Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Bad for Your Ankles

24/09/2024 Bretta Riches Forefoot Running Tips 612

Ankle stability, which is controlled by the peroneal tendon, is key in preventing peroneal tendinitis during running. Optimal ankle stability also depends on footwear whereby thicker cushioned running shoes were found to be primarily responsible for causing ankle instability in ways that places huge strain on the peroneal tendon as compared with running barefoot or in barefoot-like running shoes (also known as minimalist shoes)

A study by Bonnel et al. linked reduced active ankle stabilization to frequent ankle injuries, such as peroneal tendonitis.

Minimalist running shoes, which are flat, fully flexible, very wide and have no underfoot cushioning, are designed to mimic being barefoot by also increasing your feel of the ground whereby increases in ground feel activates the ankle-joint to hold more firm, while enhancing foot-step stability, which was found to do a better job at reducing ankle injuries than thicker cushioned conventional running shoes.

How Shoe Cushioning Destabilizes the Ankle

What goes unrealized is ankle stability relies heavily on the closeness of the connection of your feet with the ground whereby the more you can actually feel the ground with your feet, like you can most optimally when barefoot or in a minimalist shoe, the stronger your ankle stability. Conversely, thick cushioned running shoes were found to impair the ability of the peroneal tendon to compensate for ankle instability at the functional level (Konradsen, 2002).

Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Bad for Your Ankles — Certainly, thick cushioned running shoes can’t do everything. They certainly can’t prevent ankle injury because the ground-feel deficit from the thick underfoot cushioning becomes mechanically taxing on the ankle as the ankle needs to work harder to try and stability the foot with the ground.

How to Prevent Peroneal Tendonitis

Running barefoot or running in minimalist shoes provides the most stable landing surface thereby lessening peroneal workloads:

Barefoot conditions heightens firing of the proprioceptors that line the sole of the bare foot and this heightened ground-feel, or a better sense of the ground, is a signature for ankle stability (Konradsen, 2002)

Why Barefoot Running is Better for Your Ankles — Because of the full feel of the ground, you’re always making progress when you run barefoot because the heightened feel of the ground automatically translates into better muscular, mechanical and reflexive impact control, resulting in less net impact via a softer, lighter forefoot strike, but also, the ankle becomes better at stabilizing itself and the foot.

The Take Home Message

Ground-feel via barefoot running is what makes the muscles in the feet and ankles function and work properly which prevents repeated, high rapid movements of the ankle, whereas the ground-feel loss in thick cushioned running shoes is highly detrimental to ankle-joint health and function by causing constant malpositioning of the foot-ankle complex during running, which in turn, increases forces on the peroneal tendon, resulting in tendonitis.

Need more convincing that thick cushioned running shoes are not as protective as marketed? Here’s all the evidence-backed reasons thick cushioned running shoes are actually a big source of injury as compared with more natural, functional footwear, like minimalist shoes!

References:

Bonnel F, Toullec E, Mabit C, Tourne Y (2010) Chronic ankle instability: biomechanics and pathomechanics of ligaments injury and associated lesions. Orthop Traumatol Surg Res
96(4):424–432.

Fujii T, Kitaoka HB, Luo ZP, Kura H, An KN (2005) Analysis of ankle-hindfoot stability in multiple planes: an in vitro study. Foot Ankle Int 26(8):633–637

Konradsen L (2002) Sensorimotor control of the uninjured and injured human ankle. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 12(3):199–203

Ziai et al. Peroneal tendonitis as a predosing factor for acute lateral ankle sprain in runners. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc, 2015. DOI 10.1007/s00167-015-3562-3

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