Why joggers should bare their soles if they want to avoid injury

Published on Wednesday 27 January 2010 21:57

FOR those of us who are slaves to the running track, choosing the perfect pair of trainers is everything.

• Rosemary Gallagher draws some curious looks as she tried bare-foot jogging in Edinburgh's Holyrood Park. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Getting the right colour, the right brand – at huge expense – and the right fit is crucial.

But now a new report suggests we should ditch the flashy trainers altogether and run barefoot if we want to get ahead and, crucially, avoid serious injury.

According to researchers in Glasgow, we should emulate Zola Budd – the South African who ran for Britain in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and took to the track without running shoes.

Modern-day trainers could actually do more harm than good and may be more dangerous to athletes than going barefoot.

The highly engineered trainer with its various features like built-up heels and cushioned soles is more likely to lead to injuries than the way tribal hunters have run for thousands of years.

Scientists now claim that sports shoes make people more inclined to land on their heels, causing more stress to the body than runners who use the ball of the foot or a flat-foot (mid-foot) action.

Even ancient sandals or moccasins were kinder to muscles and tendons than fancy footwear produced these days, said the study by academics from Glasgow, the US and Kenya.

Designing trainers specifically for running only evolved in the 1970s, but it is now a multi-billion-pound business cashing in on the rise in popularity of jogging, gym membership, marathons and fun runs.

But the evolution of the running shoe has clashed with the evolution of man's traditional style of running, said the collected group of researchers writing in the journal Nature. This means humans have changed the way they run when they wear modern running shoes, but unfortunately the new style leads to far more injuries because of the impacts involved.

The research team was comprised of experts from several US universities, including Harvard, the Moi University Medical School in Kenya, and the University of Glasgow.

They studied the way today's fully kitted athletes pound the ground compared to how traditional tribesmen in Africa run barefoot.

The studies found landing on the heel can generate up to three times the force of impact than landing on the front or middle of the foot.

The report said: "For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning."

It added: "Running can be most injurious at the moment the foot collides with the ground.

"The average runner strikes the ground 600 times per kilometre, making runners prone to repetitive stress injuries."

Cushioned and "high-heeled" running shoes make it more comfortable and easier for runners to land on their heels, said the report. Others have arch supports or stiff soles which are meant to make running feel a lot easier but actually have the effect of weakening foot muscles, the study added.

It said: "Fore-foot and mid-foot-strike gaits were probably more common when humans ran barefoot or in minimal shoes, and may protect the feet and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries now experienced by a high percentage of runners."

Barefoot in the park was far from pleasant

BEING asked to ditch my – expensive – running shoes and return to nature by running barefoot filled me with fear, writes Rosemary Gallagher.

I've been running regularly for about eight years and have progressed from 5k races to half-marathons and 10ks each year. But having agreed to run in bare feet, I was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of freedom when I stepped on the treadmill. My whole body felt lighter. However, after about ten minutes, my left foot started to ache and the pain gradually spread to my ankle.

Then I braved the outdoors to run on the grass in Holyrood Park and that wasn't fun or practical. It's hard not to feel nervous about what you might stand on and the mud was cold and uncomfortable. I also attracted strange looks from other runners. If I lived in sunnier climes with clean, sandy beaches, I would regularly run barefoot. But in Scotland, with its bad weather and litter, I'll stick to shoes.