This one has me intrigued and is a good example of how agendas can interfere with the management of clinical problems. Severs disease or calcaneal apophysitis is an overuse injury that occurs to the growth plate at the back of the calcaneus or heel bone that is more common between the ages of 10 to […]
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Review: Chi Marathon
In an effort to learn and understand what is going on with all the different trends in running over the last few years, I have purchased a lot of books. Lots of them have been a waste of money. Chi Marathon, by Danny Dreyer was certainly one of them. I already have a copy of […]
Why Ineffective Treatments Sometimes Work
I periodically have a problem with my Achilles tendon. The last bout I had was cured when I incorporated some steep hills into my running. Should I start singing from the hilltops that I have found the cure for Achilles tendonitis?; should I treat every runner I see with Achilles tendonitis by getting them to […]
The ‘Natural’ Running Fallacy
It is common to see products being marketed as being natural and the implication that because it is natural it has to be better for you. Whole professions are built around the natural being better claims. It is also common to see claims that different running techniques or forms being better for you as they are […]
The nonsensical understanding of ‘overpronation’
The understanding of ‘overpronation’ on running blogs, forums, magazines and in the running shoe retail community has become so nonsensical its laughable and that nonsensical understanding is also filtering into the health professional community. Everyone who can spell the word seems to have become an expert in it and have an opinion on it. In […]
What is the “best” running form?
What is the best way to run? What is the “correct” running form? Is it Pose running?; Chi running?: heel, midfoot or forefoot striking?; maximalist or minimalist? Advocates and evangelists of them all argue that they are the best and usually cite a whole lot of references to back their cases. What does that evidence […]
Short or Long Term Use of Foot Orthotics?
While the evidence of the efficacy of foot orthotics is really clear on them working, what is not so clear is if they are really needed over the longer term or if they should just be a short term intervention. Like a lot of other clinical decisions, there is no evidence to guide this, just […]
Do Foot Orthotics Really Work?
Of course they do. If anyone claims otherwise, they are making it up! Every single clinical outcome study (patient satisfaction; outcome study; controlled and uncontrolled study; randomized control trial), and there is now a lot of them, has shown that they work (except for one on bunions in kids); every systematic review of the evidence […]
Obesity and running injury
There can be no doubt about the problem of the epidemic of obesity that is having significant impacts and costs on society and triggering debate over who should be meeting those costs. On one hand, society has a responsibility to its citizens, but an individual also has responsibility to not be burden on that society. […]
‘Barefoot Science’ Insoles
If I was to invent an insole, maybe one with some fancy ‘bells and whistles‘ and then simply made the claim that it strengthens the muscles of the foot, would you believe me? What if I added the word ‘barefoot’ to the products name to make it sound impressive? Would you believe me then? Of […]
Is the ‘180 Cadence’ a myth or something to aim for?
Running cadence is the number of steps taken per minute. There is an increasing trend for runners to shorten the stride length and increase the rate that the legs turn over (ie increase cadence). With many claims and dogma along the lines that if you can get the cadence to around 180 steps/minute then this […]
Managing ‘Top of Foot Pain’ in Forefoot Strikers
‘Top of Foot Pain’ (ToFP) or Dorsal Interosseus Midfoot Compression Syndrome¹ (DMICS) is a very common problem in forefoot strikers or minimalist runners. Its actually really easy to treat when you understand it, yet so often it becomes an ongoing problem and on barefoot websites you often see it called, “the dreaded ToFP”! The typical […]
Shoe Wedging or Gait Retraining for Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome?
Medial tibial stress syndrome is the more common condition that gets lumped under that way overused, meaningless and stupid term, ‘shin splints‘. There is somewhat of a muddled picture as to exactly what medial tibial stress syndrome really is (ie bone stress injury, periostitis, muscle insertion problem, etc or a combination of some those). There […]
Why do overuse injuries occur?
Overuse injuries only occur for one reason: the cumulative loads in the tissue are higher than what the tissue can tolerate. Its that simple. This means that prevention and treatment of on overuse injury is going to be based on reducing that cumulative load in the tissue and increasing the ability of the tissue to […]
Is minimalism an option to manage plantar fasciitis?
More and more blog posts and articles are claiming that minimalist running is the best thing for the management of plantar fasciitis, most of which are from minimalist or barefoot runners who have no clinical experience actually treating the condition, yet seem to hold very strong clinical opinions (for example see this self-appointed expert). They […]