Effect of surface inclination on vertical loading rate and footstrike pattern in trail and road runners

Trail runners have been reported to be more injury prone than road runners. Limited past studies have examined the difference in the running biomechanics between the two groups of runners. More importantly, the effect of surface inclination has not been fully investigated. Hence, this study examined the effect of surface inclination on running biomechanics in trail and road runners. Twenty trails and 20 road runners were recruited in this study. Trail runners appeared to be more experienced and had longer training distance per week (p