This is getting more into physiology and outside my areas that I know a lot about, but I still found it interesting! I will start with the abstract: Alterations of Neuromuscular Function after the World’s Most Challenging Mountain Ultra-Marathon Jonas Saugy, Nicolas Place, Guillaume Y. Millet, Francis Degache, Federico Schena, Grégoire P. Millet PLoS ONE […]
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Prefabricated vs Custom Made Orthotics for Plantar Fasciitis
This perennial issue has come up again with the publication of another study. I have done a previous rant elsewhere on this issue: The Redundancy of Research on Custom Made vs Prefabricated Foot Orthotics. The alleged evidence to date from most studies so far is that there are no differences in outcomes between custom made […]
Foot ‘Pronation’ and Anterior Knee Pain in Runners
Anterior knee pain or patellofemoral knee pain syndrome is one of the most commonest injuries seen in runners. Excessive foot pronation, either rightly or wrongly, has long been linked to it. The putative model of the mechanism is that if the foot excessively pronates, then the tibia rotates internally too much causing misalignment at the […]
Foot strike pattern and ground-contact time – effect on economy of running
More studies have been appearing recently on the running economy and running technique issue. Here is the latest new study from the University of Bologna: The concurrent effects of strike pattern and ground-contact time on running economy Rocco Di Michele and Franco Merni Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (in press) Objectives Running economy is […]
Effect of fatigue on running kinematics
It was only a month ago that I wrote about the effect of fatigue on foot function and now there is another publication to add to the mix. The reason that the issue is important is that most biomechanical studies and clinical assessments are done when runners are fresh and not fatigued. When they are […]
Gait variability associated with minimal footwear during running
Variability from step to step is considered a good thing as this means the same tissues are not necessarily loaded to the same extent with each step. There is evidence that shows that injured runners display reduced variability compared to healthy runners. Joe Hamill and colleagues originally looked at this concept in detail. Despite this […]
Foot pronation is not associated with increased injury risk in novice runners wearing a neutral shoe (?)
…or is it? The media are lapping up the press release associated with this study: Researchers explode the myth about running injuries. The title above is the title of the study as it appears in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. I added the question mark at the end for a reason. Does the study […]
Risk of injury from ‘foot type’ – back to ‘overpronation’
The whole understanding of the concept of ‘overpronation’ and what association that it may or may not have with injury in runners continues to evolve. Historically ‘pronation’ was somehow evil and had to be eliminated at all costs as it was the cause of almost every injury that runners got¹. Over time it was becoming […]
Forefoot strikers exhibit lower running-induced knee loading than rearfoot strikers
One thing that I have been consistent in saying is that different running forms load different tissues differently. From a clinical perspective, this is not a matter of one ‘form’ being better than another, its about what gait changes can be made to reduce the load on any tissues that there are problematic issues with. […]
Running economy: Forefoot vs Rearfoot striking
It now appears from the most recent data that there is probably no difference in running economy between barefoot or minimalist running and traditional shoe running; and now we have a study showing that there is no difference in running economy between heel and forefoot striking. This study has been around for over a year […]
The Effects of Fatigue on Foot Function
One of the shortcomings of a lot of biomechanical laboratory testing is that it is done on runners who are fresh and not fatigued. A number of studies have shown how foot function is different at, for example, the beginning of a marathon vs what it is at the end of a marathon. While this […]
The ‘actuator lugs’ on the Newton Running Shoes
Just yesterday I had an email asking my opinion on the so called ‘actuator lugs’ on the Newton running shoes and as there was no research on them, my reply was essentially ‘no opinion‘. Not 24hrs after replying there is no research, there is now some research (see below). Before I replied, I did go […]
The carbon footprint from running shoes
Whenever I fly, I always pay the extra $ for what the airline I usually use call ‘carbon offsets’. As I travel a lot (probably too much), it gives me the warm fuzzies known I have done something to reduce the carbon footprint of my travel. During the last few weeks I was a parent […]
Achilles Tendinopathy and Body Mass Index
Achilles tendinopathy is no different to any other overuse injury in that the cause is the cumulative loads in the tissue are beyond what the tissue can take. There are a number of factors that increases the cumulative loads and make the tissues more susceptible to those loads. One of the factors that is assumed […]
Preferred Foot Strike Pattern and Soft Tissue Vibration
The simplified version of the ‘Preferred Motion Pathway‘ model is that each individual has a preferred pathway for a given task (and that will vary from person to person). The model considers that if you function within that pathway, then you are more efficient and have a less risk for injury. If you function outside […]