A master thesis from Aalborg University
Do different running shoes affect the joint moments on hip, knee, and ankle?
Author(s)
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2024
Submitted on
2024-05-30
Pages
18 pages
Abstract
Running is a popular activity known for its mental and psychological benefits, but it also carries a high risk of injury, particularly to the lower limbs. While previous studies have identified several factors contributing to this risk, including running shoes, fewer have investigated how different types of shoes affect internal loading. Most studies have focused on ground reaction forces despite not being a good predictor of the load experienced during running. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how wearing five different types of running shoes, ranging from minimalist to carbon models, affects joint moments around hip, knee, and ankle. 28 participants attended the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment system once, wearing five different running shoes in a randomized order for each 4.5-minute measurement, running at 2.78 m/s (10 km/h). Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using motion capture cameras from Vicon Nexus and force plates integrated in the treadmill. A linear mixed model was performed to investigate the relationship between the five different running shoes and peak joint moments. The results showed significant differences when comparing each of the shoes with each other. Specifically, minimalist shoes resulted in higher peak ankle moments, while maximalist shoes resulted in lower peak hip moments. The findings suggest that shoe design influences peak joint moment, showing the importance of selecting appropriate footwear for injury prevention and performance optimization in runners. Further research is needed to investigate how the running shoes affect the loads on tissue level. Moreover, whether there are gender differences in response to different shoe designs needs to be investigated.
Keywords
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