Is Barefoot Running A Growing Trend Or A Passing Fad?

Volume 23 - Issue 4 - April 2010
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Start Page: 73

Author(s):

Kevin A. Kirby, DPM

Barefoot running is just another passing fad within the running community that I continue to educate my patients about so they can run with less pain and fewer injuries. I plan to continue running for many more years … in shoes.

Dr. Kirby is an Adjunct Associate Professor within the Department of Applied Biomechanics at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, Calif. He is in private practice in Sacramento, Calif.

Dr. McCord recently retired from practice at the Centralia Medical Center in Centralia, Wash.

Anonymoussays: April 5, 2010 at 9:39 am "I also inform them that there is no scientific evidence that barefoot running produces any fewer injuries than running in shoes."

This is unfortunately just not the case. As detailed in "Footwear Science" in June 2009, shoes leave our feet "deformed". Do you really think that this effect only occurs when people are not running? Most runners I know have horrible feet.

The article is "The effects of habitual footwear use: foot shape and function in native barefoot walkers"

This article repeats the old saw that footwear is necessary, but presents no evidence to support the claim. Of course it's published in "Footwear Science", so I guess that is to be expected.

The US Military is also discovering that we've been ill-served by the running shoe. After determining that the classic "wet foot print" test method of determining "foot type" and therefore running shoe type just doesn't work, they're also exploring barefoot running as a training technique, and report that they are indeed lowering injury rates. At Fort Sill, running-related injuries are the number one injury in basic training.

For those of you not familiar with it, Pose is a running technique that uses barefoot running extensively in training, to teach barefoot-style technique for use when shod. Soldiers aren't going into battle barefoot.

And even a cursory examination of racing flats vs. a truly minimalist shoe like the Vibram FiveFingers or the VivoBarefoot Evo will reveal that they're dramatically different. All racing flats currently on the market have a raised heel and cushioning underfoot.

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Anonymoussays: April 5, 2010 at 11:07 am Dr. Kirby, As an active and thoughtful contributor to your field, you could have done better than this. If you've got a real, well-reasoned argument for supportive, motion control shoes with elevated, cushioned heels, I've yet to hear it. As it stands, you appear to be making the case that the preferred option for running should be a lightweight racing flat. What is barefoot or minimalist running but that logic taken a bit further? The principle remains to not interfere with the normal function of the human foot. Barefoot runners would add that altering one's natural functioning by encasing and controling the foot can make one prone to injury. This appears a rather intuitive concept, and one that you haven't in the slightest refuted or even really addressed. The only direct argument you make is related to performance: "...why aren’t there more barefoot runners breaking the finishing tape at races?" Is anyone really buying this? The East Africans that have been breaking the tape at races for years all grew up running barefoot, have strong, well developed feet, and train and race in relatively minimal shoes that have been handed to them by a major shoe company along with a paycheck that has more zeros on it than they've ever seen before. They run in shoes because they're fast, not the other way around. There may well be something substantial to be said for supportive running shoes, and you are right to attempt to address the issue. A dismissal with a "DPM" at the end of one's name is not sufficient. I'm still waiting for a line of reasoning that goes beyond "Watch out for those rusty nails!" Regards, Andy Southerland Reply to this comment »

Anonymoussays: August 24, 2010 at 11:41 pm

Sounds just like every pro-barefoot article. Anecdotal references with no evidence to support/refute either side.

Pete
Murrieta, CA

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Anonymoussays: December 28, 2010 at 12:51 pm

"I also inform them that there is no scientific evidence that barefoot running produces any fewer injuries than running in shoes."

There is also no evidence supporting that running shoes reduce injury.

"If running barefoot is a better and more natural way to run, as the barefoot running advocates claim, then why aren’t there more barefoot runners breaking the finishing tape at races?"

They are, as you agree, running in racing flats, which is very similar to the new "minimalist" running shoes. The point is being missed. The idea of "barefoot running" is to change the gait to avoid heel contact with the ground at impact and shock absorb the way our foot was designed to absorb shock.

"These orthoses solved my running injuries for many years..." Was it the orthoses or was it the fact that they enabled to you "change the way you ran?"

There is no literature that "supports" what Root taught us about pronation etc. It only was used as a basis for what normal should be or is it normal? If we jump off a ladder, we would all agree that we would land on our toes? Why do we as podiatrists advocate landing on our heels then for 26.2. miles?

Nick Campitelli, DPM, FACFAS
nickcampi@me.com

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