Not Just a Man's World

Almost as soon as I wrote about barefoot health in January a new study was published in Nature (Lieberman et al 2010) looking into barefoot running which resulted in lots of noise on the primal/paleo scene where lovers of “the natural way” abound.

In essence, the study compared habitually barefoot runners (those who, by running frequently barefoot, have adapted their running style to suit their barefootedness) to those running with shoes to analyse both the footstrike and the impact forces.  It is worth noting that the study was funded by the American School of Prehistoric Research and Vibram (makers of Vibram Five-fingers).

Here are some of the articles that people wrote which together provide a good summary of both the study and the issues:

• Conditioning Research was first off the blocks (no pun intended) with a simple summary of the study and a few useful links to other people’s views on barefoot running.
• Medical News Today published an article summarising the study and including some comments from Lieberman.
• The Outside Blog picked up on the point about feet developing extra calluses to deal with different surfaces.
• For an in-depth analysis of the study by a fellow scientist, I recommend reading the article published on The Science of Sport blog.
• Here’s Mark Sisson’s analysis of the study in which he takes an objective view even though it is proving something that he is passionate about.

Finally, here’s a video made by Lieberman explaining the background behind the study.

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: barefoot health
2. Blog-watch: Vitamin D – Sept 2011 update
3. Blog-watch: how should we run?
4. Barefoot shoes