Not so fast!
Most runners have experienced an injury or two — the blame often lies in overtraining, inadequate recovery time, bad form or the wrong footwear.
A new study reports that not knowing how your feet hit the pavement increases the likelihood of getting hurt and suggests the best shoe to reduce this risk.
Researchers from the University of Florida examined six years of data from 710 endurance runners who sought a gait analysis at the university’s Sports Performance Center and Running Medicine Clinic.
They studied the runners’ training regimen, make and model of running shoe, injury history and perception of how their feet make contact with the ground (also known as their foot strike).
There were two main foot strike patterns for this study — rearfoot strike occurs when the heel or rear part of the foot lands first, while non-rearfoot strike has the front half of the foot initially hitting the ground, potentially followed by heel contact.
Rearfoot is the predominant style among runners. In this study, many participants didn’t accurately report their foot strikes.
The researchers blamed their ignorance on their heavy, thick-heeled sneakers.
“The shoe lies between the foot and the ground, and features like a large heel-to-toe drop make it more challenging for runners to identify how they’re striking the ground,” said lead study author Heather Vincent, director of the UF Health Sports Performance Center.
“That clouds how we retrain people or determine if someone is at risk for future injury,” Vincent added.
The heel-to-toe drop is the difference in cushioning between the heel and the forefoot of a shoe.
Vincent said runners who accurately identified their foot strike had lighter shoes with a lower heel-to-toe drop and more space for the toes.
The researchers say that flatter, minimal shoes are most likely the best option for runners because they help improve sensation with the ground and promote a more controlled landing.
But before you run out to a sporting goods store to grab a pair, the study authors cautioned that transitioning to a different shoe must be done slowly.
“I had to teach myself to get out of the big, high-heeled shoes down to something with more moderate cushioning and to work on foot strengthening,” Vincent shared. “It may take up to six months for it to feel natural. It’s a process.”
The findings were published this month in the Frontiers in Sports and Active Living journal.
Vincent’s team plans to study if changing shoes affects runners’ ability to identify their foot strike and lowers injury rates.
“We want to translate what we find to meaningful ways to help runners modify their form to reduce injury risk and keep them healthy for the long term,” Vincent said.