Joint Ventures' Blog

If you watch the news, read any major periodical, or are a runner, you have undoubtedly heard a lot lately about Barefoot Running.

The theory behind Barefoot Running is that most people who run in traditional running sneakers tend to strike the ground first with their heel, creating a large impact force.  Running barefoot this is very uncomfortable, but in a running sneaker, it is much more tolerable.  This force also happens to slow your forward momentum.  Barefoot runners tend to strike the ground first with the forefoot or the midfoot, which creates a much smaller or nonexistent force on impact.  In theory, it is more efficient to run with a midfoot or forefoot strike.  The structure of a running sneaker does the work of the intrinsic foot muscles, which would normally stabilize and support the foot (and therefore the whole body), when it hits the ground.  So, these intrinsic muscles are used much more when running barefoot than in a sneaker or when using an orthotic in a shoe.

Being a runner myself, I have thought about this.  As a Physical Therapist, I have thought about it a lot more. I have treated myself and many other patients for injuries like plantar fasciitis and posterior tibialis tendonitis for years.  After several years of on and off foot problems, I was finally fitted for custom orthotics.  I have not had a recurrence of any of my previous injuries since I started wearing these orthotics.  They correct the mechanics of my foot, which is very flexible and had lost most of its functional arch.  Ideally, the ligaments and muscles in my foot would be able to control the foot well enough to prevent things like plantar fasciitis and tendonitis from occurring, but mine are not.

I also know that in order to strengthen a muscle, you need to challenge it and make it work to a certain percentage of its maximum.  In order for a muscle to increase strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is used to. To increase endurance, muscles must work for a longer period of time than they are used to. So, if we are always wearing orthotics that hold our feet in the correct position, how are the muscles ever going to get strong enough to hold them?  They cannot.

Most of the runners I know do not do enough strength training for the primary muscle groups involved in running, let alone the small, intrinsic muscles of the feet.  I think we can all benefit from more strength training… for all muscle groups!

It is not easy to change your running style.  The trick is to introduce strengthening in an appropriate fashion, and increase the amount of barefoot or minimally shod running that you do in the same manner that you would increase shod running (i.e. the “10 percent rule”).  You would not walk off the street and enter a “World’s Strongest Man” competition, nor should you just kick off your shoes and run your next 5k barefoot.

Barefoot running is not necessarily something every runner will tolerate.  For me personally, I don’t know that I will ever be able to run barefoot or in minimal shoes.  I do know that my body will be more stable if it lands on a foot with better strength in its intrinsic muscles, so I have started incorporating some barefoot exercise into my training program (but not running – yet!).

The researchers at the Harvard University Skeletal Biology Lab are doing some really interesting work comparing foot strike position, but one of the most important things to remember is that there has not been any research done as to whether barefoot running or changing the foot strike position from heel strike to forefoot or midfoot strike position will result in fewer injuries.  Their website contains a lot of research and some really great explanations of the biomechanics of this theory.  It is fairly complex and more detailed than I would go into in this posting.  I would love to talk to anyone with questions or comments regarding this fascinating topic.