Before diving into how to stop heel striking, it is worth establishing something that most guides in this space skip over: heel striking is not automatically wrong. The majority of recreational runners heel strike, and many of them run injury-free for years. The relationship between heel striking and injury is more nuanced than the barefoot running movement of the early 2010s suggested, and understanding that nuance is essential before you start trying to change your foot strike pattern.
That said, a specific type of heel striking, where the heel contacts the ground significantly in front of the body’s centre of mass as part of an overstriding pattern, is genuinely associated with higher impact loading and injury risk. This is the heel striking worth addressing, and this guide covers exactly how to do it.
The Heel Striking Debate: What the Research Actually Says
The idea that heel striking is inherently dangerous comes primarily from the barefoot running movement popularised by the book Born to Run and associated research suggesting that cushioned shoes encouraged overstriding and heel striking. The subsequent research picture has been more complex:
Most recreational runners heel strike: Approximately 75 to 80 percent of recreational runners are heel strikers. If heel striking universally caused injury, running injury rates would be catastrophically higher than they are.
Elite runners are not all midfoot strikers: Contrary to popular belief, a significant proportion of elite distance runners heel strike, particularly at marathon pace. A 2012 study of elite Kenyan runners found 74 percent were heel strikers. The notion that all elite runners are midfoot or forefoot strikers is a myth.
The contact position matters more than the contact point: Research by Heiderscheit, Daoud, and others suggests that where the foot contacts relative to the centre of mass is more important than whether the first contact is the heel or the midfoot. A heel strike that occurs close to beneath the hip produces lower impact loading than a midfoot strike that occurs well in front of the hip.
What the research does support: Heel striking combined with overstriding (foot contacting significantly in front of the hip) increases impact loading rate and is associated with higher rates of certain injuries including stress fractures, shin splints, and knee pain. Heel striking without overstriding is a different mechanical situation.
The practical conclusion: If you heel strike but do not overstride, and you are running injury-free, changing your foot strike pattern is unlikely to improve your running. If you heel strike with overstriding, addressing the overstriding (which may naturally shift the foot strike toward midfoot) is worthwhile. If you heel strike, overstride, and have recurring injuries in the injury patterns associated with this combination, a deliberate transition away from heel striking is justified.
When Heel Striking Is a Problem
Heel striking becomes a mechanical problem when combined with the following:
Overstriding: The foot contacts the ground well in front of the hip, creating a braking impulse and high loading rate as described in the overstriding article on this site. This is the primary context in which heel striking causes problems.
High loading rate: A heel contact that produces a rapid spike in ground reaction force, often felt as a jarring impact, increases stress on the tibia, knee, and hip. This high loading rate is associated with stress fractures and shin splints.
Stiff ankle at contact: Heel striking with a stiff, dorsiflexed ankle absorbs impact poorly compared to a relaxed ankle that moves through plantarflexion at contact. The stiff ankle combined with heel striking produces the characteristic hard, slapping contact that generates the high loading rates associated with injury.
Recurring injuries: If you heel strike and consistently develop shin splints, knee pain, or stress fractures, the heel strike pattern may be contributing. A foot strike transition should be considered as part of a comprehensive approach to addressing these injuries.
Assessing Your Current Foot Strike Pattern
Video analysis: Film yourself running from the side at your normal training pace. Pause the video at initial foot contact and observe which part of the foot contacts the ground first and where the foot contacts relative to the hip.
- Heel striker with overstriding: First contact is the heel, foot is significantly in front of the hip
- Heel striker without overstriding: First contact is the heel, foot is close to beneath the hip
- Midfoot striker: First contact is the midfoot or ball of the foot, foot is close to beneath the hip
- Forefoot striker: First contact is the ball of the foot, often with the heel only briefly touching or not touching the ground
The shin angle test: In the video, observe the shin angle at initial contact. A shin angling significantly backward (top of the shin behind the foot) indicates a heel strike well in front of the body. A shin that is approximately vertical indicates efficient contact regardless of whether it is heel or midfoot first.
Feel during running: Heel striking with overstriding produces a characteristic jarring or slapping sensation at each contact. Efficient running, whether heel or midfoot, produces a quieter, more absorbed landing.
How to Stop Heel Striking: The Transition Protocol
If you have assessed your running and determined that your heel strike pattern is contributing to injury or mechanical inefficiency, the following protocol provides a safe, evidence-based transition.
Step 1: Increase Cadence First
The most important and most effective first step. As covered in the cadence for running and overstriding articles on this site, increasing cadence by 5 to 10 percent naturally brings the foot contact closer to beneath the body, which reduces the overstriding that makes heel striking problematic. Many runners who increase their cadence find that their foot strike naturally shifts toward midfoot without any direct foot strike manipulation.
How to implement:
Measure your current easy pace cadence. Set a target 5 to 10 percent higher. Use a metronome app or music at the target BPM to train this cadence for 1 to 2-minute intervals during easy runs, 3 to 4 times per week. Progress to longer cadence intervals over 4 to 6 weeks.
This single step addresses the overstriding component of the heel strike problem and should be implemented before any direct foot strike work.
Step 2: Use the Soft Landing Cue
Rather than thinking about which part of the foot contacts the ground, focus on how it contacts. The instruction to land softly and quietly naturally encourages a more midfoot-oriented contact because the jarring heel-first impact of overstriding is incompatible with quiet running.
The cue: Imagine running on a surface that must not be disturbed. Land as softly and quietly as possible on each contact.
Why this works: The nervous system finds the most mechanically efficient way to produce a quiet landing, which tends toward midfoot contact beneath the hip. Directly instructing someone to land on the midfoot often produces a forced, exaggerated midfoot strike that causes its own problems. The soft landing cue produces a more natural adaptation.
Step 3: Brief Barefoot or Minimal Footwear Sessions
Short barefoot running sessions on a safe soft surface (grass, indoor track) provide the strongest sensory feedback about foot strike. The absence of cushioning makes overstriding heel striking immediately uncomfortable, which creates a powerful natural incentive to modify the pattern.
How to implement:
- Begin with barefoot walking on grass to establish the sensation of forefoot-first contact
- Progress to 2 to 5-minute very easy barefoot jogs on grass
- Focus entirely on landing softly beneath the body
- Strictly limit barefoot running time in the first 4 weeks: no more than 5 percent of total weekly running volume
- The goal is sensory education, not fitness training. Stop well before fatigue.
The critical warning: Transitioning to barefoot or minimal footwear too quickly is one of the fastest ways to develop stress fractures and Achilles tendinopathy. The calf, Achilles, and foot structures need months to adapt to the increased load that comes with midfoot or forefoot striking without cushioning. Brief educational sessions are appropriate. Replacing regular training with barefoot running is not.
Step 4: Footwear Modification
Footwear changes can facilitate a foot strike transition but should not be used as the primary intervention.
Lower heel drop shoes: Conventional running shoes have a heel-to-toe drop of 10 to 12 millimetres, meaning the heel is significantly higher than the forefoot. Lower drop shoes (4 to 8 millimetres) reduce the mechanical advantage of heel striking by bringing the heel and forefoot closer to the same level.
Transition timeline for drop reduction:
If moving from a 12mm drop shoe to a 4mm drop shoe, do not make this change abruptly. The increase in Achilles and calf loading from lower drop shoes requires a gradual adaptation:
- Weeks 1 to 2: Wear the new shoe for 20 percent of total runs
- Weeks 3 to 4: Wear for 40 percent
- Weeks 5 to 6: Wear for 60 percent
- Weeks 7 to 8: Full transition
Never drop more than 4mm of heel drop per transition step. Going from 12mm to 4mm in one step is a reliable way to develop Achilles tendinopathy.
Avoid over-cushioned maximalist shoes for transition work: Very thick midsole shoes reduce sensory feedback from the ground, which makes it harder to feel and correct a heavy heel strike pattern.
Step 5: Form Drills
These drills develop the neuromuscular patterns associated with midfoot contact beneath the body.
Foot strike awareness drill:
- Run at easy pace for 100 metres paying attention to which part of the foot contacts first
- Walk back
- Run the same 100 metres consciously landing on the midfoot or ball of the foot
- Compare the sensation between the two runs
- Complete 4 to 6 repetitions
This drill builds conscious awareness of the difference between the two patterns without applying the correction to full training runs.
In-place high knees:
- Stand in place and perform rapid high knee drives alternating between legs
- Focus on foot contact directly beneath the hip on each landing
- The quick, high-knee pattern naturally produces midfoot contact beneath the body
- Perform 4 x 15 seconds before runs
Rope jumping:
Regular rope jumping develops the midfoot-contact, beneath-body landing pattern that transfers to running. The rope also provides a timing mechanism that prevents the excessive ground contact time associated with heel striking.
Strides with foot strike focus:
Short 80 to 100-metre accelerations at controlled effort where the specific focus is foot contact position and quality.
How to do it:
- After a warm-up, perform 4 to 6 x 80-metre strides at approximately 85 percent effort
- During each stride, focus on landing softly beneath the hip
- Walk back between strides for full recovery
- Do not focus on foot strike during the recovery walk between strides, only during the stride itself
Step 6: Gradual Integration
The most important principle of the entire transition: never apply more than 10 to 20 percent of any given run to conscious foot strike modification.
Running with continuous conscious attention to foot strike is exhausting, disrupts natural running rhythm, and often produces compensatory patterns in other parts of the body. The approach that produces lasting change is brief focused intervals within otherwise natural running.
Progressive integration protocol:
- Weeks 1 to 2: 1-minute conscious midfoot focus intervals, 3 to 4 times per run, during easy runs only
- Weeks 3 to 4: 2-minute conscious intervals, 4 to 5 times per run
- Weeks 5 to 6: 5-minute conscious intervals, allowing the pattern to consolidate
- Weeks 7 to 8: Run naturally and observe whether the cadence and soft landing work has produced a natural foot strike shift
- Month 3 onwards: Brief periodic checks during runs rather than sustained conscious attention
The Calf and Achilles Adaptation Problem
The most significant injury risk associated with transitioning away from heel striking is Achilles tendinopathy and calf strain. Here is why:
Heel striking, particularly with a cushioned shoe, allows the heel to contact the ground first and then lower further into the shoe cushioning before push-off. This reduces the stretch and load on the Achilles tendon at ground contact.
Midfoot and forefoot striking increases the load on the calf and Achilles tendon at every ground contact because the foot contacts in a more neutral position and the Achilles must absorb more of the impact energy.
For runners who have spent years or decades heel striking, the Achilles tendon and calf are not adapted to the increased load of midfoot striking. Transitioning too quickly from heel to midfoot striking is a reliable way to develop Achilles tendinopathy.
To protect the Achilles during transition:
- Transition very gradually as described in the step-by-step protocol above
- Strengthen the calf and Achilles through eccentric calf raises before and during the transition
- Monitor for any Achilles tightness or morning heel pain and slow the transition immediately if these appear
- Never increase both mileage and foot strike transition simultaneously
How Long the Transition Takes
A safe and effective transition from heel striking to midfoot striking typically takes 3 to 6 months when implemented correctly. Runners who have heel struck for many years are changing a deeply ingrained motor pattern and must allow adequate time for:
- Neuromuscular adaptation of the new motor pattern (6 to 8 weeks to begin feeling natural)
- Calf and Achilles tendon adaptation to increased load (8 to 16 weeks)
- Full automatic integration of the new pattern without conscious attention (3 to 4 months)
Attempting to transition in 2 to 4 weeks by abruptly switching to minimalist shoes and running at full training volume is the approach responsible for the high injury rates associated with the barefoot running movement. Slow, progressive, and patient is the only safe approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is heel striking always bad for running?
No. As covered above, heel striking without overstriding produces acceptable impact loading in many runners. The combination of heel striking and overstriding is the problematic pattern. Many runners would benefit more from addressing their overstriding than from directly changing their foot strike pattern.
Will switching to midfoot striking make me faster?
Potentially, through improved running economy. Midfoot striking without overstriding reduces the braking impulse of each stride and can improve running economy by 2 to 4 percent at the same pace. This translates to a faster pace for the same effort over time. However, a forced or technically incorrect midfoot strike is not faster than a natural and efficient heel strike, so quality of the transition matters.
Can I just buy new shoes to stop heel striking?
Footwear changes can facilitate a foot strike transition but will not produce it reliably on their own. Running in zero-drop or minimalist shoes without the neuromuscular work and gradual adaptation described in this guide is a reliable way to develop Achilles tendinopathy rather than an effective foot strike transition.
Why does my calf ache when I try to run on my midfoot?
Calf aching after midfoot running attempts is the expected response to a sudden increase in calf loading. The calf and Achilles are doing more work in a midfoot strike pattern than in a heel strike pattern. This aching indicates that the transition is proceeding faster than the tissues can adapt. Slow down the transition and increase calf strengthening work.
Is forefoot striking better than midfoot?
Not for most distance runners. True forefoot striking, where the heel never contacts the ground, is associated with extreme Achilles loading and is appropriate for sprinting but not for distance running. Midfoot striking, where the forefoot contacts first but the heel briefly contacts as well, is the pattern associated with the best running economy in distance running research.