knees will survive and I just want to finish strong". Now I know that it's not as bad a thing as I thought, thanks GTN! :D

Great content as usual. That comment about running style changing with fitness was spot on for me. I went from a dedicated heel-striker to a consistent mid-sole strike once my fitness improved. In turn, that has definitely helped out my knees and hip joints.

Great video!!

Very interesting. Last November I undertook a biometric analysis with a running coach as I knew something wasn't right as I kept getting right knee injuries and it stopped me from enjoying my running which I did only in winter as an alternative to cycling. I'm 66 years old and in my peak "running days" in my late 30's was able to run 19-30 for 5k and 1 hr 34.for a 1/2 marathon. The analysis showed that my right foot was heel strike and left was midfoot - so clearly there was an imbalance. Since then I've worked on striking midfoot on my right leg and a few other things like running more upright and increasing cadence. The evidence was already on the soles of my walking shoes where the right shoe was much more worn at the heel. Interestingly for 3 years before the biometric analysis I had bought a pair of Vivobarefoot shoes for walking and the wear on the soles of both shoes was symmetrical and even. Since I've switched to midfoot on both sides I'm glad to say that I have had little to no right knee pain and I feel good after each run. I've also made the decision to continue running through the summer as well as cycling. I haven't gone as far as trying barefoot shoes for running, just keep them for walking.

Nice topic :) Started here as a heel striker, but changed this into forefoot because of hipissues. Now changing to midfoot due to shinproblems :O

About 5 years ago I switched to front foot after years of heal strikes. Took more or less a year to fully adjust. Now I do all my runs from 6km to 60km all on front foot. I did the change over my 30yo mark due to knee problems-I was said to stop or would have to undergo a surgery.

I changed the way I strike a couple of years ago and it was a couple months of issues and injuries, but now I mid foot strike without thinking about it.

Go run outside barefoot for 1 mile. You’ll stop heel striking real fast. I actually went from heel to fore foot, but, I also ran sprints in high school track so my body just pulled out what it knew, my Achilles adapted and I’m now forefoot.

Very informative, I was told the heel strike was wrong and it’s my natural foot strike. Good to know I’m not doing it wrong, I just need to slow down slightly and work on my form.

It’s amazing how GTN come out with this video while I was think about my foot strike during my lunch run today…

You guys have been posting some wonderful videos backed by relevant information. Thanks for sharing 🙏

I had back pain when running from heel strike and as soon as it did mid foot strike my back pain when away so I have a mid foot strike