Running Form

There was an interesting NYT article (here) concerning heel versus toe striking when running. Basically, the article discusses a new study that shows that the impact/force from either heel or toe striking is the same, it is just absorbed by different parts of the body:

"[T]he findings show that you can’t escape the cumulative impact of running, however you stride, said Juha-Pekka Kulmala, a Ph.D. student, now at the University of Jyvaskyla, who led the study. Hit with your heels and you stress your knee, possibly leading to conditions such as patellofemoral stress syndrome. Strike near the ball of your foot and you’ll jolt your ankle and Achilles’ tendon, potentially increasing the risk of such injuries as Achilles’ tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, and stress fractures of the foot."

Therefore, the article concludes that "[t]here is, in other words, no one invariably right and painless way to run."

I think this study/article somewhat misses what should be the point when it comes to running form and injury prevention in running. There are two things I think are worth noting concerning the conclusions drawn from the "findings" of this study.

First, and most obviously, whether or not there is a 'right' way to run, the painless way to run is through less training volume/miles by substituting with CFE (i.e., less volume). Long cumulative miles are what really results in more painful running. I have been training under the CFE model for the last 1.5 yrs now with no painful running, primarily because it only requires that I run a max of about 15-20 miles a week (a drastic difference from someone running 50 to 75 to even100 miles a week in training).

Second, and more related to the article/study, I think the focus on form  and the 'right' and pain free way to run involves more than simply asking whether a person is a heel or toe striker: overall form is important to analyze. Thus, in addition to how you strike the ground with your foot, we need to analyze where the persons foot lands when it strikes the ground (i.e., way out in front of them?). Depending on where the foot lands in relation to the body could influence the amount of applied force on the leg. If the foot is landing out in front of you, it is acting almost like a brake, whereas if it is landing under your center of mass it doesn't act the same way.  Inevitably, if you are landing way out in front of you, you are hitting the ground harder with each stride than someone landing under their center of mass. Moroever, the cumulative impact with the ground will be greater if a person floats higher off the ground and/or stomps down as they run.

In short, while the findings in the study are interesting, I am not sure it is very helpful to just say whether someone is a heel or toe striker is irrelevant, and either way you are just as suseptible to injury because it is the same force being applied to different body parts: either knees or ankles. There are other necessary considerations when it comes to overall running form.