Heel Drop and Hips

I think that, if you struggle with hip injury when you run with a high heel it's becuase that high heel makes you land on your heel, which is pretty much the worse thing you can do to your foot. Also, the more ground contact you have the stable your foot is. I have had a slight problem like that my self, and I took my cushioned shoe off, and ran barefoot.

The more stable your foot is*

I think it is a question of something changing your turnover. My slower turnover patients have more hip problems. I think it has to do with ground contact time. I know when I run with someone that has a different pace than me, either faster or slower, I get hip issues on the right. I think it is because I am either slowing cadence to run slower or over striding to run faster.

You might find this helpful though, as it addresses hip injuries and running mechanics.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/554463-forces-on-the-hip-with-midfoot-vs-heel-strike-running-gaits/

Thanks for the responses. I am more of a midfoot striker, so it seems you're suggesting the higher heel drop is contributing to more heel striking than i am naturally inclined.

Remember, often, the more cushioning you have on your heel, the longer your ground contact time is. If you land under your center of gravity (on your toes or midfoot) you are more likely to, not just have less load on your foot, but also a much quicker kick-off. So I think there is a direct correlation between heel drop and hip injury

Getting into specifics here...is the difference between the Pegasus and something like the NB 980 substantial enough for a drop/hip problem to show up?

There is very little research on the biomechanics of various heel drop heights in running shoes (believe me, I've looked...). So far it appears that heel heights have a moderate effect on how you hit the ground. Generally speaking, higher heel = slightly more force going into the heel, shin, and knee. Lower heel = slightly more force in ankle, Achilles, and calf.

Whether or not more heel drop alters hip mechanics is an open question. That's going awfully far up the kinetic chain from the ground, so it's hard to say with much certainty what's going to happen. But shoes do not appear to have much influence on injury risk overall, so I doubt that any particular shoe type causes weak hips.

Runners as a whole tend to have weak hips, and this is associated with a number of injuries. As to why runners have weak hips, that is also unknown. Nobody's really sure why. In my personal opinion, the two leading hypotheses are:

1) runners move almost entirely in the sagittal plane (i.e. forward/backward) and are underdeveloped in the frontal and transverse plane

2) A relatively sedentary lifestyle with a lot of sitting creates hip muscle weakness and dysfunction

There is exactly zero evidence for either of these ideas, however (as of right now, at least).

Try flats instead of pumps.In all seriousness, this has been done to death....the idea that wearing a shoe with a high heel stack height somehow makes you a heel striker and that heel striking is oh so bad.

Inherent wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I am more of a midfoot striker, so it seems you're suggesting the higher heel drop is contributing to more heel striking than i am naturally inclined.