New research says no evidence ‘barefoot’ causes fewer injuries
31/05/2013
In the new scientific paper, the researchers, Benno Nigg and Henrik Enders, first examine the claim that running without shoes encourages a ‘forefoot’ rather than a ‘heel’ landing, making runners less prone to injury. They dispute this, saying that not only does the available research not prove any reduced injury risk, other factors like the running surface, shoe choice, speed and individual preferences play too large a role to make such generalisations possible. Likewise, the researchers found no difference between shod and barefoot movements in their ability to strengthen certain muscles.
The additional weight of a shoe (up to about 300 grammes) didn’t seem to have much effect on performance, either, the paper says. What seemed to make more of a difference was what they call the “preferred movement pattern”: the combination of chosen footwear and a runner’s preferred strike pattern.
The University of Calgary researchers say they know of no published research that provides hard evidence that people running barefoot have fewer injuries than people running in shoes. They conclude: “It is not known whether people running barefoot have more, equal, or fewer injuries than people running in conventional running shoes.”
Runners run best when they’re comfortable, they say in the paper, whatever they’re wearing on their feet.
Their research is published under the title “Barefoot running – some critical considerations” in the journal Footwear Science, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1–7, published by Taylor & Francis.
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