Do non-rearfoot runners experience greater second metatarsal stresses than rearfoot runners?
Ellison, MA; Fulford, J; Javadi, A; et al.Rice, HM
Date: 26 July 2021
Journal
Journal of Biomechanics
Publisher
Elsevier / American Society of Biomechanics / European Society of Biomechanics / International Society of Biomechanics / Japanese Society for Clinical Biomechanics and Related Research / Australian and New Zealand Society of Biomechanics
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Abstract
Stress fracture of the second metatarsal is a common and problematic injury for runners. The choice of foot strike pattern is known to affect external kinetics and kinematics but its effect on internal loading of the metatarsals is not well understood. Models of various complexities can be used to investigate the effects of running ...
Stress fracture of the second metatarsal is a common and problematic injury for runners. The choice of foot strike pattern is known to affect external kinetics and kinematics but its effect on internal loading of the metatarsals is not well understood. Models of various complexities can be used to investigate the effects of running characteristics on metatarsal stresses. This study aimed to compare second metatarsal stress between habitual rearfoot and non-rearfoot strikers during barefoot running, using a novel participant-specific finite element model, including accurate metatarsal and soft tissue geometry. Synchronised force and kinematic data were collected during barefoot overground running from 20 participants (12 rearfoot strikers). Stresses were calculated using a previously evaluated and published 3D finite element model. Non-rearfoot strikers demonstrated greater external loading and joint contact forces than rearfoot runners, but there were no differences in stresses between groups. Additionally, the study allowed for a qualitative assessment of bone geometries and stresses. No correlation was found between bone volume and stresses, however, there was found to be a large variation in metatarsal shapes, possibly accounting for the lack of difference in stresses. This emphasises the importance of bone geometry when estimating bone stress and supports the suggestion that external forces should not be assumed to be representative of internal loading.
Sport and Health Sciences
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).