Our findings are quite logical when you think about them – we’re at risk for injuries when we also have to support and transfer our full body weight. But they really do fly in the face of what everyone, (including the athletic shoe industry) has always promoted – that foot impact is what causes the really bad things that happen to bones and joints, such as stress fractures and osteoarthritis. To this, I like to say that the only way a cushioned athletic Nike Air Max TN Femme shoe can protect you from injury is if you are in a car accident and happen to have them strapped around your head.What is the effect Nike Internationalist Womens of a traditional running shoe at this critical moment when we’re fully supporting and transferring our body weight and are at risk for nearly every single common running injury, second metatarsal fracture included? The raised cushioned heel and arch support / motion control features that are both inherent to every traditional athletic shoe (not just motion control shoes) essentially freeze out the foot’s natural function in providing compliance that helps protect the rest of the body. Also, the cushioning, which doesn’t really give back in any physiologically meaningful way, just makes it harder to transfer the body weight, which increases peak joint torques at this critical moment.If you are running Nike Air Max 270 Womens barefoot or in minimalist shoes, your foot is going to be freed to provide compliance at this critical moment. We’ve demonstrated that Nike Air Max 720 Femme the foot arch compresses and releases in perfect harmony with the rise and fall of the peak body weight force. Of course, that compliance is good – it protects your body north of the foot from all the major injuries at that time. It also healthfully exercises your plantar fascia and foot intrinsic muscles. Good, good, good! But it does put more stress through the second metatarsal than there ever was before.Again, back to Joe’s theory. The stress is occurring around midstance or perhaps a little after, at the time when the foot, and more specifically the foot arch, is providing maximal compliance and then springing back. Joe depicts in his video cartoon the stress to be associated with quite a www.emilielafarge.fr bit of movement but in fact, there really isn’t that much movement then. It’s really the forces, not so much the movement, that is responsible Nike Roshe Run Femme for the fractures.One reason that it seems to be occurring more often when wearing minimalist shoes compared to running completely barefoot is that folks wearing minimalist shoes take longer strides compared to running completely barefoot. But note, I don’t think it’s the harder heel strike associated with shoes that is directly causing injury. Rather, it’s that the longer stride length causes higher forces at midstance. Again, the physics of bearing all that body weight trumps the modest forces at impact. Also, whatever cushioning there is in a minimalist shoe makes it harder, not easier, to transfer the body weight at midstance. Thus a minimalist shoe that has cushioning but lacks a heel Nike Air Max 270 Hombre or arch support / motion control ends up putting the greatest stress on the second metatarsal because the lack of those two things frees up the Nike Air Max 90 Essential Womens foot while the cushioning simultaneously puts greater demands on it.After all that, my advice probably sounds a lot like what you’ve already heard. You should transition slowly from your current traditional shoes to running barefoot or in minimalist shoes. You need to do this very slowly (as much as I hate the thought of you continuing to place more torque than necessary at your knees with traditional or just moderately minimal shoes), probably over a few months.A bit concerning is that it seems that these fractures can occur months after you’ve made the transition. Also, my daughter’s experience makes me especially concerned about adolescent girls and young women who are at greater risk Nike Air Force 1 Femme for stress fractures in general than the rest of the population… I suspect that running in minimalist shoes, especially on non-compliant surfaces (see below), places them at greater risk than the rest of the population for a second metatarsal fracture.