Kinematics and muscle activity when running in partial minimalist, traditional, and maximalist shoes

Abstract

Ultra-cushioning (ULTRA) shoes are relatively new to the running shoe market. While several studies have evaluated joint kinematics and kinetics when running in ULTRA shoes, to date it remains unknown how such shoes influence joint coordination. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate lower extremity coordination and coordination variability when running in minimalist (MIN), traditional (NEUT) and ULTRA shoes. Fifteen recreational runners ran for ten minutes in each shoe type. Lower extremity coordination patterns and coordination variability were assessed for rearfoot-tibia, rearfoot-knee, and tibia-knee couplings using a modified vector coding method during early, mid, and late stance periods. During late stance the ULTRA shoes results in more antiphase coordination than the MIN (p = .036) or NEUT (p = .047) shoes and less in-phase coordination than the MIN (p = .048) or NEUT (p = .013) shoes.During late stance there was also more proximal phase rearfoot-knee coordination in the ULTRA shoes than in either the MIN (p = .039) or the NEUT (p = .005) shoes and less in-phase coordination in the ULTRA shoes than in the NEUT shoes (p = .006). There were no differences in coordination variability between shoes during any phase. The differences in coordination may have implications for tissue loading and injury development when running in ULTRA shoes.

Influence of Shoe Mass on Performance and Running Economy in Trained Runners

“…In relation to the neuromuscular variables, we found no significant changes in the neuromuscular variables between shoe mass conditions, similar to the results of Divert et al (2008). The differences in leg stiffness are primarily due to reduced contact time (Morin et al, 2007) produced by increased ground impact forces (Pollard et al, 2018) and muscle activity (Becker and Borgia, 2020). A possible explanation for the lack of changes in Kleg and Kvert could be that there were no contact time differences between shoe conditions (p = 0.642; η 2 = 0.004).…”

“…Regarding the kinematic results of our study, these data are in line with previous research. Minimalist shoes (Fuller et al, 2016) and heavier shoes (Becker and Borgia, 2020) have small acute effects on stride length and frequency compared to conventional shoes. In our study, we found non-significant stride length changes associated to the added mass (p = 0.097; η 2 = 0.016).…”

Effects of the weight of shoes on calf muscle simulation

“…Similarly, another study found that in the time of peak activity of the lateral gastrocnemius, running with heavy shoes significantly delayed the gait cycle by approximately 4% [ 23 ]. However, J Becker, BJJoE Borgia and Kinesiology [ 24 ] found no difference in lateral gastrocnemius muscle activation during the whole gait cycle. In this study, differences were found in the braking phase, which may indicate that different shoe weights can change muscle activation during the braking phase.…”

Systematic reduction of leg muscle activity throughout a standard assessment of running footwear

“…Whether and how the neuromuscular system modifies the activity of leg muscles in response to different running (footwear) conditions has been the focus of many investigations. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 In such standard footwear assessment protocols, runners are asked to test a range of different and randomly presented running shoes in separate bouts of constant-speed running. While the majority of investigators have applied the same experimental technique to investigate muscle activation patterns, i.e., surface electromyography (EMG), the experimental designs have varied greatly between studies.…”

“…Furthermore, most experimental protocols try to avoid fatigue by avoiding prolonged running; instead, they examine muscle activation patterns during separate running bouts for each condition of interest, with intermittent rest periods between them. 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 15 Therefore, it is necessary to characterize how leg muscle activity adapts to a standard protocol intended for the comparison of different running (footwear) conditions and to determine whether or when a steady state can be reached.…”