“SUPER-SHOES” IN DISTANCE RUNNING: IS THERE A POSSIBLE DOWNSIDE IN TRAINED WOMEN?

Although “super-shoes” provide a metabolic advantage, anecdotal suggest that consistent wear may contribute to development of knee and hip overuse injuries. The purpose of this study was to compare these injury-related running biomechanics variables between “super-shoes” and traditional training shoes in female distance runners. 18 competitive female runners ran for 5min on a treadmill at 3.6 m/s in “super-shoes” (SUPER) and control shoes (CON) while 3D kinematic and ground reaction force data were collected. Peak knee abduction moment and peak hip internal rotation and abduction moment were larger in SUPER compared to CON but no other biomechanical variables were different between shoes. Findings from this study suggest that “super-shoes” may increase knee loading compared to traditional shoes in female distance runners.