On the wrong foot

It wasn’t so long ago, maybe three decades, that a cutting-edge running shoe was one that was dyed black. For many years, athletes struggled through in sandshoes until the advent of the jogger with brand name attached changed it all. It is amazing really that people managed any athletic feats at all considering the paucity of their footwear. Then again, according to a new study, maybe they weren’t so badly off after all.

For the study, researchers had teenage athletes from athletic clubs run on a treadmill in either typical “joggers” with cushioned heels, track shoes or barefoot. They did each of these at four different speed settings. As they did this, they measured the biomechanics of the participants, meaning they looked at stride length, heel height during backward swing phase, and the contact of the foot on the ground. The researchers deliberately chose adolescents because at that stage of life you have not yet permanently established your gait.

The biomechanic analysis showed that subjects wearing joggers landed on their heel 69.8 per cent of the time, at all the different speeds. In the track shoes, the heel were the first point of contact with the ground less than 35 per cent of the time, and when barefoot the heel hit the ground first less than 30 per cent of the time. So joggers caused a heel-strike running pattern whereas track shoes and going barefoot resulted in a fore-foot or mid-foot strike pattern.

So, does this matter?

For a start, if you are a runner it means that you don’t want to train in joggers and run in track shoes because your foot strike pattern will be altered. More importantly for everybody though, a heel-strike running pattern distributes more energy to the hips and knees. This could possibly lead to wear and tear problems in those areas later in life.

It’s healing to feel the earth beneath your feet anyway, so why not find a grassy field for your running and tip-toe through the tulips?