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By William Wragg
www.rifrev.com
Points included in the article: Why barefoot? Why shoes? Is there an in-between? Have we ever adapted to cement/ concrete? Barefoot versus Shoes the physical effects Conclusion
One of the hottest topics in running should I be barefoot or, are my shoes ok to run in? Ive found typically theres nowhere in between with opinions; its either I run barefoot or not. There are those runners who are slightly in-between with the minimalist shoes but commonly a minimalist runner is a barefoot runner whos wearing the thinnest sole possible, with the minimalist drop. Whats right? Whos right? Lets look at why we do what we do and why we run the way we run and how thats changed over time.
Human beings (Home-erectus, and most recently, Homo-sapiens) were designed to run, but not on artificial surfaces. In the exact same way a tiger isnt designed to run on concrete, or any other wild animals! So when the Western World was basically concreted over, the effects on our body from running have increased ten-fold. So, the common running injuries are not something we have always suffered from, and is why modern-day running tribes to this day like the Tarahumara in the Copper Canyons and many runners in Africa can run such extreme distances but are yet to have been effected by the injury phenomenon! - Given that they still run on softer surfaces (soil and sand).
However, when you have a pair of thick shoes on, your senses are reduced and these natural responses do not occur! The ground forces Barefoot versus shoes! The image below, from a Harvard University Human Biology study, shoes an African runner running both with and without shoes. It also compares the force (body weight) during the motion.
The results showed that when wearing shoes, the runner was more exposed to greater forces riding up through their body. As mentioned above, the reasons being are we naturally lengthen our bodies and improve our alignment, naturally land in the mid-foot and create movement using our body as we run without shoes and these techniques all contribute to this reduced amount of force.
The shoes above are the 1972, Nike Cortez. Known in History as the first real running shoe developed for track athletes for comfort and durability, both for road running and distance running. Before this, runners tended to wear incredibly flat shoes, the shoes you would see in the film classic, Chariots of Fire. The purpose of the Cortez was obviously to protect us/ runners from injury however, there are an abundance of studies conducted since that point at the spike of injuries ever since the production of running shoes developed for comfort as being a considerable, contributing cause. Thats why injury prevalence for conditions such as Plantar Fasciitis or Shin splints have increased to an alarming degree over the past forty years!
The foot can definitely take a massive hammer from wearing thick soled shoes. We as humans are designed to land in the mid-foot (in our arches) to absorb the ground force thus, preventing the pressures from riding up through our body to our joints, and also from damaging our feet. Wearing thick shoes, people who run too straight and dont create movement efficiently are quite often seen to over-stride and land on their heel. The heel is awful at absorbing pressures and consequently, trauma injuries such as ITB Syndrome both at the knee (friction syndrome) or on the hip are very common as are shin splints (Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome) a general term used to explain trauma in the connective tissues of the tibia. People also commonly over-activate the muscles in their feet and can seriously weaken their ankle strength and the peroneal tendons (peroneus longus and brevis) at the ankle can weaken. Not absorbing the ground forces effectively, over time, can also develop a lot of wear and tear on the foot itself and areas such as the metatarsals can become damaged, causing injuries such as metatarsal stress fractures or metatarsalgia or even Mortons Neuroma. The Knee
The knee is not widely understood, its like a musician ahead of its time. The patella is clearly used to form a joint but, like our foot arches, the knee is incredible at absorbing pressures. When we barefoot run we use the knee very effectively we do not sink at the knee and our knees and hips almost align, and we keep our knees soft by relaxing our thighs (quadriceps); allowing us to absorb a lot of the pressures at the knee, and preventing against cartilage damage from overuse, the potential onset of osteoarthritis and most commonly the onset of Runners knee (Patello Femoral Joint Syndrome PFJS). So, when we wear shoes, we tend not to be required as much to lengthen through our body and maintain a good posture to prevent pain so we start to become too relaxed and lazy, particularly when tired. Our knees start to hyper-flex and lock. This causes inflammation in the knee and the onset of PFJS or PFJ Pain or even Chondromalacia (a pain usually found between the patella and the femur, at the top of the knee). The Hip
Our long pelvises are what made the homo-erectus and what makes us, the homo-sapiens, so fantastic, at least structurally, historically, and in theory in this modern-day, at running long distances. Our hips are developed to absorb pressures that ride up through our bodies and this prevents damage and overuse potential injuries from being onset. However, because many runners today are not successfully landing in the mid-foot and often over-stride (landing in the heel) this causes pressure to ride through our body and can even cause significant injuries at our hip - For example clicking hips (or Coxa Saltans or illiopsoas tendinitis) or even stress fractures at the hip. Coupled with this, because of our modern day cultures and day-to-lives we often drive everywhere and sit for WAYYYY too long at work, causing us to get stuck through our pelvis and resultant poor posture through the hips, resulting from a weakened core and tight hip flexors. Being too relaxed and stuck through our hips further increases the pressures on our lower body and makes us a lot less efficient at creating movement, with our movement lever only really at waist height.
YES, YES, YES we can. But to this point, we have not learned internationally
and as a population to do so and at this point our bodies have not really started to show evolutionary signs of change to adapt to these surfaces, either. But thats what the Running Injury Free Revolution is all about. In order to run effectively on hard surfaces you first of all have to understand how to create movement naturally, and without using power and thus, over-working our bodies. You then need to understand what the optimal postural positions are and why a good alignment is so important. Finally you need to understand how to land, and what part of body causes each injury and why? So when a pain onsets, we know how to stop that ASAP, and prevent those pains from becoming injuries. One thing we cannot do if we ever want to stop the common running injuries is RUNNING LAZY. Running Lazy is not using our bodies effectively and simply relying on our shoes to do all the work. Buying new shoes to prevent pains therefore is a lazy quick-fix and in order
to actually stop the pains from ever on-setting we have to teach our bodies to do the work, not our equipment or accessories. When I ran my 50 Marathons in as many days, I found it fairly easy and didnt get any pains. The reason was, plain and simple, because of my personal injury history I understood how each part of my body worked, how each pain came and how to as quickly as it onset, put a stop to each. When you run thinking in this way, with a good education and knowledge about your body, even if the ground feel is less, you can prevent any running injury! Its also how I ran my 50 marathons in the same pair of shoes that were already 6 months old at the start of the event!!!
The Conclusion
My conclusion is that the World has changed and with that, so has our footwear. If the World was still all sand and soil there wouldnt be this debate, and wed all run without shoes, but it has changed. Our footwear has therefore adapted to this change and we need to learn how to work with these changes as well. I definitely suggest giving running barefoot or wearing Vibram Five Fingers or at least minimalist shoes a go. In terms of learning how to run injury free, I also 100% endorse buying a pair of Vibrams or learning barefoot or, probably the safety most efficient method, learn wearing minimalist shoes on trails (or softer surfaces, like grass). Once youre able to learn the Running Injury Free Techniques its then a matter of transitioning those Techniques in to a pair of road shoes.
I have to state, this is what I have learned. People will have differing experience and peoples physical structures differ. So your experience may be different from all of your friends so play around, try different shoes, and try barefoot and eventually youll find what best suits and best fits you.
If you need any further information on how to run injury free, please feel free to contact me on the information below and check out our online resources at www.rifrev.com
William Wragg
Running Injury Free Specialist Running Injury Free Revolution (RIF REV) www.rifrev.com e:will@rifrev.com.au will@bodyleadership.com.au m: 0435 864 000 a: 401 Old Cleveland Rd, Coorparoo