Runner’s Footstrike May Predict Injuries

Does the way a runner’s foot strikes the ground affect the number of runner’s injuries he or she may get? A recent study by Al Daoud and colleagues at Harvard University indicates that it may. According to Rich Sauza, writing in RunSafe, Daoud compared the difference between rearfoot strike and forefoot strike on the types and rates of injuries experienced by runners. His subjects were 52 male and female high-level intercollegiate track and cross country runners who were competing in distances ranging from 800 meters to 10 kilometers. All of the runners were either rearfoot or forefoot strikers.

The researchers observed that rearfoot strikers had more knee and hip injuries while the forefoot strikers had more ankle injuries. The rearfoot strikers tended to develop repetitive injuries and hip and knee injuries at a rate that was twice as often as forefoot strikers. Females with a forefoot strike were more likely to develop Achilles tendinopathy, but males were not. However, females with a rearfoot strike were more likely to develop plantar fasciitis. Sauza reported that males did not follow the same trend.

When comparing runners across a variety of common overuse running injuries, including knee pain and IT (Iliotibial) band syndrome, rearfoot-strikers were 2-3 times more likely to have problems than were the forefoot strikers. Sauza noted that, because of the small sample, these differences were not statistically significant. However, researchers note that this is one of the first studies to provide evidence that a particular strike pattern predisposes runners to more injuries.