A Comparison of Shod and Barefoot Running between Male and Female Recreational Runners

Abstract

Background: Distance running has been greatly researched and has been listed as a sport where overuse injuries occur often, with females being predisposed to injury, research has been completed to find avenues to decrease injury potential. Barefoot running has been suggested as a method to decrease the chance of injury occurring. However, barefoot running has not received the vast research shod running has, especially when comparing gender. Aim: The study aimed to explore the Kinetic difference performed by male and female when changing conditions from shod to barefoot. Method: Fourteen participants were used for this study, eight male and six female (Height: 1.76 ± 0.07 (m) and mass: 67.35 ± 9.26 (kg)). Participants wore their chosen footwear for shod trials with barefoot trials being completed afterwards. Kinetic measures were then recorded using a force plate kistler and analysed using CODAmotion software. Results: Results illustrated a significant decrease (p<0.05) for impact peak from shod to barefoot for female athletes of 0.28±0.08. Loading rates of impact peak significantly decreased for both male and female by 65.48±41.7 and 57.15±30.5. Conclusion: Findings of this study conclude that barefoot conditions lower VGRFs experienced for both male and female athletes with females experiencing a significantly lower impact load, suggesting injury potential is lowered. This suggestion does need future research to examine long term effects of barefoot training.