Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Really Bad for Your Feet

There’s good reason cushioned running shoes vs barefoot-inspired running shoes have been a topic of debate for the last decade. This is because barefoot-inspired shoes were found to play a leading role in producing more fast pace improvements in foot health, ankle strength, balance control and movement coordination than cushioned running shoes.

Barefoot-inspired shoes have very, very minimal underfoot cushioning to increase your feel of the ground, while the sole is completely flat and fully flexible. The increases in ground-feel is essential for improving and maintaining nerve health throughout the foot, while the flat sole makes it easier to avoid heel strike, and instead, guides a low-impact forefoot strike tied to more foot step stability. The flexible sole also makes you more adaptable and stable across any terrain, too!

When it comes to improving your overall foot health, there is no important influence on building a functionally stronger foot than an enhanced feel of the ground, meaning that the more you can feel the ground with your feet by either going barefoot or wearing a barefoot-inspired shoe, stimulates the foot’s nerve, prompting big increases in muscle tone which directly strengthens the muscles in the foot. This cannot happen in a cushioned running shoe because ground-feel is completely cut-off which under-stimulates the foot’s nerves, and can lead to sensory processing disorder, which means poor nerve supply and activity.

Cushioned Running Shoes Weakens the Nerves in the Feet

One of the most under-realized information about cushioned running shoes is studies found that these shoes weaken the nerves in your foot in a way that affects how these nerves respond to mechanical and other forms of natural stimuli, a condition called sensory processing disorder.

They look and are probably very comfy, but routine use of these shoes wear away at your foot’s functional strength by literally reducing the nerve supply in the foot.

In the final equation, strengthening the intrinsic muscles deep within the foot starts with strengthening the nerve supply in the foot. This starts with turning on the nerves lining the bottom of the foot which can only be done by being barefoot or in barefoot shoes that let you feel the ground more than a cushioned running shoe.

A study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport discovered that runners in cushioned running shoes had significantly prolonged medial plantar (foot) distal latencies as well as significantly delayed sensory conduction velocity of the medial plantar nerve compared to the controls. In simple terms, thick cushioned running shoes severely diminished nerve activity in the foot that accounts for making the foot’s muscle vulnerable to weakening because thick underfoot cushioning blocked sensory stimuli from ground (i.e. ground-feel is blocked), which in turn, reduced communication strength between nerve cells involved in stimulating intrinsic muscle tone.

How Cushioned Footwear Causes Foot Sensory Processing Disorder — Foot strength is greatly improved by improving the firing frequency of plantar (foot) nerves. This is most optimized by increasing sensory and mechanical stimuli on the foot, which is most optimized when barefoot or in shoes that feel like you’re barefoot.

Looking at this research further, thick underfoot cushioning impedes the firing frequency of a plantar (foot) receptors by absorbing mechanical stimuli whereby certain plantar receptors rely solely on mechanical stimuli to activate appropriate reflexes and contractions of muscles and relaxed others to minimize high stresses and strain during running.

To add to the problem, under-stimulated plantar nerves are at risk of neuropathy, resulting in numbness, weakness, and pain.

Ground-Feel is Always the Answer to Stronger, Healthy Feet

When the foot’s in a more natural environment, like being barefoot or in a barefoot-like shoe, activates the plantar surface from the ground, which enhances the integration of natural frequencies at higher level. As a result, the geometry of impulse conduction in nerve fibres are favourable. Again, in simple terms, ground-feel is needed for the foots sensory nerves to fire effectively, which is also important because these nerves are involved in keeping us posturally-correct and stable as these nerves have strong connections with the spinal cord.

For instance, landmark work by Dr. Steven Robbins proves why ditching your cushioned running shoes for more natural, functional footwear will make your feet more resilient and tolerant of longer, harder miles. According to Dr. Robbins:

Because sensory nerves are more sensitive to changes, the most beneficial ingredient to restore fast, firing plantar nerves is by walking barefoot as much as possible, especially on uneven surfaces!

Going barefoot exposes plantar nerves to multiple streams of sensory traffic, triggering rapid muscle twitching, toning and strengthening. This is why habitual barefoot runners have characteristically different feet that are more resistant to injury and nerve dysfunction! In that light, here are all the evidence-based reasons walking and running barefoot are the best ways to mechanical rebalance yourself in ways that sustain better than routine use of cushioned running shoes.

References:

Colak et al. Comparison of nerve conduction velocities of lower extremities between runners and controls. J Sci Med Sport, 2005; 8(4):403-410.

Robbins, SE and Hanna, AM. Running related injury prevention through barefoot adaptations. Med Sci Sport Exerc, 1987; 19(2):148-56.

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