Effects of a seven-week minimalist footwear transition programme on footstrike modality,
pressure variables and loading rates
Isabel Sarah Moore
*
, William Pitt, Michael Nunns and Sharon Dixon
University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Q1
(
Received 15 October 2013; revised 25 September 2014; accepted 27 September 2014
)
Purpose: The aim was to compare footstrike modality and kinetics pre and post a seven week minimalist footwear transition
programme.
Methods: Ten recreational athletes (mass: 78.6 (8.7) kg, height: 179.4 (7.6) cm, age: 21.0 (0.7) years) performed
overground running trials (3.8 m
¢
s
¡
1
) whilst barefoot (BFT), minimal shod (MS) and shod (SH) both pre and post the
programme. Ground reaction force and pressure data were simultaneously recorded for all footwear conditions. Footstrike
modality was determined via visual inspection of the pressure distribution. Peak impact force, loading rate and peak
regional pressures and impulses were compared pre and post, and between footwear conditions. The transition programme
comprised of a two-week foot strengthening period followed by a five-week running transition.
Results: Post transition there was a general trend for runners to adopt a more anterior footstrike in all three conditions.
Additionally, loading rates and several peak pressures and impulses were found to decrease after the transition programme,
with region specific changes evident for the effect of footwear. Furthermore, loading rates were higher whilst BFT and MS
(instantaneous loading rates pre transition of 446.0 and 379.3 BW
¢
s
¡
1
, respectively) compared to SH (105.8 BW
¢
s
¡
1
).
Conclusion: Whilst a seven-week MS transition programme was shown to decrease several kinetic variables, it was
evident that both BFT and MS led to greater loading rates and peak pressures than SH running.
Keywords:
barefoot running; gait analysis; shod running; gait modifications; biomechanics
1. Introduction
The recent interest in barefoot (BFT) and minimalist shod
(MS) running has led many researchers to consider
whether it brings biomechanical and physiological bene-
fits. Equivocal results have been reported regarding the
physiological effects of minimalist running, with the
majority of research investigating acute footwear manipu-
lations, using either runners with BFT/MS experience
(Franz, Wierzbinski, & Kram,
2012
; Perl, Daoud, &
Lieberman,
2012
; Squadrone & Gallozzi,
2009
) or habitu-
ally shod runners with no previous BFT experience
(Burkett, Kohrt, & Buchbinder,
1985
; Hanson, Berg,
Deka, Meendering, & Ryan
2011
). The biomechanical
gait modifications to such acute manipulations tend to
focus on kinematic and/or kinetic adjustments. Typically
when compared to shod (SH) running, BFT and/or MS
running has been associated with reduced impact attenua-
tion if a rearfoot strike pattern is maintained, which has
manifested in greater loading rates of force (De Wit, De
Clercq, & Aerts,
2000
; Paquette, Zhang, & Baumgartner,
2013
; Sinclair, Greenhalgh, Brooks, Edmundson, &
Hobbs,
2013
), higher impact accelerations (McNair &
Marshall
1994
; Sinclair et al.,
2013
) and earlier impact
peaks (De Wit et al.,
2000
). There is also evidence of run-
ners adopting a midfoot or forefoot strike when running in
BFT or MS, which has been associated with a flatter foot
and greater ankle plantarflexion upon initial ground con-
tact (De Wit et al.,
2000
) and greater knee flexion at
touchdown and during stance (De Wit & De Clercq
2000
;
De Wit et al.,
2000
). Additionally, stride length and
ground contact time are shortened when running BFT
(Franz et al.,
2012
; Squadrone & Gallozzi,
2009
). There is
evidence that long-term habituation to BFT running leads
to some individuals adopting a forefoot strike pattern
(Lieberman et al.,
2010
). However, considering footstrike
modality to only be a function of
footwear is over-simplistic,
as recent evidence argues that the strike pattern adopted is
dependent upon factors such as surface stiffness, running
speed and stride length (Gruber, Freedman Silvernail,
Brueggemann, Rohr, & Hamill,
2013
; Hatala, Dingwall,
Wunderlich, & Richmond,
2013
; Moore, Jones, & Dixon,
2014
).
Approximately 75% of SH runners are rearfoot strik-
ers (Hasegawa, Yamauchi, & Kraemer,
2007
), which
some researchers argue is a result of the raised heel lift
present in traditional trainers compared with barefoot
*Corresponding author. Email:
imoore@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Ó
2014 Taylor & Francis
Footwear Science
, 2014
Vol. 0, No. 0, 1
!
13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19424280.2014.971352
