Not Another Shoe Thread!

[academe]

This week's issue of Nature (28 January 2010) has some excellent and interesting articles on barefoot running. From the summary:

For most of human evolutionary history, before the advent modern running shoes, humans ran either barefoot or in minimal shoes. A comparison of the biomechanics of habitually shod versus habitually barefoot runners suggests that running barefoot is not only comfortable but may also help avoid some impact-related stress injuries. On the cover, the feet of Kenyan adolescents who have never worn shoes and run up to 20 km a day. Their feet are healthy and strong - and until recently, everyone’s feet looked like this.

The Harvard professor that is at the center of the research on barefoot running can be seen discussing his research (and running barefoot) below:

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This will be worth following as the movement (there is a book of course, Born to Run) grows and you see more and more runners wearing the Vibram Five Finger shoes or actually running barefoot at races. I recently ran next to a guy in a half marathon who was running barefoot. He said that running barefoot caused many of the injuries he'd been battling for years go away. This is one of the many claims made for barefoot running. It will be interesting to see if research on incidence of injury (and other related topics) comparing barefoot to shod running bears out these claims.

[telkanuru]

FYI Board member Whtouch works for Vibram Five Fingers; he knows a lot about this stuff.

[catwood1]

Calling whtouche... whtouche? Anywhere?

Damnit, telk beat me to it! Stupid person calling me while I tried to post...

[fencerchica]

I own a pair of fivefingers... they feel great for running/walking in on soft surfaces but it hurts my heels to attempt to run in them on pavement. I can readily believe it would be more healthy to run barefoot on grass, dirt, etc. but I'm a little more skeptical as to whether it's healthy to subject oneself to the pounding involved in running on artificially hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt without the cushioning of running shoes.

[telkanuru]

I own a pair of fivefingers... they feel great for running/walking in on soft surfaces but it hurts my heels to attempt to run in them on pavement. I can readily believe it would be more healthy to run barefoot on grass, dirt, etc. but I'm a little more skeptical as to whether it's healthy to subject oneself to the pounding involved in running on artificially hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt without the cushioning of running shoes.

If you watched the video, you'd know.

[fencerchica]

If you watched the video, you'd know.

Can't watch it at present due to firewall restrictions. Will check it out later.

[Hauptman]

I own a pair of fivefingers... they feel great for running/walking in on soft surfaces but it hurts my heels to attempt to run in them on pavement. I can readily believe it would be more healthy to run barefoot on grass, dirt, etc. but I'm a little more skeptical as to whether it's healthy to subject oneself to the pounding involved in running on artificially hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt without the cushioning of running shoes.

It seems like there would be a learning curve involved here. How long have you been running in the Fivefingers? Do you think that with more time you might be able to run on pavement?

Of course, man certainly didn't evolve while running barefoot on pavement or a similar hard surface, so it still may not be the best idea for everyone.

[fencerchica]

It seems like there would be a learning curve involved here. How long have you been running in the Fivefingers? Do you think that with more time you might be able to run on pavement?

Of course, man certainly didn't evolve while running barefoot on pavement or a similar hard surface, so it still may not be the best idea for everyone.

Not too long, got them late fall of last year and haven't done much running in them over the winter. I hold out some optimism that maybe running in them would force me to learn not to have such a heavy heel strike, since the small amount of running I did do with them on pavement indicated that landing too hard would result in some quick negative feedback.

[catwood1]

Heres the realllllly reduced version. When you run barefoot, you don't slam your heels into the ground, you land on the balls of your feet.


Or, if you run on your heels, natural selection does the rest for you..

[fencerchica]

Heres the realllllly reduced version. When you run barefoot, you don't slam your heels into the ground, you land on the balls of your feet.


Or, if you run on your heels, natural selection does the rest for you..

Yea, thanks for re-phrasing what I said in my previous post. Very helpful.

Although I would add, if you have a pair of fivefingers, you already know that it also takes some getting used to landing on pavement with the balls of your feet. As the manufacturer says, if this is something you're interested in doing, most people will need to cut their run lengths way back at first and work back up. My initial experience leads me to agree.

[Inquartata]

Huh..and yet when I had mild plantar fasciitis my doctor told me to avoid going barefoot at all costs...