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At 02:08 PM 4/1/98 -0500, Robert Lockard wrote: > > Someone help me out here. My wife and I are going back and forth on > an issue regarding running/jogging. I prefer to run/jog bare foot. > About 5 years ago, I trashed my knees in a skiing accident. Since > then, when I run/jog I go bare foot. If I use shoes, my knees start > to bother me in the first mile. > > My much better half is telling me, I will only make my knees worse if > I continue to do this bare foot. Can I get some independent opinion > on this issue. > There are so many variables here (the nature of your injury, how much you've recovered in terms of strength and flexibility, if you've developed other weaknesses as a result of over-compensating for the original injury, whether you're an over-pronater or have one leg slightly longer than the other, if you're running on a cambered track or the side of slanted roads, the types of shoes you're wearing, how many miles you run per week, how long you've been running, etc) that any suggestions, including mine, have all the validity of answers given on radio call-in doctor shows. But here goes -- and my apologies up front if I'm telling you things you already know. Different running shoes are designed for different things. Some provide stability for over-pronators, some provide cushioning to ease impact, some are lightweight for racing. From your description of having pain with shoes on but none with them off, it might be that you are not an over-pronator but are wearing shoes for an over-pronator that keep you from pronating at all. If so, the shoe could be preventing your foot from moving in a natural, non-injurious way, thus stressing your knee. When you take the shoes off, your feet move naturally and there's no stress. If this is the case, you could try wearing a cushioned shoe that provides little stability. This will allow your feet to move naturally while also decreasing the possibility of impact-injuries over time. As for your question about running barefoot, your better half is wrong on this one. Not long ago, researchers at the Stanford Sports Medicine Clinic conducted a study and found that most running shoes provide so much support that they cause the foot muscles to weaken, making you susceptible to a whole range of injuries up and down the leg. Kenyan runners, for example, train barefoot almost exclusively when they're young and rarely develop the types of leg injuries that we do, despite their tremendous mileage. Their recomendation was to wear shoes that give you only the support you need -- not shoes that give you extra support. They also suggested doing a certain amount of barefoot running. If barefoot running is working for you, you could just stick with it, provided you're running on a forgiving surface like grass or dirt (pavement is 30 times harder than dirt, and concrete 50 times harder) and are not racking up too much milage. Stretching and strengthening exercises for your leg would probably help out as well. Switching to cycling may or may not be the answer. If the problem is in your illiotibial band (pain on the outside of the knee, felt more when you're running downhill), then cycling will probably hurt as well. My advice is to go to a specialty running shoe store with your old shoes, have them analyze your gait and the wear on your old shoes and hopefully they'll come up with a better pair for you. And go barefoot when you feel like it. Shine -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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