Sometimes too much shoe is too much...

Minimalist. Maximalist. Neutral. Sometimes you need to earn your way into a shoe. After all, a shoe is supposed to direct and guide your foot to better (more optimal?) mechanics, not necessarily create more work for it. The literature seems to point to maximalist shoes changing lower extremity kinematics and increasing impact forces. The body needs to have the ability to “attenuate“ these impact forces, otherwise problems could potentially arise.

Take a good look at this gal. She is having a heck of a time trying to control what her mechanics are doing in this maximalist shoe. She demonstrates poor control of the foot, as well as the knee and hip.

By design, the shoe has a thicker outsole and forefoot flare (ie: The front of the shoe is wider at the sole than it is at the interface of the foot with it). This can create accelerated forefoot pronation as you see here with the medial aspect of the foot “slapping“ down on the ground. This creates a large valgus moment at the knee, which is further accentuated by her external tibial torsion, greater on the left. Also notice the pelvic dip on the left on the right foot hits the ground; less so on the right side when the left foot strikes. Looking up the chain and as a whole, you can see that this is poor control and could potentially contribute to at the mechanics at the ankle, knee and hip. Not sure if you can see it but she also has an increase in her lumbar lordosis, diminishing her ability to be able to use her abdominal core to help to stabilize.

If she were to continue to want to utilize the shoe, we would need to work on core strength, hip stability and most likely, forefoot motion (so that she can get her first ray complex to the ground at the first metatarsal phalangeal joint), before she “earns her way” into this shoe.

Dr Ivo Waerlop, one of The Gait Guys

Kulmala JP, Kosonen J, Nurminen J, Avela J.Running in highly cushioned shoes increases leg stiffness and amplifies impact loading. Sci Rep. 2018 Nov 30;8(1):17496. FREE FULL TEXT

Law MHC, Choi EMF, Law SHY, Chan SSC, Wong SMS, Ching ECK, Chan ZYS, Zhang JH, Lam GWK, Lau FOY, Cheung RTH. Effects of footwear midsole thickness on running biomechanics. J Sports Sci. 2019 May;37(9):1004-1010

Chan ZYS, Au IPH, Lau FOY, Ching ECK, Zhang JH, Cheung RTH. Does maximalist footwear lower impact loading during level ground and downhill running? Eur J Sport Sci. 2018 Sep;18(8):1083-1089.

Sinclair J, Richards J, Selfe J, Fau-Goodwin J, Shore H.The Influence of Minimalist and Maximalist Footwear on Patellofemoral Kinetics During Running.J Appl Biomech. 2016 Aug;32(4):359-64. 

Chambon N, Delattre N, Guéguen N, Berton E, Rao G. Is midsole thickness a key parameter for the running pattern? Gait Posture. 2014;40(1):58-63

#runnning #gait #biomechanics #maximalistshoes #midsolethickness #gaitanalysis #thegaitguys