Originally Posted by
nikalas
I'm afraid you're missing the key point Mr Knot. Modern cushioned/supported running shoes allow people to run badly. Without them you're forced develop a natural, more efficient and body friendly running style because you can't heel strike.
I can understand you citing Tim Noakes and The Lore of Running is rightly viewed as a classic but, like many classics, some of the thinking and ideas are out-dated.
Food for thought below:
1) There’s no evidence that running shoes are any help at all in injury prevention: Dr Craig Richards published a research paper in 2008 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that revealed that there have been no evidence based studies that demonstrate that running shoes make you less prone to injury. He went so far as to issue an open challenge to running shoe manufacturers to back-up their claims with peer reviewed data and is still waiting for any replies.
2) The more you pay the more you’re likely to get injured: Dr Bernard Marti of the University of Bern analyzed 4358 runners in the Bern Grand Prix, a 9.6 mile road race. He studied every aspect of their training in the year building up to the race and found that 45% had been injured. The most common variable for the injured runners was the amount they’d spent on their running shoes. Runners in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40.
3) A half inch of rubber isn’t going to do jot: When you run, you can generate up to twelve times your body weight of force. A half inch of rubber, gel pad or air pocket isn’t going to absorb a significant amount of that energy. Also, studies have shown, that impact forces actually increase the more cushioning you have. Our feet instinctively seek stability so, if you put something soft and squishy underneath them, they’ll come down harder.
4) Pronation isn’t bad: Pronation has been demonized but it is just the natural movement of the foot. The foot is supposed to pronate. To see correct pronation in action kick off your shoes and run over a hard surface such as concrete. You’ll find yourself landing on the outside edge of your foot, then gently rolling from little toe over to big. That pronation is a natural shock absorbing twist that allows your arch to compress. The arch of our foot is a wonderful dynamic shock absorber so why cripple it’s natural movement by underpinning it with chocks of rubber? Dangerous over-pronation only occurs when you heel strike (see next point).
5) Heel striking is the problem: Imagine standing on a high bench in your bare feet and jumping off onto a hard surface. How would you land? Certainly not on your heels, yet this is what the majority of modern runners do every time they stride. Modern cushioned shoes allow us to heel strike and that is not how, from a biomechanical perspective, our bodies evolved to run. Heel-toe running was "invented" by Bill Bowerman out of a mis-thought notion that it was a more energy efficient running technique for the masses. He developed shoes to facilitate it and the rest is a painful history.
This is not some "hippy craze" but an awakening to the fact that for 40 years the sports shoe industry have been trying to solve a problem of it's own making and selling an awful lot of shoes in the process. Feet cannot function as nature intended in shoes with inflexible soles and so, by trying to correct the problems caused by wearing these shoes with more cushioning/support etc, you're just chasing shadows.
Barefooting is not the answer as, for most people, it's impractical due to road/trail surfaces but shoes with minimal cushioning and flexible soles etc are.