Running barefoot blunts foot’s force
Going shoeless tempers impact, but effect on injuries uncertain
The clothes don’t make the man, but wearing no shoes might make the runner. A study of people who habitually run barefoot shows that these runners’ feet strike the ground in a way that tempers impact forces and smoothes the running movement, a study appearing online January 27 in Nature finds.
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Although the results suggest that barefoot running might have benefits, it’s too early to say whether this running style is less likely to cause injuries, the researchers say.
The new study is “really elegant and well done,” comments Daniel Schmitt, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University. The finding is a “clear, good example” of the mechanics of different running gaits, he says.