What if I want to wear shoes? By all means, wear shoes if you want to! You can still reduce your impact forces by utilizing a forefoot of midfoot strike pattern. This is easier if you pick a shoe that will allow your foot to function as naturally as possible and, fortunately, many such shoes are available.
Do barefoot runners get injured less? Barefoot runners often adopt forefoot or midfoot strike gaits and have a softer, more gentle landing, which may reduce their risk of injury.
While there are anectodal reports of barefoot runners being injured less, there is very little scientific evidence to support this hypothesis at this time. Well-controlled studies are needed to determine whether barefoot running results in fewer injuries.
Is barefoot walking beneficial? Even if you are not a runner, walking barefoot can help to strengthen the muscles of the foot and ankle. And if you are a runner, strengthening these muscles will allow you to run better barefoot. Should I avoid a heel strike when walking barefoot? This is not an issue we have studied yet much, but our observations are that its totally normal to heel strike when walking, even when barefoot.
That said, barefoot walkers often walk with a less pronounced heel strike or more of a midfoot strike. One study has shown that heel strike walking is more efficient than forefoot strike walking. More questions? If you have any other questions or comments please contact us at:.
Please see our User Agreement. Based on the research published in the scientific journal Nature. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting Daniel Lieberman. The overall force is simply the sum of those two spikes. But in a study , the SMU group showed that you get a very similar double peak when you look at world-class sprinters—even though they land on their forefoot.
The vertical axis, as before, is force in body weights, and the horizontal axis is time in seconds. The first thing to notice is that for each speed the rising slope of the overall force curve—the loading rate—is pretty much the same in all conditions. But the lower leg component J1 does change: the more cushioning they have, the steeper and higher that peak is.
In this study, the runners adjusted the angle of their foot strike to control how long that J1 impact took. When barefoot, they landed on their forefoot, which prolongs and softens the landing, with the calf muscles and Achilles acting as a shock absorber.
In the thick-soled trainer, the presence of cushioning allowed them to slam down directly on their heel, which led to a sharper J1 curve without changing the overall loading rate.
But by delaying that peak, it ends up occurring at a point where the other, slower component of force from the rest of the body is much bigger. In other words, you reduce one of the forces but increase the other, and end up with a similar total force. Either your shoe cushioning softens the impact, or you adjust your landing to get cushioning from your calf and Achilles. Take your pick, because the end result—at least under these particular conditions—is the same.
Weyand is justifiably hesitant to generalize, though. This is a small study of a few volunteers running under very specific conditions at fast speeds. Born to Run came out in , and is arguably one of the most influential running books ever.
The book had some scientific backing, headlined by the ultimate in science sex appeal—a cover article in Nature. The case for barefoot was sexy and intuitive. And it was launched into a vacuum. As recently as , a review article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found no studies on elevated-cushion heels or pronation-control systems.
A sexy topic with little research … you can guess what happened next. Tons of studies! Similarly, a review article in Sports Medicine found small beneficial effects on running economy in some runners. Impact forces : A study in M edicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that 23 female runners ran with higher cadence and reduced excessive hip adduction, hip internal rotation and contralateral pelvic drop when barefoot.
No need to know what those things are they sound like great dance moves , just that they have been suggested as knee-injury causes in female runners. However, there seemed to be more loading at the ankle, though that was not the focus of the study.
A study in Human Movement Science found more loading in the tibia shin bone in 18 runners making the transition to barefoot. A article in the Journal of Sport and Health Science summed up how it all fits together in the context of footfall. What causes these changes? Running barefoot causes a change in form for many runners, with increases in stride rate and shifted ground interaction usually towards mid- or fore-foot landing , and as one study in Human Movement Science found, these changes can happen in as little as 30 seconds.
All this gobbly gook is well-and-good, but how does it translate to injuries? A study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine of Army soldiers found no differences in injury rates. In a similar study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine I like to think those journals bonded while watching the hit musical Hamilton , there was no statistically significant injury difference between barefoot and 94 shoe-wearing runners when equalizing training distance.
Notably, the injuries in the barefoot group were generally in the lower legs, as opposed to the knees and hips. A study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine took 61 runners and randomly assigned about half of them to barefoot running with a gradual increase of training volume over 26 weeks. Of the minimalist group, 16 of 30 got injured during the study period compared to 11 out of 31 in the shoe-wearing group.
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