Biomechanical differences between rearfoot striking and forefoot striking in running
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Running is a popular and beneficial form of exercise, but has notoriously high injury rates. One modification that has been suggested for reducing injury is changing foot strike pattern. The majority of recreational runners land on their heels when running, which is known as rearfoot striking. However, converting to forefoot striking and landing on the ball of the foot rather than the heel may be useful for reducing overuse injuries. Understanding the differences between rearfoot striking and forefoot striking during running and how these differences affect injury risk is necessary before promoting one foot strike pattern as protective. The goal of this dissertation was to improve the understanding of biomechanical differences between rearfoot striking and forefoot striking. Initially, I gained an understanding of how these running patterns differ by comparing muscle activity between habitual rearfoot striking runners and habitual forefoot striking runners in ten major lower limb muscles. Next, I used acute gait retraining on habitual rearfoot striking runners, asking them to perform two different running adaptations: converting to a forefoot striking pattern and increasing their cadence by 10%. I compared how these adaptations affected biomechanical parameters associated with a history of tibial stress fractures. From this study, I found that converting to forefoot striking and increasing cadence reduced different injury risk parameters. Both of these adaptations appear to potentially reduce the risk of tibial stress fractures, but they do so in different ways. Finally, I analyzed the effect of converting to forefoot striking on plantar flexor muscle-tendon dynamics using simulations driven by measured kinematics and electromyography. With these simulations, I evaluated acute adaptation to forefoot striking on elastic energy storage in the Achilles tendon and plantar flexor muscle mechanics. Based on increased activation, increased negative work, and eccentric contraction during early stance, runners interested in converting to forefoot striking should be mindful of the increased demands on the gastrocnemius. The experimental results and simulations from this thesis are publicly available, allowing others to build upon this work and continue to probe the differences between habitual rearfoot striking and converted forefoot striking.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Yong, Jennifer Rachel |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Delp, Scott |
| Thesis advisor | Delp, Scott |
| Thesis advisor | Fredericson, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Kuhl, Ellen, 1971- |
| Degree committee member | Fredericson, Michael |
| Degree committee member | Kuhl, Ellen, 1971- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jennifer R. Yong. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Jennifer Rachel Yong
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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