Running shoes and under/overpronation

Interesting article on today's New York Times:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...vent-injuries/

"across the board, motion-control shoes were the most injurious for the runners. Many overpronators, who, in theory, should have benefited from motion-control shoes, complained of pain and missed training days after wearing them, as did a number of the runners with normal feet and every single underpronating runner assigned to the motion-control shoes"

I suffered the consequences of being recommended a motion control shoe once --- 3 runs with those shoes followed by 1.5 years of plantar fasciitis. Never again!

I was at a seminar where the dude was talking about this study before it was published. Very cool stuff!

We were all gasping in shock. It was awesome!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pll

I suffered the consequences of being recommended a motion control shoe once --- 3 runs with those shoes followed by 1.5 years of plantar fasciitis. Never again!

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I'm still dealing with plantar fasciitis that I developed after being put in motion control shoes at a local running specialty store. Actually, they did this twice.

A few months after buying the initial pair of shoes from them, I started developing shin splints and heel tightness, so I went back in and explained what was going on. (They were the "experts" after all, right?) So, they put me in a shoe with even more motion control. And that's when my already problematic knees went to hell, I strained a hip, and the plantar fasciitis came on full force and I was barely able to walk most mornings. Needless to say, I stopped trying to run.

Five months later, I read Born To Run and decided to give neutral shoes a try. They worked. I can run now (still very, very slowly), and only have the very occasional PF flare-up (and it's never as painful as it was before...just some tightness and a little twinge-y pain) which isn't necessarily connected to the days I run.

My S.O., on the other hand, has to have some pretty hefty motion control shoes or he can't run at all. Before he started using them, he had chronic shin pain and even stress fractures. But no issues in the 4+ years since.

The upshot is that your body has a preferred softness or rigidity of the lower limb. Controlling the limb stiffness is how the body controls excess motion at the center of mass (how much your torso bounces around as you run).

If you put on shoes that make the limb behave as though it is too stiff, the body will try to soften the limb even more to counteract it. If you put on shoes that make the limb behave as though it were too soft, your body goes into overdrive trying to make the limb more rigid. Both compensations waste energy and stress tissues.

Posture matters much less than sense of effort and comfort in motion. If you put on a pair of shoes that make you feel like you are flying, those shoes are working with your "zone of optimal limb stiffness" to make you more efficient than the pair of shoes that feel like wobbling and wading in marshmallow or the pair of shoes that feel like stomping in hiking boots.

Buy shoes that make you feel like you're flying.
Buy OTC insoles that feel as good to your feet as your best bike saddle does to your butt.

I am so glad to see this thread! I am suffering from some major knee pain and can barely walk.

A few weeks ago, I decided to begin a "Couch to 5k" running program. I went to the New Balance store and was told I needed Motion Control shoes, and they sold me a pair of NB 1123's.

On my last run (almost two weeks ago now) my knees began to hurt. I tried to push through it, but after about ten minutes the pain became pretty intense and I had to walk the rest of the way home.

Since then, the pain simply will not go away. I have to take two ibuprofen just to be able to move around. I even have to take ibuprofen at night 'cause it hurts just when I'm lying in bed. Needless to say, running is simply impossible. Before I saw this thread, my gut feeling was that it was the shoes that had caused the pain, and now I feel certain they're the culprit.

Yep, I learned this 7 years ago when I was given custom orthotics in a heavily structured shoe and everything just got worse. I too gave up running (for cycling, yay!) until I read Born to Run last fall.

I'm now running again, injury/pain free and my milage and speed is increasing steadily. I run either barefoot or in a pair of 'BarefootTechnology' shoes.

And I would also like to add that I have virtually flat feet and I over-pronate. My podiatrist said 'so what? That's how your particular foot works, don't fight it'. Smart man.