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Differences in landing patterns seen between shod and barefoot runners
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A recent multicenter study indicates that barefoot runners or those who run in minimal footwear often avoid heel-strike and, instead, land on the ball or middle of their feet, indicating this may be a safer and more painless way to run.
The study appears this week in Nature.
“People who do not wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike,” Daniel E. Lieberman, PhD, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and co-author of the study, stated a university press release. “By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike. Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot. Further, it might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes.”
Using runners from the United States and Kenya, Lieberman and his colleagues from Harvard University, the University of Glasgow and Moi University, analyzed the running gaits of the following three groups:
- runners who always raced barefoot;
- runners who always wore shoes; and
- runners who once wore shoes and switched to running barefoot.
The investigators found that most runners who wore shoes experienced heel-strike, while barefoot runners had mid-or forefoot landings.
Madhusudhan Venkadesan, PhD, a co-author of the study noted that heel-strike causes pain in runners who are barefoot or wearing minimal footwear. “Barefoot runners point their toes more at landing, avoiding this collision by decreasing the effective mass of the foot that comes to a sudden stop when you land, and by having a more compliant, or springy, leg,” he said.
Lieberman noted that early humans had less developed arches in their feet, while modern man has evolved a strong, large arch for running.
He hopes that studies like his will provide insight on how to prevent repetitive stress injuries.
“Our hope is that an evolutionary medicine approach to running and sports injury can help people run better for longer and feel better while they do it,” Lieberman stated in the release.
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