According to a study over in the United Kingdom, the vast majority of people know they should be taking more steps to ensure that their feet are in a proper fitting shoe, even though they aren’t taking some simple steps. Let’s dive into that study and see why it’s so easy to overlook the importance of a well-fitting shoe.

Shoe Fit Study

The study, which involved 2,000 UK adults, asked for information about a participants’ shoe choices and foot health habits. Here’s what they found:

• 74 percent of adults said they hadn’t measured their feet since childhood, despite knowing that proper footwear is essential for comfort and health.
• 65 percent of people admitting to wearing the wrong sized shoe, often due to convenience of lack of awareness about their actual size.
• 17 percent admitted that their shoes were too narrow.

Despite these acknowledgements, researchers found that 96 percent of surveyed adults agreed that wearing the right size shoe is essential. So the majority of respondents know that they need to take good care of their feet, but most aren’t doing the little things like checking their foot size to ensure a proper fit when choosing new shoes.

We’ve talked about the impact that poor shoe choice can have on a person’s foot many times on the blog in the past. Some of the most common issues that overly tight or ill-fitting shoes can have include:

• Bunions
• Ingrown toenails
• Plantar fasciitis
• Hammertoes
• Claw toes
• Corns
• Calluses
• Heel pain

If you’ve been dealing with any of these issues, or if you’re like the survey respondents and haven’t measured your feet in years, it may be time to commit to making better choices for your foot health going forward. You’re on your feet for hours every single day, you owe it to them to put your feet in a comfortable and supportive pair of shoes. We can help you overcome any of the foot and ankle conditions we listed above, but we’d much prefer that you prevent these issues from forming in the first place!

For more information, reach out to Dr. Silverman by filling out this contact form.

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Understanding Shoe Drop Height

Shoe height drop is an important metric to consider when purchasing a running shoe, but what exactly is shoe height drop? Shoe drop is calculated by looking at the difference in height from the heel of the shoe to the toe box. Shoes that have overly large, puffy or padded heels have a significant drop when measuring the height of the heel compared to the height of the toe box.

Although exact category measurements can vary, here’s a look at what is generally considered low, medium and high shoe drop:

Low – 0-4 millimeters

Medium – 5-8 millimeters

High – 9 millimeters and up

A recent running study took a closer look at a number of different factors and found that among other things, runners with a higher shoe drop and those using heavier shoes tended to have higher injury rates compared to those with lower shoe drop and a lighter shoe. Researchers believed that these clunkier, heavier shoes with higher drops led to decreased foot proprioception. Proprioception is our brain’s ability to recognize our body positioning in relation to the space around it. If your proprioception is being negatively affected by your shoes, it stands to reason that your injury risk may be slightly elevated.

Now, that’s not to say that you should always look for the flattest running shoe on the market. There are reasons why a person may benefit from a low, medium or even a high shoe drop, so individual considerations are warranted when choosing a running shoe. For example, a shoe with a lower foot drop tends to be preferred by runners with a forefoot strike running pattern. A shoe with a medium drop can be a solid option for most average runners, especially those with a heel-strike running pattern or those transitioning away from a shoe with a high drop. Shoes with a high drop can be protective for patients with Achilles tendon issues or underlying calf issues, so consider talking with a foot specialist or a professional shoe fitter if you believe this type of shoe may be right for you.

So the next time you’re picking out running shoes, pay a little more attention to the drop in height from the heel to the toe, and consider avoiding an overly cushioned heel or heavier shoe that could affect your proprioception. For more tips on protecting your feet from injuries when running, check out some of the other blogs we’ve penned on the subject!

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The study published in Scientific Reports wanted to get a better understanding of why running injury rates haven’t dropped over the decades despite insistence from shoe marketing campaigns that the newest models offer our feet the best protection money can buy. What they uncovered was eventually classified as the shoe cushioning paradox.

The Shoe Cushioning Paradox

For their study, researchers measured the impact loading and the spring-like mechanics of driving forward while running in two different sets of shoes. The first was a normal running shoe, while the second was a highly cushioned maximalist running shoe. Researchers tested the shoes at two different running speeds, at 10 km/h and 14.5 km/h. Here’s what they found:

• At the faster speed, individuals in the maximalist shoes had a 10.7% higher impact force and 12.3% greater spring-like running force than individuals in the normal running shoes.

• At the slower speed, individuals in the maximalist shoes had a 6.4% higher impact force than runners in the normal running shoe.

This led researchers to define what they call the shoe cushioning paradox. Although the highly cushioned shoes are designed to protect your feet from repetitive forceful blows, the cushioning actually works to bounce and spring a person back off the ground, leading to a higher push off force and a higher landing force with each step. Researchers believe that the extra cushioning also leads to poorer running mechanics and stiffer legs during landing, since we don’t need to get our bodies in a position to help soften the force, because the padding is doing the work for us. This leads to higher repetitive impact rates and in turn, greater long term injury risk.

Researchers concluded that runners shouldn’t automatically assume the most padded shoe options will best protect their feet, and instead, they should look for a shoe that best suits their particular running style.

“The observed running mechanics adjustments in the present study resolve the shoe cushioning paradox and also point towards importance of speed-specific optimization of the shoe properties in order to improve running injury prevention,” researchers wrote.

If you need help understanding what type of running shoe would be best for your feet, or you want to have Dr. Silverman examine a foot issue you’re dealing with, reach out to his office today.

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For their study, researchers recruited 810 school children from 22 primary and secondary schools from either Northern Germany or Western South Africa. Researchers believed that being habitually barefoot or habitually shod affected foot and gait biomechanics, but they wanted to learn more about the specific changes. Each child was put through a set of tests to measure certain movements and abilities, and at the end of the study, researchers found:

• Wearing or not wearing shoes regularly impacts things like gait biomechanics, balance and jumping ability.

• The habitually barefoot students showed better jumping and balance skills compared to the children that regularly wear shoes.

• Children who regularly wore shoes had better sprint speeds, although researchers are quick to question the strength of that finding because of the track locations. The shod children ran on an indoor track, while the barefoot kids ran on a dirt road, and regardless of footwear, you can expect a person to run better on the track compared to the dirt.

Putting The Results To Use

Now that we know that motor skills can be improved if kids regularly go barefoot, what can we do with the results? Obviously we can’t just send our kids out the door for the day without shoes, but there are ways that we can incorporate barefoot activities into their daily routine. According to Professor Astrid Zech, who led the study, parents and physical education teachers should take note of the study.

“Physical education classes, exercise and sport programs, and reactional activities that aim to improve basic motor skills could benefit from including barefoot activities. Parents could also encourage regular barefoot time at home.”

When it comes down to it, it might be a good idea to let your children go barefoot in appropriate settings, like in a grass backyard or while they are roaming around the house. Doing so can help them work different muscles groups and inherently improve things like balance and coordination. Shoes obviously provide a layer of protection from certain elements, but they may be hurting us in other ways, so make barefoot time a priority. After all, we didn’t come into this world with shoes – our feet are up for the task of thriving without them.

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We’ve talked about minimalist shoes on the blog before, but we’ve never really looked at the opposite side of the spectrum. Where minimalist shoes are designed with minimum cushioning to help runners transition to a forefoot running technique, and to keep a person lighter on their feet, maximalist shoes are designed to protect a runner from injury by giving them loads of extra padding. But that too can lead to injury, said Dr. Irene Davis, who decided to look at the science behind the footwear.

“Cushioning lulls you into thinking you can slam your foot down,” said Davis.

Davis added that minimalist shoes underwent a similar type of misinformation and scrutiny when they first became popular. David said people were eager to try the new shoes, but they weren’t used to the new shoes, and they tried to transition too quickly, which led to injuries.

“It’s really put a bad spin on the minimalist shoe movement,” Dr Davis said.

Maximalist Shoe Study

For their study, Davis and co-author Matthew Ruder, MS, decided to see how much pressure runners would exert depending on what type of running shoe they were wearing. Investigators rounded up 14 male runners who ran at least 10 miles per week and asked them to run on a treadmill at a set pace. Runners alternated between traditional running shoes and maximalist shoes, and they were allowed to run on the treadmill for three minutes before tracking began so they could get acclimated to the footwear.

When tracking began, researchers documented numerous forces, including vertical impact peak, vertical loading rate, peak lateral force, peak medial force and a few other measurements. When comparing the two types of shoes, researchers uncovered:

• Vertical impact loading was significantly greater with maximalist shoes compared to traditional running shoes.

• Vertical instantaneous loading rate was slightly higher compared to traditional running shoes.

• Peak lateral force was slightly lower compared to traditional running shoes.

So while the maximalist shoes may offer runners more cushioning, runners are unknowingly hitting the ground with more force, which is problematic on its own, but it could cause even more problems when someone decides to switch to a less-padded footwear. That said, maximalist shoes did lessen peak lateral force, and they may certainly help some individuals. Like most topics on this blog, our advice to someone interested in maximalist shoes would be to make the transition slowly and see how your body reacts to the new footwear. A slow and gradual change can help you make the transition and stay injury free, but listen to your body. If it’s not working, or you feel pain, don’t try to force it. Stick with what works.

Related source: Medpage Today

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