The right shoes for your feet?
There was an interesting article on the Well blog yesterday about whether or not running shoes should be fitted based on your foot type (low arch, normal arch, high arch).
According to the article, the military began analyzing new recruits’ foot type a few years ago and assigning specific shoes to them to prevent injury. However, studies they did show almost no correlation between wearing the “right” shoes and preventing injury. Injury rates were high among runners, and highest among those who received shoes for their foot type.
In another study, experienced women distance runners were given shoes based on their foot type rather than arch shape (underpronators were given cushiony shoes, overpronators motion-control shoes and so on). They then followed a 13 week half marathon training course, and by the end, a third had missed days due to pain, with the majority of these runners being those who received specific shoes for their foot type (the motion control shoes were the most injurious).
The article concluded that we cannot simply buy shoes based on our arch and foot type. While the shoes often do what they say they will do (motion control shoes help control motion), scientists don’t know if pronoation is the actual problem and they admit that they don’t fully understand the biomechanics of the lower extremities.
So, what do they advise? Try on a lot of shoes, even the salesperson says you need a specific type. And get the shoes that don’t give you any aches or pains.
Well, I definitely believe the part that not much is known about the lower extremities! But I only say that because my sports medicine doctor could not come up with a reason for my stress fractures. Just “it’s you.” (What?!)
And I do think that some sales people seem to be really pushy about getting people to buy a certain kind of shoe (motion-control, neutral, etc). One salesperson kept pushing the Brooks Beast on Steven (a super heavy shoe) so Steven tried them but immediately had knee pain that he never had before.
The truth is, I don’t know what to think about shoes anymore. I have been looking for excuses for my injuries and my gaze has tended to head down. But really, I think runners get injuries for a lot more reasons that their shoes, so I am not sure if these studies actually mean anything at all!
Tell me about your running shoe experience! Do you think the “right” shoes can prevent injury? Or do you think injury-prevention depends on the runner’s entire approach to running? Do you swear by a certain “type” of shoe?
I would be really interested to hear from my friends who sell running shoes. I bet they have a lot of experience and advice to share!