Dartblog

Earlier this year, this space sang the praises of barefoot running — actually running on Vibram FiveFingers, a kind of simple running slipper:

The core observation driving barefoot running is that we are not built to slam our heels down on the ground with massive force each time that we take a stride. This gesture — even when softened by fat-heeled running shoes — sends a debilitating shock though our bodies. Fortunately, the elaborate bone and muscle structure of our feet and legs is designed to absorb the impact of running in a flexible, spring-like manner, as long as our feet land in a balanced, weight-on-the-balls-of-the-feet-and-mid-arch fashion — which is virtually impossible in post-1970’s running shoes.

Last week the NYT reviewed the studies concerning the efficacy of modern running shoes, particularly the U.S. military’s efforts to study the beneficial effects, if any, of matching shoes to a runner’s particular foot shape:

… someone [in the military] thought to ask if the practice of assigning running shoes by foot shape actually worked. The approach was entrenched in the sports world and widely accepted. But did it actually reduce injuries? Military researchers checked the scientific literature and found that no studies had been completed that answered that question, so eventually they decided they would have to mount their own. They began fitting thousands of recruits in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps with either the “right” shoes for their feet or stability shoes.

Over the course of three large studies, the most recent of which was published last month in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers found almost no correlation at all between wearing the proper running shoes and avoiding injury. Injury rates were high among all the runners, but they were highest among the soldiers who had received shoes designed specifically for their foot types. If anything, wearing the “right” shoes for their particular foot shape had increased trainees’ chances of being hurt.

Quite astounding, n’est-ce pas? An entire school of thought on how to fit running shoes based on no research at all. Kind of makes you wonder who else is selling us a bill of goods. If that it your thought, good for you. As a thoughtful friend recently wrote: “The older I get, the more I see Potemkin villages.”