Running Injuries - The Best Shoes And The Worse - Runners Wearing Top Of The Range Trainers 123 Percent More Likely To Get Injured

Pain Control Products to reduce Ankle Pain and Running Injuries

At Pain Control we stock a number of products to help treat and prevent injuries caused by running. Through our Sports Activities Running section you can take a look at the most common running injuries and navigate directly to the product of your choice. Pain Control experts are also on hand to offer advice and direct you to the correct product.

If you have already had your condition diagnosed you can search your condition online. Our products include Ankle Braces, Ankle Supports and Foot Orthotics

Orthotic Devices a perfect solution

You can purchase Orthotic devices to relieve pain and reduce the chance of injury. It only takes a small change in your foot position to lead to disruption of your whole body posture. This can lead to painful symtoms in the feet, legs and lower back. Foot orthotics are specially designed shoe inserts which help restore the natural position of the foot reducing strain on the joints and muscles and therefore reducing pain.

The Best Shoes and the Worst

PAINFUL TRUTH Number 1

Runners wearing top-of-the-line trainers are 123 per cent more likely to get injured than runners in cheap ones. This was discovered as far back as 1989, according to a study led by Dr Bernard Marti, the leading preventative-medicine specialist at Switzerland's University of Bern.

Dr Marti's research team analysed 4, 358 runners in the Bern Grand Prix, a 9.6-mile road race. All the runners filled out an extensive questionnaire that detailed their training habits and footwear for the previous year; as it turned out, 45 per cent had been hurt during that time. But what surprised Dr Marti was the fact that the most common variable among the casualties wasn't training surface, running speed, weekly mileage or 'competitive training motivation'.

It wasn't even body weight or a history of previous injury. It was the price of the shoe. Runners in shoes that cost more than £60 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than £40.

Follow-up studies found similar results, like the 1991 report in Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise that found that 'wearers of expensive running shoes that are promoted as having additional features that protect (eg, more cushioning, 'pronation correction') are injured significantly more frequently than runners wearing inexpensive shoes.'

What a cruel joke: for double the price, you get double the pain.

PAINFUL TRUTH Number 2

FEET LIKE A GOOD BEATING

Despite pillowy-sounding names such as 'MegaBounce', all that cushioning does nothing to reduce impact. Logically, that should be obvious - the impact on your legs from running can be up to 12 times your weight, so it's preposterous to believe a half-inch of rubber is going to make a difference.

When it comes to sensing the softest caress or tiniest grain of sand, your toes are as finely wired as your lips and fingertips. It's these nerve endings that tell your foot how to react to the changing ground beneath, not a strip of rubber.

To help prove this point, Dr Steven Robbins and Dr Edward Waked of McGill University, Montreal, performed a series of lengthy tests on gymnasts. They found that the thicker the landing mat, the harder the gymnasts landed. Instinctively, the gymnasts were searching for stability. When they sensed a soft surface underfoot, they slapped down hard to ensure balance. Runners do the same thing. When you run in cushioned shoes, your feet are pushing through the soles in search of a hard, stable platform.

'Currently available sports shoes are too soft and thick, and should be redesigned if they are to protect humans performing sports, '

Acute-injury rehabilitation specialist David Smyntek carried out an experiment of his own

Whenever his shoes got thin, he kept on running. When the outside edge started to go, he swapped the right for the left and kept running. Five miles a day, every day.

Once he realised he could run comfortably in broken-down, even wrong-footed shoes, he had his answer. If he wasn't using them the way they were designed, maybe that design wasn't such a big deal after all.

He now only buys cheap trainers.

PAINFUL TRUTH No 3

HUMAN BEINGS ARE DESIGNED TO RUN WITHOUT SHOES

To see pronation in action, kick off your shoes and run down the driveway. On a hard surface, your feet will automatically shift to selfdefence mode: you'll find yourself landing on the outside edge of your foot, then gently rolling from little toe over to big until your foot is flat. That's pronation - a mild, shockabsorbing twist that allows your arch to compress.

Your foot's centrepiece is the arch, the greatest weight-bearing design ever created. The beauty of any arch is the way it gets stronger under stress; the harder you push down, the tighter its parts mesh. Push up from underneath and you weaken the whole structure.

When shoes are doing the work, tendons stiffen and muscles shrivel. Work them out and they'll arc up. The best Kenyan runners have marvellous elasticity in their feet. That comes from never running in shoes until you're 17.'

SO SHOULD WE ALL BE RUNNING BAREFOOT?

There is quite a lot of evidence that suggests running barefoot is both better for you and more effective than running in training shoes. However there are a couple of things you should consider before trying this:

Firstly, our feet become conditioned to wearing shoes when we walk and run: The soles of our feet are sensitive to the pressures from the ground and this is constantly changing when we don't wear shoes; the type of surface that we are walking upon and the often uneven ground stimulate our leg muscles to keep us upright and avoid injury. Wearing shoes for most of the time insulates us from this natural stimulation and it can take some time to return correctly, often a few weeks.

Apart from protecting us from an environment that can hurt our feet, running shoes are often designed to suit either our running style or our individual type of foot. Some feet can struggle to support the arch adequately as we run, and many running shoes are designed to prevent this. On the other hand, extra cushioning may be required to protect vulnerable areas of the feet such as the heels and forefoot.

Overall, running barefoot can be healthy and fun, but be careful to make sure that you that you build up a tolerance slowly; vary the surfaces that you run on, and be careful not to injure yourself before the skin has toughened a little. If in doubt, check with a Podiatrist or alternatively, many running shoe outlets have experienced staff to guide you.

Mr G.Quinn FCPodS MChS FRSA

Podiatric Surgeon & Managing Director

Martin Roche

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com