Transitioning to a Forefoot Strike and/or Minimalist Running Shoes Part 1

I read an interesting post on Cold Thistle this morning about barefoot running and minimalist shoes.  It was an article by G.S. Seltzer at www.triabilitycoach.com.  It's an interesting article.  The link is

http://triabilitycoach.com/2012/03/22/barefoot-running-truths/.  Or you can read it at one of my favorite blogs,

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2012/04/barefoot-running.html.

  Then, with that on my mind, I went climbing for a few hours.  While I was sitting at a belay, I got a text from my wife.  One of the girls she works with is a runner.   The text said, "(Her friend's name) disagrees with you on your running style.  She says the ball of the foot is bad.  Heel-toe is better for long distances."

This friend of my wife has taken up running and her husband ran track for a local university.  He was a sprinter, not a long-distance runner.  He told his wife that his track coaches said that landing on the ball of the foot is good for sprinting, but a heel-to-toe strike is better for long distances (a widely believed idea that has been challenged more recently during the barefoot/minimalist running movement).  This friend also said she tried the midfoot strike thing and got injured.

The fact is, even if midfoot striking is better than heel striking (which I believe it is), it can still lead to injury if your body is not used to it and the transition isn't done carefully.  Therefore, I'm writing this two-part post to explain how I transitioned to forefoot striking and more minimal shoes.

Why Running Shoes Have Thick Heels

In 1967, William J. Bowerman (a successful track coach at University of Oregon) and W. E. Harris wrote a book called Jogging: A Physical Fitness Program for all Ages.  In the book, Bowerman and Harris claimed that the most efficient way to run was to land on the heel of the foot and that a person would jog faster if they lengthened their stride.  A longer stride meant that a runner must land on their heels.  There was no scientific evidence for these claims, but it sounded good.

A few years later, Bowerman, now one of the founders of Nike, was involved in creating a new running shoe with a thicker heel, called the Nike Cortez.  Later, with some more ingenuity and his wife's waffle iron, he created the Waffle Trainer.

The thicker heel look caught on and other companies adopted the design.  The thicker sole also forced the user to adopt a heel strike (because it's really difficult not to with such a thick heel).  It's interesting to note, that running-related injuries have gone up since the invention of thick-heeled running shoes and a heel strike.

Why I think a Mid/Forefoot Strike is better

A few years ago a study came out by Daniel Lieberman and colleagues from Harvard University.  The study, Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually versus shod runners, showed a few interesting points.  The study compared shod runners and barefoot runners and measured their impact forces.  

According to the study, "At similar speeds, magnitudes of peak vertical force during the impact period are approximately three times lower in habitual barefoot runners who forefoot strike than in habitually shod runners who rearfoot strike either barefoot or shod."

If you run without shoes on, your body is naturally going to find a form or technique that is most comfortable and does the least amount of damage for the body.  Try heel striking without shoes on.  It just hurts.  If one runs without shoes, their body will naturally transition to a technique that is less damaging and painful to their body, which will be a forefoot strike.  (For clarification, I often use the terms midfoot strike and forefoot strike synonymously, even though a mid foot strike means landing with the forefoot and heel landing simultaneously.  A forefoot strike means the ball of the foot lands first.  A forefoot strike is actually the more natural gait and is what I mean when I say midfoot strike)

This is the same lady, running without shoes on the left and with shoes on the right.  Look how much smoother she looks without shoes.  Her posture is better, her arms are tighter to her body, she lands softer and her body is smoother.  Without shoes, notice that her knee is bent when she lands so the impact force is absorbed by her muscles.  With shoes, she lands with her leg mostly straight so the impact force (that is 3x the amount as without shoes) is absorbed less by her muscles and much more by her knees and hips/lower back.  There are no shock absorbers in the knees or lower back.  It's no wonder that a different friend of my wife, who is an avid runner, just had hip surgery to repair some damage they think was caused by running (she heel strikes, by the way).

Another downside to heel striking is that it is less efficient than forefoot striking.  It's a little more visible in this video.  As a person lands on their heel with their leg out in front of them, it's like they are putting on the brakes.  Proper forefoot-striking technique is that the runner lands on the forefoot directly under the body, not out in front, so it shouldn't act as a brake.

After Deciding to Make the Transition

Chances are, if you've been running in standard running shoes for a long time your feet have weakened a bit.  We often hear about needing arch support in a shoe or some sort of pronation/supination control.  All this "technology" in shoes should lead to less injuries, right?  Well, according to some studies, approximately 70-80% of runners in America will get a running-related injury this year.  In contrast, about 3% of runners in third world countries (who usually run barefoot and with a mid/forefoot strike) will get a running-related injury this year.  It's possible that those numbers are so much lower because some of the injuries may go unreported, but probably not 67-77% of injuries go unreported.  That's a staggering difference.  I should note, these statistics are from memory (I think from the book Born to Run, which I read about two years ago or from one or the other studies I've read over the last few years) and could be off a bit.  If anybody knows what the statistics accurately are, I'd appreciate a comment on them.

Anyway, the body adapts to what it's subject to.  So, when a foot is "protected" by a shoe with lots of arch support, the arch gets weak.  It's like putting a cast on your foot.  If you did that to your arm, it too would get weaker.  Weak muscles being subject to a hard workout are a recipe for injuries.  Therefore, don't go on a long run barefoot or in minimal shoes when your feet are weak.

Anyway, it is important to strengthen one's feet before really committing to a full-time forefoot strike.  This can be done by wearing shoes less, occasionally running barefoot on grass or other soft, safe surfaces, by running with minimal shoes part-time, etc.  Going from a heel strike to minimal shoes and forefoot strike SHOULD NOT be an abrupt change.  It should be a gradual transition.  If somebody that is not used to a forefoot strike suddenly runs 10 miles with a forefoot strike, they will most likely not be able to walk for a few days (because their calves are so sore) and could potentially injure themselves in other ways.  It's like taking on a technical ski run with weak legs.  The risk of injury is so much higher than if the skier has strong legs, even if the technical skill is equal.

Part 2 of this post will be about how I transitioned to a forefoot strike and some other suggestions from experts in the field.

Running Injuries and Minimalist Shoes

I used to run a lot.  In fact, for about seven years I ran competitively (not ever really winning, but also not totally losing; I was usually near the bottom of the top third).  I ran because I enjoyed being in shape, and it kept me in shape for all the other activities I enjoyed doing, like rock climbing and backpacking.  Probably the most addicting thing about running for me was how good I felt when my body was in shape.

Well, I moved to Europe for a couple years, stopped running, and life was fine.  When I got back to the States, I decided I needed to take up running again.  The problem was, as soon as I started running, my knees started to ache.  Over time, the pain became so severe that I could barely walk.  I had no idea what the problem was.  When I biked, my knees felt fine, but as soon as I'd start to run, the pain would come back.  It was so frustrating.  So, for a few years I relied solely on biking and hiking to keep my cardio up.

I was talking to my boss one day about running (this is while I was working at a gear shop).  My old boss is an incredible runner.  He runs multiple ultra marathons each year (and occasionally wins).  Well, I was complaining to him about how much I missed running and how it was so frustrating to have this knee pain.  He convinced me to go trail running with him the next day after work.  He said that he would bet my knee pain is related to my running form, and if I were to change the way I run, the pain would go away.  I assured him that I run no differently now than I did years ago and I didn't have any pain then, just now.  He said that he would coach me on my form a little and see if the pain would go away.

So, the next day we went out and ran six miles together on the trails.  The whole time he was giving me pointers on how to run.  The biggest thing he taught me was to not land on my heels, but to shorten and quicken my stride and land on the balls of my feet.  It was awkward at first, but I trusted him.  By the time we got done with our run, my calves were so sore that I was hobbling around the parking lot.  Also, by the end of the run he had convinced me to sign up for a trail marathon that was coming up in about four months.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to do the race because of my knees, but they didn't seem to hurt much after our run, so I went for it.

A side note on running technique:  When you run barefoot, your body tends to automatically want to run properly, naturally.  It doesn't allow you to heel strike.  Instead, you land on the balls of your feet, with your knees bent.  Overstriding and heel striking is simply too painful without shoes on.  When you land on the balls of your feet with your knees bent, the impact is absorbed by the muscles of your legs and by the muscles in the arch of the foot, the way the body is designed to do it.  If you run with a heel strike, you land with your leg straight, not bent.  That means that all of the impact force when you land is sent to the joints in your knees and lower back.  There is no shock absorbing mechanism in your knees or lower back (no, your meniscus doesn't count).

I started running on the trails about four days a week, focusing on the new form that my boss had taught me.  Within about two weeks of running with this new form, my knee pain was gone.  Totally gone.  I was really enjoying running again, and within about three weeks I was doing 12-16 mile trail runs on a regular basis.

About two months later, a different ailment surfaced.  This time, every time I would land on an uneven surface with the balls of my feet, I would get excruciating shooting pains up my foot.  I'd dealt with plantar fascitis (which this was) in the past by not running, but I'd already signed up for this marathon, so that wasn't an option.

I talked to my boss and he explained that traditional running shoes can often lead to foot problems, such as plantar fascitis, because they are too narrow in the forefoot and they don't allow the toes and forefoot to splay properly.  Also, after running miles in a shoe, the foam packs out a little bit, packing down more at the center of the shoe, under the ball of the foot than on the outsides of the shoe.  This is due to the way the shoe is made and because the majority of one's bodyweight is centered on that point of the shoe.  That means that after months of running, the footbed of one's shoe, under the ball of the foot, is concave.  This forces the bones of the foot to push together, not allowing the foot to work properly and often inflaming the tissues in the bottom of the foot.  Therefore, traditional running shoes may have been causing more pain than they were helping.  My boss suggested running on grass without shoes every once in a while to strengthen my feet and allow my feet to work properly.  I did this and the pain started to subside, but very slowly.

By the time the marathon came around, I was excited to get it over with.  I was sick of having foot pain (which was still there, but not nearly as intensely as before) and knew I needed new shoes.  I ran the race, enjoyed the first 25 miles of it, and then started to cramp for the last three miles or so.  This marathon was slightly longer than the normal 26.2.  When I got to the finish line, my friend (previously my boss) was waiting for me to welcome me in.  He ended up taking first in that race.  He then introduced me to a few of his friends, one of which was Golden Harper, the founder of Altra Running shoes.  Altra was in its prototype stages back then.

My previous boss, Brian Beckstead, left that gear shop to help his friend start the company Altra.  They had been working for years and years learning about the foot, working in running stores, altering their own shoes (cutting a 12mm wedge out of the heel of their shoes), and ultimately designing new shoes that are supposed to allow your foot to work naturally.  While Brian was my boss, he showed me a prototype of their new shoes.  They looked radically different than the trail runners we sold at our store.  First of all, they were shaped like a foot; narrow in the heel and VERY wide in the forefoot and didn't come to a point at the toe.  Second, they were built on a zero-drop last (Altra coined the term "zero drop").  This means that the forefoot and the heel are exactly the same height off the ground.  Most other shoes have a 12mm drop (sometimes more) from heel to toe, which makes it very difficult (almost impossible) to run without landing on the heel.

It took another year or so for Altra to make its debut and start selling shoes.  They were a small company at first and couldn't keep up with demands.  Within weeks they were sold out of shoes.  A few months later they had some more, but they sold out again before I could get my hands on some.  Finally, Icon Fitness bought Altra and started funding the company, allowing them to make enough shoes to keep up with the demand.  Last November my wife bought me a pair of Altra Instinct running shoes for my birthday.  They didn't have the Lone Peak in stock at that time and I thought I may be doing more road running during the winter than trail.

I hadn't done much running between that marathon and November because all my running shoes hurt my feet and I was enjoying biking and climbing too much.  But getting the new shoes was a little more motivation for me to get after it again.  I have been running off and on since November and I am happy to say that my foot and knee pain is gone.  The only discomfort I have is in my calves when I haven't run for a while and then overdo it.

With all that said, the next post will be a review on the best running shoe I have ever used (and I've used a lot of them), the Altra Instinct.

A note on minimalist shoes and proper running technique: Because of my background I am convinced that the trend toward minimalist/barefoot running is a step in the right direction.  I know a lot of people believe in barefoot running.  I think it's great, but I personally am not man enough to do it.  I like having the protection of shoes when I run, but I don't like shoes to work against my body and cause injuries and discomfort.  So, you won't find me running marathons in Vibram Five Fingers or Altra Adams, but you will find me preaching zero-drop shoes and proper/natural running technique.  I know there are varying opinions about what proper technique is.  To define what I consider proper or natural technique, take off your shoes and run for a couple hundred yards.  It is pretty much impossible to land on your heels.  In fact, it hurts a lot to land on your heels.  Your body naturally lands on the balls of the feet and uses your leg muscles, bent knees, and the arches of your feet to absorb the impact.  That's what I consider natural or proper running form.