Barefoot Running: Between Fashion and Real Way to Prevent Joint Osteo Lesions?

Background And Objectives: Running has gone from a vital necessity for the man to a playful sport. Different rheumatic and orthopedic pathologies have appeared, in front of which the shoe industry has reacted by creating reinforced shoes that are supposed to overcome the induced lesions. Several years later, the trend toward reinforcement has gone toward minimalism, which is the absence of reinforcement, that is, a more natural race.

Method: We observed variations of kinetics and kinematics in young, unprofessional, healthy runners during a shoe race and a shoeless race, which is the form of maximum minimalism. We then correlated minimalism variations with the variables of the race and the joint angles.

Results: We observed significant difference ( < 0.01) in the cycle rate, the cycle length, the step rate, and the angle of attack between running with and without shoes. A small variation of the minimalism index is associated with an increase in knee angle ( > 0.5). Conversely, a large variation in the minimalism index is related to a decrease in the knee angle ( > 0.5). The minimalism index has no impact on the angulation of the ankle and hip ( < 0.3).

Conclusion: Slow transition will bring gains in terms of decreasing the length of the stride, which limits the load on the shin. Greater flexibility can be achieved by decreasing the flexion angle of the knee, which decreases the demand for quadriceps muscles and the risk of knee injury with a greater risk of injury at the tibial level.