STARTING GUN
RUNNING BAREFOOT REDUCES INJURY
SCIENTISTS have confirmed that running barefoot for as little as 12 weeks results in significant changes to footstrike pattern which should lead to fewer injuries.
However, it stressed that runners need first to be correctly instructed in this minimalist form of running.
Scientists at the universities of Granada and Jaen put 31 endurance runners with no experience of barefoot running on a 12-week programme intended to carefully introduce barefoot running. Tests at low and high self-selected speeds were carried out before and after this programme and changes in footstrike patterns, inversion-eversion and foot rotation were noted on a treadmill, reported the Journal of Sport and Health Science(JSHS).