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Impact reduction during running: efficiency of simple acute interventions in recreational runners

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Abstract

Running-related stress fractures have been associated with the overall impact intensity, which has recently been described through the loading rate (LR). Our purpose was to evaluate the effects of four acute interventions with specific focus on LR: wearing racing shoes (RACE), increasing step frequency by 10 % (FREQ), adopting a midfoot strike pattern (MIDFOOT) and combining these three interventions (COMBI). Nine rearfoot-strike subjects performed five 5-min trials during which running kinetics, kinematics and spring-mass behavior were measured for ten consecutive steps on an instrumented treadmill. Electromyographic activity of gastrocnemius lateralis, tibialis anterior, biceps femoris and vastus lateralis muscles was quantified over different phases of the stride cycle. LR was significantly and similarly reduced in MIDFOOT (37.4 ± 7.20 BW s−1, −56.9 ± 50.0 %) and COMBI (36.8 ± 7.15 BW s−1, −55.6 ± 29.2 %) conditions compared to NORM (56.3 ± 11.5 BW s−1, both P < 0.001). RACE (51.1 ± 9.81 BW s−1) and FREQ (52.7 ± 11.0 BW s−1) conditions had no significant effects on LR. Running with a midfoot strike pattern resulted in a significant increase in gastrocnemius lateralis pre-activation (208 ± 97.4 %, P < 0.05) and in a significant decrease in tibialis anterior EMG activity (56.2 ± 15.5 %, P < 0.05) averaged over the entire stride cycle. The acute attenuation of foot–ground impact seems to be mostly related to the use of a midfoot strike pattern and to a higher pre-activation of the gastrocnemius lateralis. Further studies are needed to test these results in prolonged running exercises and in the long term.

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Abbreviations

BF:

Biceps femoris

BW:

Body weight

F max :

Maximal vertical ground reaction force

Fz1 :

Magnitude of impact force peak

GL:

Gastrocnemius lateralis

k leg :

Leg stiffness

k vert :

Vertical stiffness

LR:

Vertical mean loading rate

MFS:

Midfoot strike

PSF+10% :

Preferred step frequency increased by10 %

RFS:

Rearfoot strike

t a :

Aerial time

TA:

Tibialis anterior

t c :

Contact time

tFz1 :

Time to impact peak

VGRF:

Vertical ground reaction force

VL:

Vastus lateralis

ΔL :

Maximal leg spring compression during contact

Δz :

Vertical maximal downward displacement of the center of mass during contact

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lyon, 42023, Saint-Etienne, France

    Marlène Giandolini, Pierrick J. Arnal, Guillaume Y. Millet & Jean-Benoît Morin

  2. Laboratory of Exercise Physiology (EA4338), 42000, Saint-Etienne, France

    Marlène Giandolini, Pierrick J. Arnal, Guillaume Y. Millet & Jean-Benoît Morin

  3. University of La Réunion, UFR SHE, CURAPS-DIMPS (EA4075), 97430, Le Tampon, France

    Nicolas Peyrot

  4. Laboratory of Exercise Physiology (EA4338), University of Savoie, 73376, Le Bourget-du-Lac, France

    Pierre Samozino

  5. Faculty of Medicine, University of Laval, Québec, Canada

    Blaise Dubois

  6. Laboratoire de Physiologie de l’Exercice (EA4338), Médecine du Sport-Myologie CHU Bellevue, Université de Saint-Etienne, 42055, Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France

    Jean-Benoît Morin

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  1. Marlène Giandolini
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  2. Pierrick J. Arnal
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  3. Guillaume Y. Millet
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  4. Nicolas Peyrot
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Correspondence to Jean-Benoît Morin.

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Communicated by Jean-René Lacour.

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Giandolini, M., Arnal, P.J., Millet, G.Y. et al. Impact reduction during running: efficiency of simple acute interventions in recreational runners. Eur J Appl Physiol 113, 599–609 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2465-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-012-2465-y

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