Here’s what might be happening to your feet when you run in shoes

(credit: Pauleon Tan)

For decades, avid runners and casual joggers have had their ups and downs with the running shoe. Some argue that the shoes’ spongy soles help us bound comfortably across our unforgiving urban landscapes covered in concrete and asphalt. Others, however, think the shoes simply run off with our body’s natural spring-like steps. During the last 40 years, skeptics are quick to point out that the rate of running injuries hasn’t stumbled.

Now, with a new study on the mechanics of running, researchers suggest that running shoes actually do a little of both—cushioning and altering our innate bounce. It just doesn't happen the way we may have expected.

To track down the impact of running shoes, researchers at the University of Queensland outfitted 16 healthy volunteers with intramuscular electrodes that recorded the muscle activity in their feet. Then they had those wired volunteers run—both barefoot and shod—on a treadmill rigged with force sensors. The researchers paid particular attention to the muscles in their longitudinal arches (LA), which have a natural spring-like action, bending as the foot lands and recoiling on the lift.

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