Abstract Summary
There is a paucity of literature investigating the influence of foot strike posture on Achilles Tendon (AT) forces; a common site for lower limb overuse injuries. Fifteen male distance runners ran on an instrumented treadmill executing both, natural and imposed rearfoot (RFS) and forefoot (FFS) strike postures. A validated, subject-specific lower limb model in OpenSim was used to calculate the magnitude and timing of peak AT forces during stance. The magnitude and timing of these forces did not differ between the natural FFS and RFS conditions. The time of peak AT force occurred earlier in stance during the imposed FFS conditional relative to all other foot strike conditions (i.e., natural FFS, RFS and imposed RFS). Care should be used when considering changing an individual’s foot strike posture during running.
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