Anyone with an interest in science is probably familiar with the logical fallacies so widely used by the touters of quackery, pseudoscience and woo. I have written about a number of them in the context of ‘running’ and there are a lot more to come. I recently came across this poster that summarizes the key […]
You are here: Home
Effect of 0 and 4mm drop running shoes on running economy
This turned up in my alerts today. It is an undergraduate thesis from Fort Lewis College¹: The Acute Effect of Heel to Toe Drop on Running Economy. Brown, Harrison and Silva, Robert (2013). Undergraduate thesis, Fort Lewis College. The purpose of this study was to assess how the running economy of experienced runners was affected […]
How many are doing ‘barefoot’ or ‘minimalism’ running?
I really don’t know and can find no data on the numbers. Judging by what is online there is an extraordinary presence of ‘barefoot’ and ‘minimalism’ running; there are literally 100’s of blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, books, eBooks, YouTube Videos, courses etc promoting it and talking about it everywhere you go online. “Barefoot’ and […]
Vertical Ground Reaction Forces Produced in Shod Running vs. Barefoot Running
This study turned up in my alerts this morning. It was an undergraduate project from Fort Lewis College in Colorado that has not been ‘published’, but is in poster form and was presented at School of Natural and Behavioral Science Undergraduate Research Symposium on the April 18th. Knowing what my students achieve as part of […]
What evidence is there that ‘barefoot’ running is better to reduce injury risk?
I have two options for writing this article: 1) I could just leave it blank as there is no evidence. 2) I could explain why there is no evidence. As I have commented in a number of other articles (eg the Vibram class action one) that there is no evidence that ‘barefoot’ running is any […]
Calling out the loons
I have started a new category for posts: Fallacies > Loons. I have no problems with professional disagreements; they exist and more often then not are usually respectful. I have always had a problem with the misunderstanding, misquoting, misuse and misinterpretation of research and science, which was a large part of the motivation for starting […]
Impact Reduction Through Changing to Midfoot Strike Pattern vs Low Drop Footwear
There has been considerable interest recently in altering running technique to reduce impact loads and loading rates in the belief that this might reduce injury rates. There was a recent study I previously wrote about and now there is this one: Impact reduction through long-term intervention in recreational runners: midfoot strike pattern versus low-drop/low-heel height […]
‘Volume’ based injuries vs ‘Pace’ based injuries
The cause of overuse injury in runners is multifactorial and training related issues are commonly cited as a factor. This review investigated some of those issues and proposed an interesting hypothesis: CLASSIFYING RUNNING‐RELATED INJURIES BASED UPON ETIOLOGY, WITH EMPHASIS ON VOLUME AND PACE Rasmus Oestergaard Nielsen, MHSc, Ellen Aagaard Nohr, PhD, Sten Rasmussen, MD, and […]
Risk of Injury From ‘Pronation’
“Overpronation” and “pronation” are by and large misunderstood and most discussions of it are based on the straw man fallacy and a superficial understanding of it. This means that those discussing “overpronation” and “pronation” are actually discussing something it is not, and then discussing or critiquing that false characterization. I have already done one rant […]
Review: The Runners World Complete Guide to Minimalism and Barefoot Running
As I said in my review of Chi Marathon, I have purchased many books over recent years to better understand what is going on in running and have been very disappointed in most of them. The main source of the disappointment is due to what I tongue-in-cheek call, the promise of ‘the second coming of […]
Does Barefoot Running Lead to a Higher Arch of the Foot?
I am assuming that you have all seen the claims made many times in the barefoot running books, You Tube video’s, blogs and forum posts that barefoot running can increase the height of the arch of the foot due to an increase in muscle strength. Yet you never see any evidence quoted to support the […]
The ‘Wet Footprint Test’ is a Furphy
I was almost not going to bother writing this as I thought that the so-called ‘wet footprint test’ was coming up less often, so more and more people are taking notice of it not being a good test on which to make a prescription of a running shoe. I did a Google search and used […]
Risk factors for stress fractures in adolescent runners
Stress fractures are a relatively common problem in runners, and I would speculate they have become more common recently. A new study attempted to identify the risk factors for stress fractures in adolescent runners: Identifying Sex-Specific Risk Factors for Stress Fractures in Adolescent Runners Tenforde, Adam S.; Sayres, Lauren C.; Liz McCurdy, Mary; Sainani, Kristin […]
Pose Running and Running Economy
This is not exactly new research (its from 2005), but the response to the research in the blogosphere has been telling and follows a familiar pattern and it still continues to be mentioned, which kindled my interest to revisit this paper and review the reaction to it (which is what I like doing!). This study […]
‘Wishful Thinking’
‘Wishful thinking‘ is a fallacy or, more appropriately, a cognitive bias that puts people in the radar of the skeptics (…and me ☺). According to the Skeptics Dictionary: Wishful thinking is interpreting facts, reports, events, perceptions, etc., according to what one would like to be the case rather than according to the actual evidence. It […]