There’s an interesting article on the BBC website about how scientists have discovered that Running Shoes may have actually changed the way we run. Well not all of us go running, I would rather swim, far less damage to the knees!

But seriously this opens up a huge can of worms!, can you imagine the amount of money that companies like Nike, Adidas and Puma spend on research to create the perfect running shoe? It is well documented that certain runners prefer to run barefoot, take Zola Budd for example. So do they know something that we don’t?

According to Nature magazine, barefoot runners strike the ground with their fore foot or mid foot whilst runners wearing shoes strike the ground with their cushioned heels. This send shockwaves up the leg that can lead to repetetive stress injury, whereas barefoot runners have developed their own way of running to lesson the pain on impact. I think this research opens up a very big discussion over running shoe design in the future and could lead to some remarkable developments.

When was learning Karate as a kid, we used to run barefoot round the streets in Sale, Cheshire – imagine 25 Karate kids in full outfits plodding along the pavement! I remember well, it was the leader runners  job to inform the rest of the pack of any ‘obstacles’ in the way….it went something like….   ‘Kerb’……………’Glass’…………’Dog Sh*t’……….!

I won’t be running barefoot any time soon 🙂

Have a great week – read the full article here

Nigel