This is an interesting one… A number of previous studies have looked at the mechanical and economy parameters with minimal running shoes compared to traditional running shoes. Some of these studies were cross-sectional and some were prospective and followed a period of adaptation or transition. One of the concerns expressed about some of these studies, […]
Tag Archives | barefoot running
Effects of a seven week transition to minimalist footwear
One of the criticisms of some studies comparing the mechanics of minimalist vs traditionally shod footwear is that the intervention is acute and the effects were not measured after a period of appropriate acclimation to the different conditions. The results may or may not be the same after that acclimation or transition – we simply […]
Why do people make this stuff up for?
Time to call out another loon. This time its an article in the Inquisitr, How David Accidentally Slayed Goliath: Vibram FiveFingers And Why Barefoot Is Best. I will ignore that it failed totally to show that barefoot is better and even worse, totally ignored all 10 of the systematic reviews of the science that its not. […]
The Risks and Benefits of Running Barefoot or in Minimalist Shoes
Nine formal systematic reviews of the evidence have so far been published looking at the evidence on barefoot or minimalist running having systematic benefits or not. Every single one of them concluded the same thing (reviewed here and here and here). Despite those conclusions, all by people from different backgrounds and published in a variety […]
Predatory Publishing (and does footwear in runners influence foot ‘disease’?)
What has that got to do with running? At first glance not a lot, but bear with me. I was first alerted to the concept of predatory publishing by Hylton Menz a while back in the context of a new journal that was launched by a predatory publisher, Clinical Research on Foot and Ankle (and yes, that […]
Wearing shoes impairs intellectual development
Its Sunday, I not feeling too well and am not up to writing something serious. I needed another loon to ridicule. I was wondering what to write about, then I remembered this from many years ago that gave us a good laugh at the time: Among the untold problems that wearing shoes can impose in […]
See what you want to believe in
There is quite a body of work in the psychology literature on optical and perceptual illusions and how they are influenced by seeing what you want to see. I certainly know very little about the psychology and science of this (though I have fun looking at some). I do know enough to know there is […]
The influence of running speed on ankle and knee joint moments
I have long suggested that the number one biomechanical risk factors for an overuse running injury and determinate of running economy is joint moments. That is generally affected by variations in joint axes positions. The loads in the tissues and how hard a muscle has to work is determined by the joint moments. Different ways […]
The Re-emergence of the Minimal Running Shoe
This just turned up in my alerts “The Re-emergence of the Minimal Running Shoe” …. hmmmm, I was puzzled. I thought the opposite was happening and maybe I had missed a swing back the other way. For example a few months ago, Lower Extremity Review covered it this way: The rise and fall of minimalist […]
“Barefoot Running and Hip Kinematics: Good News for the Knee?”; what about “Bad News for the Ankle”?
I have previously had a dig at the nature of the titles of a number of scientific papers, for example, this paper I previously reviewed was titled: “Forefoot strikers exhibit lower running-induced knee loading than rearfoot strikers“; when it could have just as easy been titled “Forefoot strikers exhibit higher Achilles tendon loading than rearfoot strikers“ […]
Muscle strength in shod, minimalist and foot orthotic wearing runners
I going to start off with this image¹: There is plenty of the usual propaganda and rhetoric about foot orthotics weakening muscles in the crankosphere blogosphere, therefore they are evil: Truth or lie? I already addressed the issue of running shoes weakening muscles (they don’t); but that has not stopped the fan boys still claiming that they […]
Will the first sub 2 hour marathon be run barefoot?
That is the claim in a new book; 1:59 The Sub-Two-Hour Marathon is Within Reach – Here’s how it will go down and what it can teach all runners about training and racing by Philip Maffetone. I have long had an interest in this and followed many stories and speculation on when and how it […]
Barefoot running survey: Evidence from the field???
I am in a cranky mood this morning. I put off reviewing this one as I new what I was going to write was not going to be complementary and I had other more interesting papers to review and comment on. I finally got to it as couple of fan boys emailed me asking me […]
Running with a minimalist shoe increases plantar pressures
Its taken me a couple of days to get to this one. The reason is that I like to start each post about a research article with some comments to put it into context. This time I was suffering from writers block as I could think of nothing to say that I have not said […]
Review of Lieberman et al’s (2010) paper in Nature on Barefoot Running
Since starting this blog I have tried to cover every relevant piece of research when its published as well as summarize some topics in the context of what the evidence is saying. I have missed a few and still do have a bit of a backlog of recent ones. It all comes down to allocating […]