Influence of different running shoes on rearfoot pronation

Thorwesten L, Bork H, Greif H,

Abstract in digital collection (conference)

Abstract

Acute and overuse injuries of runners are still a central topic in the field of sports traumatology. The major part of these overuse injuries, for example shin splint or achillodynia, depended on repetitive forced pronation movements during the phase of landing. Especially the interaction of the foot with the surface is regarded to be the main cause for developing injuries. Using different sports footwear it is possible to reduce these negative effects. The normal pronation has a significant importance with regard to the correct function of the foot but the excessive pronation, caused by unfit running shoes considered to be a frequent cause for complaints on one's foot, lower leg and knee. One important parameter is the angle of the Achilles tendon which is measured as the angle between the lower leg and the heel-bone. The purpose of our study was the evaluation of efficiency using different running shoes regarding the pronation angle.27 volunteers (mean age 25, from 15-45 years; weight: 75.0 + 5.5 kg; height: 180.2 +4. 7 cm) were tested 4 times with six different types of running shoes (3 normal running shoes and 3 running shoes which inhibited the pronation) using a high-frequency motion analysing system with a total sampling frequency of 7,5 kHz and a force plate. This total frequency had to be divided by the number of measuring dots - in this case four - this meant that the motion could be registered by means of a frequency of 1875 Hz. Our results revealed that special running shoes could significantly reduce the maximum pronation angle as weil as total angle deviation comparing to "normal' running shoes. For the parameters contact time and pronation angle at impact peak we could not demonstrate significant differences between the tested types of running shoes. We also revealed higher pronation angles running barefoot comparing to those by using running shoes. With regard to the influence of footwear it seems to be necessary to use pronation limiting running shoes, especially for those runners who showed a excessive pronation, preventing overuse injuries in lower extremities.

Details zur Publikation

Book title: Book of Abstracts
Release year: 1997
Language in which the publication is written: English