Effects of a 10-week running-retraining programme on the foot strike pattern of adolescents: A longitudinal...

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of ten weeks of different running-retraining programmes on rearfoot strike (RFS) prevalence in adolescents.

it is possible to change foot strike pattern in adolescents?

A total of 180 children (45.3% girls), aged 13-16 years, participated in this intervention study. The children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (EGs) that each carried out a different retraining programme, based on running technique (n = 39), a 15% increased step frequency (SF) (n = 37) and barefoot training (n = 30), performed for three days each week. A control group (CG) (n = 43) did not perform any retraining. A 2D video-based analysis (240 Hz) was used to determine the RFS.

At baseline, no significant differences in RFS prevalence were found between the EGs and the CG in either the left (χ² = 2.048; p = 0.559) or the right foot (χ² = 0.898; p = 0.825). In the post-test, no significant differences were found for the left foot (χ² = 7.102; p = 0.069), but there were significant differences for the right foot (χ² = 9.239; p = 0.025) were observed. In the re-test, no significant differences were found for either the left foot (χ² = 2.665; p = 0.273) or the right foot (χ² = 2.182; p = 0.325). In addition, no group displayed significant changes in RFS prevalence from the pre-test to the re-test. There was a trend towards a reduction in the RFS prevalence in both the increased SF group and the barefoot group.

The main finding of this study was that certain running-retraining programmes performed three times per week for ten weeks are not enough to modify the adolescent foot strike pattern (FSP).