BACK TO BEING BAREFOOT: KINEMATIC ADAPTATIONS TO BAREFOOT TRANSITION TRAINING AMONGST HABITUALLY SHOD ENDURANCE RUNNERS

Z. Azeem^1,2, P. Rathod³, T. Palekar⁴

¹Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Kinesiotherapy & Movement Sciences, Pune, India, ²School of Physiotherapy, RK University, Physiotherapy, Rajkot, India, ³School of Physiotherapy, RK University, Rajkot, India, ⁴Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, India

Background: With a concomitant rise in the domains and subdomains of barefoot biomechanics, literature into understanding the effects of transition training for habitually shod runners towards barefoot have been fairly limited. Previous reports have confirmed that habitually shod runners tend to rearfoot strike, whilst habitually barefoot runners generally display a forefoot or midfoot strike pattern. Differences in muscle activity patterns vis a vis have demonstrated forefoot strike pattern to display early and prolonged plantaflexor activity prior to touchdown when compared with rearfoot strikes. Running or training in a conventional shoe against running barefoot, has reported to reduce cadence, lengthen stride and increments in contact time. Acute descriptions of running related changes to barefoot running has shown mechanical changes at the knee and ankle even in highly trained shod runners. Thus, it is advisable to take a guided and cautious approach to transition from shoe based running to barefoot running.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to quantify any observed changes in the joint kinematics when barefoot running was adopted by habitually shod, endurance runners.

Methods: Thirty-two (N=32) professional runners (age: 23± 1.98 years; height: 1.67± 0.67 meters; weight: 57.4± 6.04 Kilograms), selected based on participant eligibility criteria ran on an Tecnobody Walker View 3.0® instrumented treadmill for 5 minutes at self-selected followed by automatic speed adjusted to capture the biomechanical joint angles under barefoot and in-shoe condition.

Results: The results indicated that the experimental Barefoot group showed statistically significant (p<0.01) changes to trunk flexion-extension during the pre-swing phase of running. Similarly, hip flexion-extension ranges were found to be statistically significant (p<0.01) in the habitual shod(in-shoe) group during the pre-swing to terminal swing of running. Hip and knee flexion-extension ranges improved in barefoot group with a statistical difference of p=0.00 following 8 weeks of barefoot training. The mean difference for the change in hip and knee flexion ranges were of a higher magnitude for barefoot group (26.88°) than shod group (13.23°). Similarly, foot pronation-supination ranges improved for barefoot group with p= 0.00.

Conclusions: The major findings of this study reflect upon the effects of barefoot training with a habituation phase to have major changes to power producing joints at hip and knee joints in the barefoot group. No significant differences were found between the two footwear conditions for any other joints.

Implications: Running barefoot was similar to shod running, although barefoot condition was essentially better at adopting the natural running style for certain variables. However, caution is advised to runners seeking to change from shod to running barefoot to allow the body to develop lower vertical loading rates during the transition phase. Future studies should consider replicating the current study in an outdoor setting and record changes to kinetic variables to determine chronic adaptations to running barefoot.

Funding acknowledgements: The study was self- financed.

Keywords:
Running related injuries
Movement control
Injury Prevention

Topics:
Sport & sports injuries
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: School of Physiotherapy, RK University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India

Committee: Ethics Committee, School of Physiotherapy, RK University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India

Ethics number: SPT/IEC/2019/2