In running, the popular consensus is you need to wear running shoes with enormously thick cushioning as the only means to reduce injury. Plot twist however, there’s more convincing evidence proving that you’re NO MORE likely to get injured when running barefoot than in thick cushioned running shoes.
What is more, when it comes to optimizing foot-step stability, balance and building safe, sustainable mechanics, the research reveals barefoot running is the best place to start! This does not mean that you need to permanently ditch your running shoes, however adding some barefoot running to your training will certainly help you learn to run safer, stronger and more efficient in running shoes. As one study (references below article) explains:
- There’s no increase in abnormal foot-ankle motions when running barefoot as compared with running in cushioned shoes, suggesting that running without underfoot protection does not create harmful landing condition as compared with cushioned running shoes.
Many runners think that cushioned running shoes are essential to preventing injurious risk factors, like foot-step instability (also known as foot over-pronation), but the high injury rates among runners in traditional running shoes certainly challenges this belief. In fact, a study by Stacoff et al. found that running barefoot did not create an unstable landing environment and did not increase abnormal foot-ankle motions as compared with cushioned running shoes.
The researchers compared the effects of running barefoot vs running in cushioned running shoes on inside-out motions (eversion) of the foot-ankle complex. The researchers also looked at the movements of the tibia (shin bone) and the calcaneus (heel bone) during the stance phase of running. Here’s what the study found:
- The shin and heel bone movement patterns DID NOT differ between the two running conditions, that is, running barefoot DID NOT prompt ANY MORE unwanted lower legs movements than running in cushioned running shoes.
MORE Barefoot Bonuses
After running barefoot for a long period of time, many runners report less knee pain. This is because the absence of compressible underfoot materials when running barefoot delivers sturdier landing conditions, which confirms and reaffirms that running barefoot does not encourage misaligned lower leg movements.
Volumes of data also shows that running barefoot changes your foot landing trajectory, encouraging a forefoot strike over a heel strike landing whereby forefoot running has much more to contribute in preventing the risk factors that cause injuries vs heel strike running. Read more on that here!
Last but not least, the research shows that avoiding all types of thick cushioned running shoes slashes your risk of injury as compared with running barefoot or in barefoot-like shoes on the basis of going minimalist, or barefoot is most potent of all for strengthening the muscle and tendon groups that control pronation. At the same time, barefoot and minimalist running strengthens the nerves in the lower leg joints, especially the cutenous nerves in the feet, which are all essential for controlled, faster reflexive reactions during running –this is how the body naturally learns to land lighter and more responsively, which is why habitual barefoot runners have less loading on the hip joint, too!
Need more convincing on the health benefits of not just barefoot running, but being barefoot more in general? Here’s all the evidence-backed reasons going barefoot WORKS for everybody!
References:
Stacoff et al. Tibiocalcaneal eversion in barefoot vs shod running. J Biomech, 1998; 3(1):13.
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