Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Foot Strike Patterns And Body Alignment Effects On Muscle Activity During Running., Nicole Knapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The mechanics of the running stride was altered around the 1970s when shoes were released with an elevated heel (McDougall 2009). At this point in time a heel strike running style became increasingly common and has remained the popular pattern when running in traditional shoes. In fact, the exact same person has been seen to alter their stride when running in a traditional shoe where they heel strike verses barefoot where they take on a forefoot strike (Lieberman 2010).

When an individual heel strikes, the ground reaction force is greater and contains an initial peak which is void in a …