Running Shoes Enable Bad Form And Cause Overuse Injuries

Endurance running is more popular than ever, but injury rates among regular runners are absolutely shocking and embarrassing. The Yale Medicine newsletter revealed that 50% of runners are injured annually. Wake Forest Biomechanics Laboratory says 79% of runners sustain an overuse injury every year. The American College of Sports Medicine reports that 25% of all runners are sidelined at a given time. Twenty-five percent! These stats are worse than the injury rates for NFL players (31 percent injured annually; four percent at a given time.) Since no one is getting tackled out on the roads and trails, we have a huge problem. 

Research suggests that the main reason for the epidemic rates of running injuries are elevated, cushioned shoes enabling poorly-adapted recreational runners to run long distances with bad form. Running shoes destroy your proprioception (the awareness of your body moving in space and interacting with the ground–in the case of running shoes) so you can’t tell how crappy your form is. Running shoes allow you to continue with your weekly mileage until your body cracks at its weakest link. The four most common running overuse injuries are: iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, and chondromalacia (runner’s knee.)

Contrary to decades of marketing hype, no research has ever demonstrated that running shoes prevent injuries, lessen impact trauma, or control pronation. A prominent 2012 study from leading barefoot researcher Dr. Daniel Lieberman (exercise physiology professor at Harvard University, and author of Exercised and The Story Of The Human Body) revealed that running in elevated, cushioned shoes generates seven times more impact trauma versus running barefoot. This is because shoes enable an inefficient, jarring  heel-strike technique, something exhibited by an estimated 80-95% of recreational runners. Lieberman’s research reveals that heel-strikers are injured twice as often as natural midfoot runners. 

What about minimalist shoes, didn’t they get blamed for causing injuries due to lack of protection? Indeed, if you switch abruptly to minimalist shoes without sufficient adaptation, you will certainly increase injury risk because your feet have atrophied in shoes for decades. The path to resilience against injuries is to gradually and safely transition to a more barefoot and minimalist shoe-oriented lifestyle. You can still perform specialized sport activities in your preferred shoes, but strive to spend more time barefoot around the house (and other safe areas), walking and doing everyday activities in Peluvas, and gradually integrating more complex fitness activities in Peluvas, or more minimalist styles of your favorite sport shoes. Our free eBook (download at Peluva.com home page), The Definitive Guide to a Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Lifestyle, provides a step-by-step protocol to make a safe and graceful transition for novice, intermediate and advanced barefoot aspirants.