Foot-to-toe striking is the optimal way for humans to run.

“if you look at the way that indigenous people run when they're barefoot they're more of a forefoot strike and then i know daniel lieberman i think at harvard has done studies on this and you know i was friends with a lot of the people that were featured in that book born to run knew that whole crew of people and i ran with them a bunch of interesting sort of history i read that chris mcdougall was describing yeah yeah so like jen and billy in that book were like my running that was my running tribe in oregon um at the time but i eventually realized like oh forefoot striking makes so much more sense that's like the sprinting because people don't sprint on their heels we sprint on our four feet”

“running motor pattern is a forefoot strike and we see this in kids if kids grow up barefoot they know this they run on their four feet just intuitively and they walk on their heels but with our westernization and this mirrors our food system so much we've put kids in shoes we put kids in high heeled shoes that are stiff and then kids start running on their heels and they adapt a walking motor pattern to running which leads to more anchorage ankle injuries more knee injuries more back injuries and generally less enjoyable less efficient running”

“my kids they've not been in regular shoes at all they only wear barefoot shoes so luckily my kids as you mentioned they're automatically going straight to the way they should see it i do see it yes yeah you're exactly right they land on the the ball of the foot they're not heel striking at all it's totally it's totally true”

“if you are not using a four foot motor pattern when you are running or jogging you are doing it wrong and you are hurting your knees and your joints”

“for foot to to toe striking is The Way We Were Meant to run you know if you if you go back and look at kind of how our ancestors ran and you look at really how force transfer would be most efficient you don't want to be striking on the heel”