How do you land your feet when running?

[hacw]

Laura says run by landing your heal on the ground first. But a few of running web sits iv read tonight say this is a MUST NOT as it causes a breaking action as it stops the momentum of your stride thus causing undue stress to your knees. They recomend that you land mid sole and you can do this buy not over striding thus causing less stress to your knees. Is this why i have pain in my knees??? What are peoples thoughts on which is the right way to land your feet when running

running.about.com/od/faqsfo...

[Misstrolly Graduate]

I've been following Laura's advice and land on the heel but I also read in a running magazine about not doing that...! I'd be interested to know other opinions

[Greg_M Graduate]

I run mid-sole now as much as I can. It slips sometimes if I am tired. I guess we have all read those articles and the logic about hitting midsole seemed right so I went with it. There also seemed no reasons why it would be a bad thing to do.

Takes a bit of adjusting too mind you!

I can't figure out landing fore foot at all.....that just feels all wrong.

[TrickyHicky Graduate]

I've been following Laura's advice and landing on my heels, but am really suffering with sore knees, so I'm missing my next run and switching to mid sole when I do my next run.

[AmandaW Graduate]

I was going to ask about this too after reading a mag last night that said that hitting heel first is likely to cause injury!!?? I run mid-sole normally and was trying to follow Laura's advice and killing my knee - I think I'll stick with mid-sole - fore foot is just awkward for me. Its all very confusing when the different sources give different advice - I'll be very interested to hear what others think

[PatButcher Graduate]

Hmmmm, I find running heel first a tad tricky anyway, so I just run how my feet want to If that makes sense ?! Which does tend to be mid sole first. I haven't suffered any injuries as yet so can't be all wrong

[Hidden]

Thinking about it, when most of us are walking we put our heels down first and then put our toes down to push off for the next step. When we start jogging we're just doing that faster (at first). It's a movement that we're used to and so are our muscles. It's fairly efficient - if we were 'bouncy' as Laura says at one point - then we would be wasting energy lifting our body weight at each step. It doesn't hurt (much) because modern running shoes are so well padded.

I've noticed that when I try to run faster for a bit I land mid-foot, it requires more effort but feels natural. Perhaps if my shoes weren't as padded, that would have been more comfortable from the start, but then Wk 1 would have been harder. Those 'barefoot' trainers don't have padding and maybe they encourage people to land mid-foot.

I expect most people change their foot strike naturally once they are fitter and faster. If you run really fast then it's naturally to be pretty springy but you need the muscles to match - if you watch Usain Bolt he runs on his tippy toes!

This is the sort of thing I think about when I'm running

[CaroleC Graduate]

I try to land midsole if I can. The idea is not to put your legs too far out in front of yourself, so you are not raising your thigh high in front, rather you are pushing off from behind with your heel coming up high behind. Doing this stops you heel striking. Your feet should not be coming to the ground far out in front of your body; your body should always be over your feet or in front of them.

CaroleC