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News
15.02.12 · Barfoot vs. Running Shoe
A currently published review from the Harvard University (Cambridge MA, USA) tells us the recent knowledge about barefoot running and what we can learn from that about running itself
Liebermann, 2012.
Our bodies have adapted to a shoeless walking and running for millions of years. The time period since humans are wearing shoes, by contrast, maybe began only about 45,000 years ago and athletes ran barefoot almost until the 1970s when modern running shoes were invented. However, even though our body seems to be well adapted to running barefoot, it remains unclear if it is better for us to abandon our valued running shoes.
One of the widely held hypotheses is that most of the running-associated injuries come from a poor running form and that the more natural movement patterns of running barefoot would be able to avoid most of those injuries. That is, experienced barefoot runners “get more proprioceptive feedback, often shorten their strides and increase their stride frequency, avoid rearfoot strikes and impact peaks on hard surfaces, keep joint moments low, and have strong feet, maybe ancient adaptations for avoiding injury.” A very interesting aspect! However, the review tells us that until know, there is no clear evidence to support or reject the hypothesis that barefoot running reduces the risk of injuries. Nevertheless, those kinds of ideas are already used to advertise so called “barefoot shoes”.
Until now we know surprisingly little about something basic like barefoot running and a lot of research-work that remains to be done on this topic within the next years. However, it is concluded that there is nothing inherently dangerous about running barefoot and the author encourages everyone to run barefoot on a hard and smooth surface for about 500 meters.
