Minimalist footwear does not affect tiobiofemoral stress loading during the stance phase in rearfoot strikers who use conventional footwear

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to comparatively examine the effects of minimalist and conventional footwear on the loads experienced by the tibiofemoral joint during running. Ten male participants ran at 4.0 m/s (±5%) over a force platform in minimalist and conventional footwear. Kinematics of the lower extremities were collected using an eight camera motion capture system. Peak tibiofemoral force, peak tibiofemoral stress and tibiofemoral force experienced per mile were extracted and compared between footwear using paired t-tests. The results showed that no differences (P>0.05) in peak force (conventional = 40.02±6.45 and minimalist = 38.68±7.79 N/kg), peak stress (conventional = 14.54±1.77 and minimalist = 13.98±2.52 MPa) or force experienced per mile (conventional = 3,358.35±584.83 and minimalist = 3,308.04±636.31 N/kg·mile) were evident between footwear. Therefore this indicates that minimalist footwear may not provide any further protection from running related tibiofemoral pathologies compared to conventional footwear.