Dude, Where’s Your Running Shoes?
Barefoot running is a new trend, but is it one-size-fits-all solution for runners?
It’s an issue of bare necessities.
Barefoot running is one of the hottest topics in running today, prompting questions over the benefits and risks when compared to running with shoes.
According to Dr. Irene Davis, director of the Spaulding National Running Center in Cambridge, Mass., studies reveal that there are three advantages running barefoot has over running with shoes.
“Shoes over support the feet,” Davis says. “Studies have shown that when you remove the support of shoes, feet get stronger. A strong foot is more resistant to injury.”
In addition, Davis says, “shoes encourage a rear footstrike pattern that is associated with an impact in the forces experienced by the body at footstrike. This impact has been shown to be related to injuries.”
Finally, Davis says “shoes filter out very important sensory information. Even a pair of thin socks results in a decrement in static postural stability.”
Dr. Stuart J. Warden, associate professor at the Department of Physical Therapy at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Ind., adds that “barefoot running with a fore/midfoot strike pattern may actually make somebody run a little faster as it uses less energy when you use the natural springs in your feet and calf muscles.”
What about the risk of injury from running barefoot?
According to Davis, there are no studies, to date that document either an increase or decreased risk of injury from running barefoot. However, Davis says, the surface you do most of your training on may affect your risk of injury when running barefoot.
“The problem arises if you do most of your training on soft surfaces and then run a race on pavement,” Davis says. “Your leg will not be trained to be compliant and you will not attenuate the loads the way you would if you had trained on that surface. This problem also becomes apparent when you increase your mileage too quickly and don’t give your system time to become conditioned to the surface you are running on.”
Those running barefoot should protect their feet according to the surface conditions, Davis says.
“Shoes were originally designed to protect the plantar surface of the feet,” Davis says. “You should protect the bottom of the feet when the surfaces you are running are extremely cold or hot, when it is dark and you cannot see what you are running on, when on surfaces that are masked, like grass, where you cannot see what is underneath, and when you are on rough surfaces that could injure your feet.”
According to Warden, barefoot running may decrease injury in individuals who suffer repeated overuse injuries, such as knee pain and stress fractures.
“Most people have grown up exercising in conventional athletic shoes with a built up heel cushion,” Warden says. “What running barefoot does is encourage an individual to run with less impact or more softly by encouraging them to change the way they run.”
At the same time, Warden says, barefoot running may also increase the risk of injury.
“As a result of the arch supports and other features of the modern day running shoe there has been less need for our foot and calf muscles fully develop,” Warden says. “Converting from running in a shoe to running barefoot can increase injury risk in the foot and calf/Achilles tendon region if time is not given for these regions to strengthen/adapt.”
If you do try, Warden suggests “running only a few hundred yards in the first week with good form - i.e. soft landings on the fore/midfoot - and increasing gradually, remembering that it takes a number of months to fully transition from running in a shoe to running barefoot.”
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