Abstract
Running has been an important aspect of human life for thousands of years. Running continues to be a very popular activity among nearly all non-sedentary, healthy individuals. Modern athletic shoes are designed to reduce impact forces on the foot, and ultimately the body. Shoe manufacturers accomplish this by providing a cushioned shoe midsole to absorb the impact forces (Yu & Kramer, 2021). The contrast of the cushioned shoe compared to the stiffness of barefoot running has great influence on ones running mechanics. The barefoot runner often adopts a forefoot or midfoot striking pattern while decreasing their overall vertical ground reaction force. Even with these adaptations, the barefoot movement of recent past, resulted in an increase in running injury, over the already high rates of injury associated with running. Understanding the differences in the organization of lower extremity running variability from a nonlinear perspective, could provide insight into performance and injury risk (Thompson et al, 2014). PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to determine differences in nonlinear spatiotemporal variability when running barefoot and in footwear METHODS: For our study, twenty individuals (n = 20, Age = 21 ± 1.1 years, Height = 68.2 ± 3.5 in., Weight = 150.25 ± 24.7 lbs.), completed two, three-minute running trials on a treadmill in our biomechanics lab. The trials included running at their self-selected running speed while barefoot and while wearing shoes. A dependent t-test was used to determine the differences in the nonlinear spatiotemporal variability for the footwear conditions. RESULTS: There were significant differences in stride time DFA-α (barefoot (M=8.3, SD=0.19), shod (M=7.1, SD=.21)), stride length sample entropy (bare (M=1.70, SD=0.27), shod (M=1.80, SD=0.3)), and step length sample entropy (bare (M=1.54, SD=0.41), shod (M=1.64, SD=0.41)) between the barefoot and shod conditions. (p < .05). There were no other significant differences. CONCLUSION: Not only does running barefoot alter one’s mechanics, but it also alters the structure of variability while running. Nearly all runners are prone to injury, so further investigation into the structure of variability during running is warranted. Future studies should investigate the influence that maximally cushioned and carbon fiber plated footwear has on the structure of running variability.
Recommended Citation
Narvaez, Vincent; Gonzalez, Miranda; Behrens, Katarina; Coghill, Paige; and Applequist, Bryon C.
(2025)
"Barefoot Running Alters Spatiotemporal Nonlinear Variability Compared to Shod,"
International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2:
Iss.
17, Article 199.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss17/199
