Barefoot running – some critical considerations

The purpose of this paper is to discuss critically selected aspects of the current discussion on barefoot running, specifically differences between barefoot and shod running in kinematics and kinetics, training effects, performance and economy and injury frequency. The kinematics and kinetics depend on many different factors, including surface, shoe, running speed and subject. In general, hard surfaces are associated with a flatter foot landing. However, the inter-individual differences are substantial and it is not appropriate to associate barefoot running with toe landing and shod running with heel landing. The training effects for the small muscles crossing the ankle joint are small during running and substantially higher for movements such as side shuffling, independent of footwear. The additional mass added to the foot by the shoe seems not to have a negative effect on performance until at a ‘threshold mass’ of about 200 to 250 g. The additional work due to the damping of vibrations of soft tissue compartments seems not to depend primarily on the footwear but rather on the individual comfort of the runner. To the knowledge of the authors, there is no conclusive evidence that barefoot running has more, equal or less injuries than shod running. From a biomechanical point of view, injuries are a result of overloading of a given structure. The internal active forces in the lower extremities are about 500% higher than the internal impact forces. Consequently, these impact forces may not be the major reason for potential running injuries.