Life is an ultramarathon

A few days ago, Mommas brought to my attention an article questioning the use of cushioned running shoes on BBC News. This was actually a summary of some research carried out at Harvard. The original article by Lieberman et al., entitled "Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners", is now published in the prestigious scientific magazine Nature. The authors recorded the ground reaction force of different groups of people, essentially some habitually shod, some never shod, and others habitually shod but running barefoot (eg. Vibram Five Finger users). The experiment confirmed that rear-foot strike, commonly adopted by modern shod runners, is only made bearable by the highly cushion shoe heels dissipating most of the ground force reaction impact. Barefoot runners will prefer mid- of fore-foot strikes, using their arches and ankles (through their calves) to avoid a hard landing, and potentially restoring the reaction force energy later through a spring-like effect.

Although most conclusions are already known to people showing interest in barefoot running, it is nice to see that a very high-profile rigorously scientific article eventually points out that:

The incidence of [repetitive stress] injuries has remained considerable for 30 years despite technological advancements that provide more cushioning and motion control in shoes designed for heel-toe running.

Ultra Nature.