Heel Height, Impact And Injury

Great Essays
Relationships between Heel Height, Impact, and Injury
The effects of heel height on impact and injury rates related to running raises many questions for exercise physiologists. Every year as many as 75% of long distance runners suffer from running related injuries (Daoud 2012). With the rising need for physical activity in the general population and an increase in recommendations by health professionals to engage in cardiovascular activities, many people are turning to running as a means to improve fitness. Thus, the importance of shoe choice is important to prevent running related injury. Heel height is frequently correlated with high impact force and injury as a result. Generally, the research fell into a few broad categories: investigating
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This study looked at a total of 242 female runners around the age of forty, who ran a minimum of twenty miles per week. The participants ran at a controlled speed of 3.5 meters per second. Each participant ran in a total of five trials where tibial accelerometry and ground reaction force were measured and recorded. The results showed 139 participants sustained a prospective injury, and of the 103 runners who did not sustain a prospective injury, only 22 had not been injured retrospectively either. The results of this study show that an increase in impact loading increases the risk of developing a running-related …show more content…
Ping-Hsin Ko (2009) conducted a study to observe the relationship between the plantar pressure caused by standing and metatarsal head soft tissue strain under varying heel heights. They found that the pressure increased a great amount when raising the heel height from 2 cm to 4 cm, yet it showed little response on the strain placed on the soft tissue. Kai-yu Ho (2012) conducted a study to determine if heel height impacted the joint loading on the patellofemoral joint while walking. They concluded that the higher-heeled shoes increase the joint loading due to higher knee extensor and flexor movements caused by the increased height. Casey D. Kerrigan (2004) administered an experiment to see if heel height of 3.8 cm increased the torque of knee joints. They determined that since knee torque is a major cause for increased knee osteoarthritis and heel height showed an increase in knee torque then prolonged wear could lead to osteoarthritis. All three of these studies concurred that increase in heel height of shoes is relevant in increased pressure, loading, or torque on the knees or

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