Here we show that habitually barefoot endurance runners often land on the fore-foot (fore-foot strike) before bringing down the heel, but they sometimes land with a flat foot (mid-foot strike) or, less often, on the heel (rear-foot strike). In contrast, habitually shod runners mostly rear-foot strike, facilitated by the elevated and cushioned heel of the modern running shoe. Kinematic and kinetic analyses show that even on hard surfaces, barefoot runners who fore-foot strike generate smaller collision forces than shod rear-foot strikers.
Yeah, this is what I thought was happening. They do not know how to run. Most of the time I see people 'running' that are mainly hopping over and over again when it should be more of a 'pulling' forward. It is not hard to train yourself to run correctly with shoes (fore-foot strike). Personally, I would favor running correctly with shoes on vs. barefoot. It is true that wearing shoes allows one to run badly but demonizing shoes does not seem to be the ideal solution. Educate people how to run would be a much better alternative.
I really think you have missed the entire point!
With the thick heel, running shoes almost force you to adopt this running gait but when most people run barefoot they naturally alternate to the fore-foot strike. Running correctly in shoes still allows you to 'pound the pavement' and this generates higher forces up the chain in your ankles, knees and hips which is more likely to eventually result in injury.
Why would educating people be a much better alternative? Wouldn't going back to the 'shoes' we have been using for 99.9998% of our evolutionary history (modern running shoes developed in 1970s, modern humans ~200,000 years old) be a much better alternative?
The human foot is THE most advanced piece of running machinery on the planet! Far far more advanced than anything we can build artificially today. Do you really think some shoe company back in the 1970s outsmarted evolution? If our foot needed a thick heel it would have a thick heel! The foot in many ways is more complex than your hands, but can you imagine if all day you walked around with big gloves over your hands also, severely limiting their functionality? What frightened me was when you first start running barefoot after years of using running shoes you have to take it
extremely-slowly cause all the muscles and tendons in your feet and ankles and legs are woefully untrained for how their actually meant to be used! What is the next study going to find about the difference between barefoot vs running shoes! I'll put my money on it being not pro-shoe!
EDIT: When I argue for barefoot I also mean 'barefoot shoes' such as Vibram FiveFingers. I understand there are some potential negatives regarding barefoot running in a modern world with broken glass and other nasty stuff around, but I think these are all taken care of with a barefoot shoe.
Edited by icantgoforthat, 14 February 2010 - 02:32 AM.
