Is it ok to heel-strike while walking?

Asked by: Michael Pudic

To prevent injuries to your lower body, use a midfoot strike, and avoid hitting the ground with your heel. This allows your foot to land directly under your hip as you drive your body forward. A heel strike may cause your leg to slow down your stride and stress your knees.

Are you supposed to heel strike while walking?

A heel strike is suitable for walking (in most situations) because our full weight is not loaded on the leg until the entire foot makes contact with the ground. As we walk forward with each step our body weight is gradually shifted from one leg to the other.

Should your heel hit first when walking?

When walking, your heel should touch down first on the ground. As your heel lands, you should roll through your foot towards the ball of your feet. Your toes splay outward in preparation for the next step as your heel lifts off the ground.

How should foot strike when walking?

To get an ideal pattern, you should strike the ground with the outer part of your heel, slightly move your foot inwards (light pronation movement) to lay it flat. From there, your body’s propulsion should be triggered by the front part of your feet for an optimal movement.

Is heel striking natural?

Regardless of what people think runners should do, the vast majority heel strike. A US study looking at runners at the five-mile stage of a marathon found that more than 93% were heel striking – although when they divided people up by ability, fewer of the faster runners landed on their heels.

What is the correct way to walk?

Right you also if you lean forward slightly because if you're leaning. Back that's when you're doing that yeah you know what i mean almost forced into the heel. So yeah lean forward a little bit fat.

Is it better to walk on your toes or heels?

Interestingly enough, a study by the University of Utah found that, “the heel-down posture increases the economy of walking but not the economy of running… You consume more energy when you walk on the balls of your feet or your toes than when you walk heels first.” So: Run on your toes, walk on your heels!

Is it OK to be a heel striker?

Not necessarily. Running with a heel strike may make you more susceptible to certain injuries. For example, one small 2012 study from Harvard University found that among 52 cross country runners, heel strikers had twice the rate of mild to moderate repetitive stress injury in a single year than forefoot strikers.

How do I know if I’m a heel striker?

Then you're most likely striking with your heel. And what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to shift ever so slightly closer to that mid foot. Now I don't want you going from one

Does heel striking slow you down?

In summary, having or changing to a midfoot or forefoot strike from a heel strike doesn’t improve running speed or economy in distance runners, doesn’t decrease impact forces, and doesn’t lower injury risk.

How do I stop being a heel striker?

Well so if you're a heel striking runner try and focus on becoming a lighter heel striking runner.

Why is heel strike important?

Heel strike: When heel striking, the foot lands ahead of the body’s centre of gravity. This almost creates a « braking » phase, which is followed by a « pulling » phase before the push-off phase. This shift in the body’s centre of mass is more energy-consuming, and therefore less efficient.

What is heel striking?

Heel striking is when a runner’s heel is the first part of their foot to make contact with the ground during a stride. Problems tend to arise when the knee is fully extended, and the heel lands out in front of the body.

Does heel strike cause plantar fasciitis?

A common assumption is that the repetitive impact caused by landing on your heel when running is what causes Plantar Fasciitis. One study has, in fact, shown that the high impact forces that occur when you overstride (poor running technique) can be a contributing factor in developing the condition.

Does heel striking cause knee pain?

Avoid heel striking



When your feet land in front of your knees, you are putting on the brakes with every foot strike, sending a major impact to your knees, which were never designed to be shock absorbers. Eventually, all of this impact to your knees leads to either joint pain or soreness in your muscles.