Barefoot Running Essay

In today’s world running, walking and just normal day activities are done with each individual wearing shoes, sandals or some type of foot protection. Now a good portion of individuals would not think about just going barefoot because people would think it hurts our feet or is just not seen as the norm to American living but what people don’t know is that barefoot running is healthier than normal shoe running. Like we talked about in class a good amount of runners that wear shoes, they tend to strike the ground first at their heels, and this will result in a bigger peak force. With this happening the force never seems to bother runners because of the cushion in the shoe which absorbs most of the force. On the other side though it doesn’t seem to be a very efficient or effective way of running. According to the notes and our book “By landing on the heel, the forward momentum of the run is almost stopped and must be regained with each step, making running economy or the efficiency of the run lower. Those that run without shoes tend to land more fore or mid foot as they plant their foot because landing that hard on

They looked at 35 individuals who they selected themselves and each person performed a set time on a treadmill. When they looked at barefoot verse shod running their answers showed “higher pre activation of calf muscles, lower flight time, slightly lower peak force and also higher braking and pushing impulses”. After they have seen this the study concluded that barefoot running tends to lead to reduced impact peak in order to lower the relatively higher mechanical stress that is occurring during repetitive steps. So in a sense the so called “neural-mechanical” adaptation could in the long run enhance storage and restitution of energy in the ankle and surrounding muscles, and