Different heel strike patterns change the impact of the whole body during running

Abstract

Excessive high impact from the ground may cause injuries to the lower extremity (Lafortune & Hennig, 1992). It has been suggested that forefoot strike (FFS) causes ankle injuries by increasing plantar flexion moment at the ankle joint during running. On the other hand, rearfoot strike (RFS) causes tibia stress fracture by delivering high impact shock, and knee injuries by increasing extension moment at the knee (Goss & Gross, 2012). However, as most studies have analyzed the joint loads by an inverse dynamics, this approach is limited to understand impact characteristics (i.e. magnitude and distribution) of the whole body during running.