Since Northern Runner first started in 1998, there have been significant changes to running shoes. The most significant transformation in recent times has been the emergence of new running companies, such as ON, Altra, and Scott, which have revolutionized the construction and function of running shoes. These companies are putting a considerable emphasis on promoting a more efficient running style, with key aspects including encouraging good posture, allowing for natural movement of the feet and toes, and using stabilizing muscles to improve form.
Space to Move
Your body’s primary shock absorber is your foot, which provides stability and propulsion. To ensure the effectiveness of this natural process, it is important that your shoes have sufficient space and are not excessively soft. This is essential because when your foot makes contact with the ground, it should react in a natural and instinctive manner, dispersing the shock and stabilizing your body.
When your foot expands, it elongates your planta fascia, which acts as a sizeable rubber band on the underside of your foot, enabling it to spring back up from the ground. Your running shoes must accommodate your foot’s warm and slightly expanded state during longer runs for it to function properly.
Due to wearing shoes that are too narrow and small, many people’s feet have experienced compression, which has caused their bones to stick together and function improperly. Your feet should be able to move and flex like your fingers while maintaining gaps between your toes, and when you stand on one foot, your foot should widen. You can regain this movement and enhance your foot strength by using them to pick up objects, such as starting with a golf ball and gradually progressing to a tea towel. This activity can be performed while watching TV without difficulty!
Recruiting More Muscles
On is a running shoe brand from Switzerland that has recently won awards. The brand is easily distinguishable by the trademarked CloudTecTM design, which features protruding lugs on the bottom of the shoe. These lugs provide cushioning and a spring in the runner’s step, as well as greater sensory feedback because they move independently like the bones in your feet. This feedback can help reduce impact and improve the runner’s posture over time.
On shoes are designed with a low drop, meaning that they don’t have a thick heel that forces you to land on it. Instead, the low heel promotes a mid-foot strike, allowing your foot to work efficiently. You don’t need to change your running style when wearing On shoes, as your body will naturally adjust to the footwear’s feedback over time, improving your running abilities. On offers a variety of shoes suited for various terrains and support needs, just like any other running brand.
Zero DropTM Great Results
Altra shoes have a Zero Drop design that positions the heel and forefoot at equal distances from the ground. This feature promotes mid-foot landing, leading to better alignment and posture. If you are not accustomed to running with Zero Drop shoes, which differ from the bulky heel appearance of conventional running shoes, it is recommended to gradually transition by alternating between the two types of shoes and starting with brief runs.
Altra offers multiple cushioning levels and Zero Drop does not equate to discomfort. The Altra Paradigm or Altra Olympus, which offer more cushioning, are the easiest to adapt to. These shoes provide ample cushioning without being excessively soft, allowing your foot to remain aware when it hits the ground and function appropriately. For approximately 4 years, Northern Runner has sold Altra and has witnessed runners transition from overpronation supportive shoes to Altra’s with a noticeable improvement in their running. These changes occur gradually over time rather than instantaneously.
The Foot Shaped Toe Box found in Altra running shoes is a unique feature. It is wider and rounder than most toe boxes, and is designed to promote natural foot movement by allowing your toes to spread out, splay, absorb shock, and push you forward.
Encouragement by Design
A running shoe has been developed by Scott which enhances your posture, irrespective of the part of your foot that hits the ground first. The shoe’s outsole has a slight curve and the cushioning is reactive rather than soft and spongy, providing comfort without sinkage when hitting the ground. Instead, the shoe propels your foot backwards, resulting in the runner focusing on lifting their foot up and maintaining an upright posture while running. The postural improvement is immediately noticeable when customers try on the shoes in the back of the store.
A lot of clients claim that the shoes are lighter, though they actually aren’t. This sensation of lightness arises due to the fact that the jogger doesn’t sink into a spongy midsole, which impedes their forward movement and requires them to exert more effort to push off (experiencing the sensation of running on foam can help to understand this). Shoes with softer cushioning frequently result in runners hunching forward, struggling to move themselves along, rather than gliding over the ground like elite athletes.
If you are a regular runner, it’s advisable to switch between your shoes. This allows your feet to experience a slight variation, which helps avoid overuse injuries. It’s recommended to purchase two pairs of shoes at different times so that you can detect when one of them has been utilized too much and requires replacement. This approach is much more effective than waiting until you experience discomfort and pain.
Running shoes designed with a minimalist approach.
Consider using minimalist shoes if you are not injured and want to improve your performance.
Most runners eventually consider transitioning to minimalist shoes. As physical therapists in Washington, DC, where there is a large running community, we frequently encounter this dilemma. Initially, making the decision can appear overwhelming. You may have always been content with standard running shoes, but you may have also heard of the benefits of minimalist shoes.
The aim of this article is to offer reliable guidance for your shoe purchasing decision from the perspective of physical therapy.
Negative aspects of conventional running shoes
In the past, shoe manufacturers and experts in the field of biomechanics would assess a shoe’s ability to provide cushioning by gauging the impact force on a weight dropped from a predetermined height onto the shoe’s heel. As a result, running shoes were constructed with thick soles to safeguard the feet and provide cushioning. However, it is now understood that these thick soles can have a detrimental effect on several athletes.
Shoes with thick soles result in a greater impact on the joints, require more energy to move one’s feet, lead to weakening of the foot muscles and collapse of the arch, raise the occurrence of injuries, and may contribute to knee issues.
- Joint impact: Excessive shoe cushioning is deceptive because it makes us think we are reducing joint impact, but it is merely reducing the sensation of the impact. Excessive shoe cushioning can be hugely detrimental to our joints and tissues because it allows us to be sloppy with our footfalls or foot placement, and it allows us to slap our feet down with tremendous force without any perceived consequences. When we fail to place our feet just right, our weight is distributed poorly and our heels, toes, and arches are not able to properly absorb impact and distribute body weight. This can have negative implications for our feet, ankles, knees, back, and so on, all the way up the kinetic chain. When we are barefoot or wearing only thin-soled, flexible footwear, our feet and bodies can feel the ground and provide biofeedback on our lower extremities. As a result, minimalist shoes or bare feet footfalls tend to be gentler and more mindful, seeking out the smoothest path over which to move forward, and is healthier for our joints and tissues.
- Increased effort: cushioned soles actually force us to do more work with each footfall. The greater the cushioning or sponginess in a shoe, the less efficiently force is transferred between the foot and the ground. Energy that would otherwise go into pushing off is dispersed throughout the shoe’s padding and wasted, similar to running in sand. With bare feet or minimalist footwear, a maximum amount of propulsive energy is transferred between the foot and the ground during the toe-off phase of gait, and considerably less energy is wasted with each step or stride.
- Foot muscle atrophy and arch collapse: Although conventional athletic shoe have springy cushioning, the thickness of the soles results in greater sole rigidity, which can have detrimental effects on foot muscle strength and arch integrity. Wearing thickly-cushioned, rigid-soled footwear immobilizes your feet and allows them to slowly deteriorate and atrophy. Immobilized feet lose muscle tone and their ability to generate force, reducing foot function and putting more pressure on other muscles to make up the difference, which can lead to a breakdown of the kinetic chain. Although doing high-impact activities in shoes with no or only minimal cushioning can, in some cases, feel uncomfortable, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it encourages a reassessment of how we’re performing an activity. Minimalist shoes promote healthy movement while maintaining muscle tone.
- Increase injury frequency: By reducing the ability of foot muscles to exert force through the foot strike and inhibiting biofeedback to alert a runner to improper running form, conventional shoes result in greater pressure on the entire kinetic chain. This can cause injuries to knees, hips and even your back and neck. The greater the frequency of bad form used in running, the greater the frequency of injury.
- Increasing knee injury: Runners using conventional shoe cushioning, or excessive cushioning in some brands of shoes, are more likely to adopt a heavy impact running style that puts a great deal of pressure on the knees. Without distribution of forces through the foot, the knee is the next part of the kinetic chain that must absorb the forces being exerted. In contrast, barefoot runners or runners using a minimal shoe tend to adopt a gentler, impact-mitigating midfoot strike that allows the arches and ankles to contribute better to shock absorption. With more joints handling the shock, the forces get more evenly distributed between the lower extremity joints.
What is a minimalist shoe and is it right for me?
When deciding whether to use minimalist shoes, you should ask yourself three questions: Am I satisfied with my running as it is? Have I sustained an injury? Do I desire to enhance my performance?
- Am I happy with my current running? If you hare happy with your current run performance and do not want to change anything, do not change to conventional shoes just to do it.
- Am I injured? If you are injured this is not a great time to change to a completely new shoe. Work with your Rose physical therapist here in Washington, DC to determine if minimalist shoes can help with your injury recovery, or hinder it.
- Do I want to improve run performance? By properly distributing the force of foot strike and allowing for direct muscle power to push from the ground, minimalist shoes can enhance running performance.
Minimalist shoes are types of footwear that allow for natural foot movements by featuring a spacious toe box, low heel to toe drop, minimal weight and stack height, flexibility, and an absence of stability and motion control devices. Additionally, minimalist shoes encourage a natural toe splay.
