There are running shoes. And there barefoot . And then there’s this huge gray area between the two so-called ” minimalist ” shoes that lay people in all sorts of ways . But minimalist shoes actually – as they claim – to produce the same results in your stride to run completely barefoot ? An Australian study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, set out to learn .
The study , conducted at the Australian Institute of Sport from 22 well- trained runners usually bar running shoes. Biomechanics were analyzed under a series of runs at 10 – K pace in four different conditions: normal shoes , a pair of racing flats (cheap nike free run), a minimalist shoes (Nike Free 3.0), and barefoot .
Yes , I know that cheap nike free runs is not what some people would consider a truly minimalist shoe. We’ll get to that in a minute . First results . In short , barefoot running was different from shod running to the ways other studies have shown :
Compared with shod running barefoot showed less dorsiflexed ankle at first contact, a slightly bent knee during middle phase , less joint moments and work on the knee and greater joint moments and work the ankle.
This is what one would expect based on previous studies . It is no surprise . But the real question is how minimalist shoes are made with respect to the two ends . Here are some graphs ( of the 18 that appear in the document ) , the dark solid line is barefoot , dark dotted minimalist, lightweight solid racing levels , and light dashed tactics. First, the knee flexion forces :
And next , ankle inversion :
Not all charts are similar , but the basic pattern is that minimalist shoes look much more like the other cheap nike free run 3 shoe than just barefoot .