Run Form Focus - Heel vs Forefoot Striking

I get asked this question a lot, is heel striking or forefoot striking better? In order to answer that question we need to understand the mechanics behind this. It's important that I stress that I’m sharing my experiences and what I remember from what I’ve read about run form. Try the exercises at the end and listen to your body, if it hurts, then whatever you’re doing is not working for you. Like all the blogs in this series, these are mechanisms that you can play with when you feel an ache or pain. The more you play with these aspects of run form, the deeper your understanding of what works for you will become. Do not continue with something that works for me if it gives you pain. If you’re ever in doubt, always seek a professional about pain.

Center of Gravity

Before we talk about heel and forefoot striking, we need to talk about your center of gravity. When you are standing straight, your center of gravity is over your body. If you lean forward, you shift your center of gravity and start to fall forward. For most of us, before we fall down, our body will instinctively put one foot out and stabilize us.

The foot reaches out in front of you (and your center of gravity) to oppose the forward momentum you created. To make this more clear, for running, when you lean forward by shifting your center of gravity forward, you gain forward momentum. If your foot reaches out in front of your center of gravity, when the foot hits the ground, there will be an opposing force that counters or stabilizes that forward momentum. If you’re trying to stand still, this is great! It’ll help you stay in the same spot. If you’re running, this actually works against you. It doesn’t matter if you are heel striking or forefoot striking, when your foot lands in front of your center of gravity it will generate an opposing force that slows you down.

The general idea for running is that if you lean forward you will start falling forward. You want to conserve as much of that forward momentum as possible by minimizing that opposing force that comes from your foot landing in front of your center of gravity. So ideally your foot will land directly under your center of gravity. Easier said than done, but that's the theory.

Keep in mind that the best way to get better at this is through practice and practice is much easier when you are running slow. It’s also much easier to practice this when you’re taking shorter strides. Think about practicing hammering a nail. It's easier to practice when you’re taking small swings, than giant swings… and the consequences are less if you miss too.

Heel Striking

If you accept the premise behind landing your feet below your center of gravity, you’ll quickly see that it's hard to run with your foot under your center of gravity and land on your heels. Generally speaking, heel striking is an indication that your foot is landing in front of your center of gravity.

Forefoot Striking

So then it must be better to land on your forefoot, right? Well, I wish it was that simple. You also have a mid foot which includes your arch. From what I have read your arch was ‘designed’ to absorb impact and react like an elastic band giving you some energy back from the impact.

At this point, I think it's best to listen to your body and see what feels best for you. Your run form will change as you run more because your weight, strength and fitness will improve and require different things from your stride. The exercises below will start to help gain awareness as to what forefoot striking feels like as compared to midfoot striking.

Exercises

Feeling Your Center of Gravity

Required Material: none

Duration: 30-60s per aspect

Stage 1

Standing perform the following

1. Engage your core (abs, back, inner thighs and glutes).

2. Slowly lean forward until your leg naturally comes out in front of you.

3. Notice these things:

   1. Can you feel your center of gravity shift forward as you lean? What does that feel like?

   2. What part of your foot impacts the ground when it comes out in front of you, how does that feel on your foot, shins, knees, legs?

   3. How do you think this will feel or build up if you had that same impact over 30 mins? 60 mins? 2hrs?

Try the same exercise:

1. Lean forward faster if you’re not feeling the impact on your legs.

2. Land on the opposite part of your foot (ie. if you landed on your heel try to land on your forefoot and vice versa)

   1. The intention here is to give your body the awareness of what it feels like with these motions so that you can adapt when you receive those messages.

Midfoot vs Forefoot

Required Material: none

Duration: 30-60s per aspect. 120-240s per stage

Stage 1

Standing perform the following

1. Engage your core (abs, back, inner thighs and glutes)

2. Lightly jog on the spot, landing on the tips of your toes (this is an extreme to give you awareness of what it feels like)

3. Notice these things:

   1. How does this feel?

   2. Is this something that you’d do for 30 mins? 60 mins? 2hrs?

Try the same exercise:

1. Land midfoot or almost on the middle of your arch.

2. Try finding some point in the middle between the tips of your toes and the middle of your arch.

   1. What do you notice? What do you like best?

Stage 2 - Combine the two exercises and slowly lean forward and start to jog. Being aware of where your foot is landing and how it feels. For this exercise don’t force or guide anything, just observe where you naturally fall and how it feels

Stage 3 - Continue to jog slowly and land with your feet under your center of gravity, but play around with midfoot striking vs forefoot striking. Listen to the signals your body is sending, then adjust where you land.