ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Biomechanics and Control of Human Movement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1654489
This article is part of the Research TopicDecoding Muscle Asymmetry: Insights into Performance and Injury Prevention in SportsView all articles
Effects of the difference foot strike pattern on the plantar pressure during uphill and downhill running
Provisionally accepted
- 1Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Juntendo University, Inzai, Japan
- 2Achilles Kabushiki Kaisha, Shinjuku, Japan
- 3Juntendo Daigaku Sports Kenko Kagakubu Daigakuin Sports Kenko Kagaku Kenkyuka, Inzai, Japan
- 4Kantaiheiyo Daigaku, Okayama, Japan
- 5Juntendo Daigaku Sports Kenko Ikagaku Kenkyujo, Inba District, Japan
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The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of foot strike patterns on plantar pressure distribution during uphill, level, and downhill running. Eleven participants performed six randomized trials on a treadmill running at 3.33 m/s, combining two foot strike patterns, rearfoot strike and forefoot strike with three slope conditions of -6°, 0° and +6°. Plantar pressure data were collected using a pressure measurement insole. Peak pressure, peak force, time to peak, and loading rate were calculated for the heel, midfoot, and forefoot regions. As a result, at the heel region, peak pressure in rearfoot strike increased by approximately 32.1% during downhill running and decreased by approximately 24.3% during uphill running compared to level running. At the forefoot region, regardless of the foot strike pattern, peak pressure decreased by approximately 6.8% during downhill running compared to level running, but no significant differences were observed between uphill and level running. These results provide a useful basis for the development of injury prevention, performance improvement during slope running.
Keywords: Running, FOOT STRIKE PATTERN, ,uphill and down hill, Inclination, Plantar pressure
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Horiguchi, Noro, Hata, Yamazaki, Kubota and Yanagiya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Toshio Yanagiya, tyanagi@juntendo.ac.jp
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