Biomechanical adaptations to maximalist running shoes

Abstract

Running has always been a popular sport across the world, and consumers of this sport are spoiled for choice when buying shoes. Much has been uncovered for conventional cushion and minimalist footwear, but not for maximalist footwear. This study aims to compare the running kinetics and kinematics between maximalist and conventional cushioning footwear.

Seven healthy male subjects (25.8 ± 2.5 years) recruited for this study were injury-free for the past six months, running 12km per week, habitual shod heel-striker, and never ran in any pair of maximalist shoes before. Each participant completed three trials in randomised order, with a rest period of 15 minutes, on an instrumented treadmill. Kinetics was obtained from the instrumented treadmill and its software. To obtain kinematics, each subject was attached with five reflective markers across bony landmarks of interest (shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, and toe) and a high-speed camera (sagittal plane) recorded five consecutive strides upon attaining test speed of 12kmh-1.

Results were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA, and the analysis found no significant differences between shoe conditions for kinetic and kinematics measurements, except for the angle of foot inclination (p = .012) and ankle (p = .006) during foot strike.

Running in maximalist footwear appears to help reduce dorsiflexion that not only leads to flatter foot placement and greater force dissipation, but also reduces anterior compartment pressures with the decreased activation in tibialis anterior muscle. This type of footwear may serve as a therapeutic alternative for runners with running related conditions at the ankle.

Key words: biomechanics, injury prevention, ground reaction forces, running