THE SCIENCE OF SPORT writes
It's been a rather frantic week, and I know there is a series on weight hanging in between Part 3 and Part 4. I'm hoping to get to that next week, when hopefully I'll have a little more time!
But today, I have to comment on this latest study, which I know will become bigger in the coming days - it is a new study that will reignite the barefoot vs. shoe debate, one of the more controversial issues in running.
I am actually planning a whole series on this topic, because I was recently interviewed by a Dutch Running magazine, Run2Day, and I'm going to post that entire interview (with additions) on the site at some point in February.
The study
For now though, the paper is called Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners, and it is published in Nature (Full reference: Lieberman et al., Nature, 463, 531 - 535).
The scientists took five group of runners and had them run both barefoot and in shoes. The groups were: Habitually shod adults in the USA, Recently shod adults in Kenya, Habitually barefoot adults in the USA, Barefoot adolescents in Kenya, and Shod adolescents in Kenya.
Each group ran in shoes and barefoot and they measured foot-strike pattern (whether the runner lands on the heel, midfoot or forefoot) and kinematic and kinetic variables like impact force, loading rate, and joint angles.
READ ON...
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