I’ve been part of an interesting email thread over the past few days. I’m not going to discuss any specifics, but the gist of the discussion has revolved around the question of whether shoes can cause running injuries.The refrain lately in the running community has been that “form Nike Air Max TN Womens trumps footwear” when it comes to running injuries. That is, if you run with “good” form, you can manage to run in just about any pair of shoes. This sounds good and makes intuitive sense, but I think it’s a vast Nike Air Max 2017 Womens simplification of reality. The other common refrain is “running injures runners,” not their shoes. There is truth in this statement as well, but once again it’s an oversimplification.So what is it that injures runners. My position is that it is the forces experienced during ground contact that cause running injuries. These forces include passive impact forces Nike Air Max Vision Womens that occur at the moment of foot contact, and perhaps even more importantly, the active forces that the body experiences during the remainder of stance phase. If you don’t run, you don’t experience these forces, and thus you won’t suffer a typical running injury. I’m not going to argue at all with that – so yes, running does cause running injuries, but for a runner, not running is rarely a desirable option.These are factors that have been found in epidemiological studies Nike Air Max Axis Damen comparing large groups of people. What do all four of these things have in common? Yes, they all involve running, but presumably the people who did not get injured in these studies were also runners. Why is it that these four factors in particular increase injury risk among runners? The answer is quite simple – they all either increase the amount of force applied to the body, or involve a poorer ability to manage the forces that are applied. Higher mileage and Adidas Ultra Boost Damen greater speed = more force and more wear and tear. New runners = tissues are less adapted to the force that is applied. History of injury = tissues are weakened and less capable of handling force application.So how does this apply to shoes? When we run a lot offorce is applied to the body. With every step we impact the ground with a force equivalent
to approximately 2 to 3 Adidas Falcon Womens times body weight. To manage the applied forces during stance, our joints compress, our muscles stretch and contract, and our tendons and ligaments tug and rub on surrounding tissues. The average runner takes about 80 to 95 running steps per minute with each foot. Extrapolate that over a thirty-minute run and you are dealing with 2400 to 2850 contacts per foot, per half-hour. That’s a lot of stress to the body!Now, some runners have no problem handling this amount of force application. They have good structure, good mechanics, good strength, stability and balance. They can run mile after mile without getting seriously hurt because their body works optimally to Nike Air Vapormax Femme handle the forces applied. Other people have poor strength, stability, balance, etc. They might have imbalances in structure or muscle strength for Nike Air Max 90 Womens example. They might have poor running mechanics. They might have an anatomical abnormality that makes it harder to manage particular types of force applied in particular ways. But here’s the key point – all of these things are force modifiers. They alter how much force is Nike Air Max Vision Womens applied at what time during stance, and they influence where specifically forces are applied at the level of tissues. For example, someone with a weak gluteus medius on one side may have a hip instability that causes them to manage forces at the knee in a non-optimal way. This can lead to injury such as ITBS or patellofemoral pain syndrome.