I recently enrolled in Colin Turner’s excellent twelve week running course here in Boston. Colin, a former college track and cross country star at College of Wooster, brings an infectious, positive attitude to his teaching. Our cohort of students are learning about everything from exercise physiology to running gear, and study technique of elite marathoners such as Eliud Kipchoge. Colin has us take videos of ourselves running, so we can analyze our form, and he has an emphasis on staying healthy and avoiding running injuries.
This is not a part of Colin’s course, but one thing I’ve always been interested in is barefoot running. (Of course winter in Boston is not a good time to try it). But it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective – because 20,000 years ago, when we were hunter gatherers, chasing down wild game, certainly we weren’t wearing Nikes.
Therefore, I took a brief look at a 2019 scientific paper by Karsten Hollander et al from Germany which investigates barefoot running. The reason for conducting such a study is that whether running barefoot is beneficial for running performance and injury risk has is quite controversial. No clear evidence has been provided yet to answer this question.
Previous studies showed that changing acutely from wearing shoes to barefoot running induces several changes to running biomechanics. These adaptations include changing from a rearfoot to more anterior foot strike pattern (midfoot or forefoot strike) as well as reduced foot and ankle dorsiflexion at ground contact.
In this study, the German researchers reported that a habituation to barefoot running led to increased vertical average loading rates. Their finding was quite unexpected and questions the generalizability of acute adaptations to long-term barefoot running. The bottom line is more research is needed regarding barefoot running versus wearing shoes, and the debate remains wide open.
I like the idea of occasional barefoot running in the summer when the ground is warm, provided you can find a path to jog on with no glass or other sharp objects that can hurt to feet. Running or walking barefoot really connects you to nature.
What do you think? Have you ever jogged barefoot outside? Please leave a comment below.
Philip A. Lederer 
American Journal of Sports Medicine?
Yes
Self-care is the key to achieving lifelong health in body, mind, and spirit. Try to make self-care a purpose that you attend to each and every day
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On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 4:36 AM Health and Healing wrote:
> Philip Lederer MD posted: ” I recently enrolled in Colin Turner’s > excellent twelve week running course here in Boston. Colin, a former > college track and cross country star at College of Wooster, brings an > infectious, positive attitude to his teaching. Our cohort of students are > lea” >
know the ground below you