Foot Strike and Injury Rates in Endurance Runners: A Retrospective Study
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 06/21/2012
Daoud AI et al. – Competitive cross–country runners on a college team incur high injury rates, but runners who habitually rearfoot strike have significantly higher rates of repetitive stress injury than those who mostly forefoot strike. This study does not test the causal bases for this general difference. One hypothesis, which requires further research, is that the absence of a marked impact peak in the ground reaction force during a forefoot strike compared with a rearfoot strike may contribute to lower rates of injuries in habitual forefoot strikers.
