Finding the perfect pair of running shoes
How do you choose your running shoes?
You walk into a running shoe store. Hundreds of shoe options in all shapes and colours stare back at you off of the wall. What catches your eye? What should catch your eye? What really matters when it comes to performance and injury prevention and what is just marketing? (The running shoe industry in North America is worth somewhere close to 19 billion dollars according to statista.com, and growing each and every year). Every label you read will try to sell you on a shoe's unique combination of support, minimalism, flexibility, rigidness, the characteristics of its space age foam, etc etc.
In a 2015 paper, Nigg and colleagues from the University of Calgary evaluated the evidence and provide a fresh take on what really matters when selecting a shoe. The authors found that shoe comfort was the best predictor of shoe performance, and more important than variables such as foot pronation and impact forces. Different runners have different tastes (some prefer more support, some prefer less!), but when they wear their most comfortable shoe selection, they run faster and with fewer injuries.
In their study, the authors measured the movement of the skeleton using markers on bone pins screwed into the calcaneus, tibia and femur when test subjects ran in different shoe-types.
They found that different subjects moved in different ways, but that each subject's "preferred movement path" (as termed by the authors) of the lower extremity didn't change significantly when wearing different types of shoes. Better shoes simply allowed the skeleton to move easily through this pathway with as little extra work as possible.
The running shoe debate is far from closed, and there are many opinions on the topic. But if we consider the above research, then picking your next pair of shoes could be as simple as grabbing the pair that feels the best and lets you move like you!
Rob Heimbach, MSc.PT, Physiotherapist
Rob is a running addict in Edmonton, Alberta. His preferred distances range between 5 and 42km. He is currently wearing out his third pair of Merrell Bare Access running shoes, loving them for their lightness and flexibility. If you have a nagging running injury, call Pursuit of Motion at (780) 448-4991 or email rob@pursuitofmotion.com today!