Barefoot Running appears to be the new fad. It was made very public when in 1960, Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, won the Olympic marathon in world record time, while running without shoes.

Of late, many runners have taken to the streets, grass tracks, sandy beaches, to name a few surfaces, without shoes.

Is there a benefit to running without shoes?

According to a 2010 study published in the journal Nature, runners who wear shoes tend to strike the ground with the heels of their feet first. This gait, called a heel-strike, generates a force up to three times the body’s weight, which can lead to injuries such as Achilles tendinitis and stress fractures. In contrast, barefoot runners land on the balls of their feet, generating less impact when their foot strikes the ground.

“We’ve oversupported our feet [in running shoes] to the point that our foot doesn’t have to do what it’s designed to do,” explains Irene S. Davis, PhD, PT, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School.

Ditching your shoes means the muscles in your calves and feet will have to work harder to accommodate to a different foot strike and shorter stride; it takes time for new barefoot runners to build up those muscles.

If you have a history of foot problems, check with your doctor before going barefoot. If you decide to ditch your running shoes, there are a few things you should know:

Start slow. You are more likely to suffer injuries if your foot and leg muscles are not properly conditioned for running barefoot. Start with walk-jog intervals, walking for nine minutes, running for one minute, and repeat, working up to longer distances. In addition, the skin on your feet needs to thicken to get used to barefoot running.

Think twice. Many podiatrists feel running barefoot is dangerous. “Most of my patient’s are not world class runners,” says Stephen Pribut, D.P.M., sports podiatrist from Washington, D.C. “ It doesn’t make sense to risk getting stones, twigs, and glass in your feet.”

Know when to say no. Runners who have any loss of feeling in their feet ( neuropathy ), including people who have diabetes, should wear sneakers.

There are available some new-type shoes, such as Vibram Five Fingers TM, that supposed help protect the foot, while giving the advantage of running barefoot.

The theory is still being debated and there is no real data available to make any educated evaluation of whether running barefoot is better than running in shoes. You must use your own judgment and above all be safe. Even Abebe Bilila wore shoes 4 years after his barefoot victory in Rome and still won the Tokyo Olympic Marathon.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 7:16 am and is filed under running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.