Does Barefoot Running Cause Shin Splints? NO!

Barefoot running was found to work better to help against shin splints than running in thick cushioned running shoes because when you run barefoot, you automatically have a stronger tendency to land with a proper forefoot strike (see here what a proper forefoot strike looks like), not a hard-hitting heel strike. More specifically, barefoot running automatically engages more balanced stride mechanics that results in less fatiguing contractions and muscle activity in the shins. This was found to be probably one of the best, most important contributions to sustainably un-stress the shins.

Why Heel Strike Running is Bad for Your Legs — When you run barefoot, or in a minimalist shoe, you land with a forefoot strike which points the front of the foot down at landing, whereas heel striking points the front of the foot back at landing. The fundamental distinction between these two foot postures is that when the front of the foot points down (forefoot strike) at landing, quiets the muscle activity in the shin. But, when the front of the foot pulls back at heel strike, muscle activity in the shins surges too high, making the shin work harder, while enduring more compressive loading due to an excessively long-stride automatically created by landing heel-first. This is why heel striking when running is a technique that does not consistently work well for the prevention of shin splints, and this is a fact that is starting to get a lot of attention because it speaks to the importance of foot strike type in running.

Research (references below article) identified an underlying cause of running-related shin splints and that is unusually high EMG activity in the tibialis anterior (front of the shin) upon landing.

Excessive EMG activity in the shins directly occurs when the front of the foot lifts up upon touchdown (as in a heel strike landing) during running, suggesting that heel strike running is a risk factor for shin splints and that avoiding heel strike helps prevent the condition because it naturally follows that by not heel striking and landing with a forefoot strike prevents EMG activity in the shins from reach pain and injury predisposing levels.

How Heel Strike Running Causes Shin Splints — In heel strike running, the shin muscles are required to keep the front of the foot up upon and at landing to allow initial ground-contact on the heel. This constant forefoot-lifting controlled by the shins is to blame for causing shin splints because it causes muscle contractions and activity in the shins to exceed normal, thereby putting additional strain on the area.

Correspondingly, a growing accepted theory is that relaxing the front of your foot, letting it fall to the ground prior to and at touchdown is needed to reduce EMG activity in the shins, thereby preventing muscular exhaustion and shin splints during running.

How Barefoot Running Prevents Shin Splints — Since in a forefoot strike landing the shin is used less to control the forefoot upon and at landing when running barefoot, has a lot to contribute to reducing the risk of shin splints because there’s stark reductions in costly EMG activity in the shins.

The final thing the studies tell us is that barefoot runners who were heel strikers had less shin EMG activity compared to runners in a cushioned running shoe, proving that running barefoot or in barefoot-like running shoes produce prime conditions for a relaxed, un-stressed shin.

Running shoes with a thick padded heel, on the other hand, causes a runner to unintentionally pull the front of their foot back upon and at landing, resulting in a heel strike, which is responsible for the higher-than-normal muscular activity in the shins –researchers indicate that this muscular activity must be executed rapidly at impact to release the forefoot.

How Cushioned Running Shoes Cause Shin Splints — The thicker the underfoot cushioning, the more it changes the landing conditions when running, altering the posture of the foot-ankle complex, without supplying adequate impact reductions, which is why these types of shoes keep feeding injuries.

Take Home Message

Because it gives you the best feel of the ground to use your forefoot strike properly, barefoot running has an enviable effect of delivering shin splints prevention in a more sustainable way than thick cushioned running shoes. But, shin splints isn’t the only injury barefoot running prevents, knee injury is also an injury that barefoot running can fully resolve. Read more on that here!

References:

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

Tscharner et al. Changes in EMG signals for the muscle tibialis anterior while running barefoot or with shoes resolved by non-linearly scaled wavelets. J Biomech, 2003; 36,1169-1176.

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