Super Shoe Influence on Running Injuries

By now, most runners are familiar with the carbon plated super shoes that entered the running scene circa 2016. What’s so special about them to the point that pro runners won’t run without them and recreational runners are ready to open their wallets to spend $300 on a pair? Well, they work. Why? Because of that special carbon plate that creates a rigid and high energy returning material that helps you run faster.

Since running shoe developers took carbon and put it in a shoe, there’s no doubt that they’ve made a profound impact. It’s in the statistics. For both women and men’s road running, nearly every world record has been broken since the introduction to super shoes in racing. According to USATF, there was a staggering increase in olympic trial qualifying times between 2016 to 2020 when super shoes became available to the masses. Not to mention those Boston Qualifying times which keep getting faster and faster.

Simultaneously, running physical therapists like ourselves have seen an uptick in certain injuries around the use of these running shoes by casual marathoners and elite runners alike. So let’s talk about some of the actual pros and cons of these shoes.

Advantages of Running in Super Shoes

Increased Running Economy (RE)

A key factor in running performance. It’s how efficiently a runner can utilize oxygen (and produce energy) at a specific pace. So, if a runner has on a pair of super shoes that provide a little pop to their stride, it reduces the metabolic demand of muscle and spares energy. Less energy expenditure at a given pace = improved running economy. Suddenly, running at the same pace feels easier.

Improved Recovery Time

Super shoes may also positively influence recovery demands. If the shoes load off of your muscles during a workout, your body may also be able to recover faster- thus increasing your body’s ability to tolerate increased loads during training and get back to running sooner.

Simulated Speed

If carbon shoes improve RE and a runner is able to train at faster paces more regularly in their training block, they have the benefit of exposing their cardiovascular system to higher intensity and musculoskeletal system to faster leg turnover for associated improvement in fitness and performance.

Now before you go drop $300 on a pair of these, let’s talk about potential negative impact of these shoes.

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Risks of Running in Super Shoes

Muscles Become Lazy

Carbon plated shoes serve as a rigid external support system to our feet. If we train regularly with this support, our internal systems may get comfortable relying on that support and become lazy. SO while on one hand, training in them can expose the legs to faster leg turnover and speed for performance improvements. It also means our primary propulsive muscles don’t have to work as hard.

Instability & Imbalances Become Magnified

Magnified affect of landing imbalanced in super shoes

That powerful energy return a super shoe provides to propel you forward can also present some trouble. It’s Newton’s 3rd Law: every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. When you strike the ground straight on it propels you harder and cleanly straight forward and you run faster. When you strike the ground at an oblique angle (such as landing with increased inversion), those powerful carbon plates will buck you back at that angle. The result? Imbalances and asymmetry that already pose injury risks are amplified by the powerful rebound force the shoe provides.

The high stack height of carbon shoes can further feed into this phenomenon. More foam creates a less stable landing surface by extending the lever arm of your leg. Imagine how unstable it would be to run in those big block shoes a la the Spice Girls. Laws have been set to cap stack height at 40mm for legal use in competition- but 40mm is still high! Now you’re adding possible increased and imbalanced forces to a shoe with a very long lever arm. Hi ankle instability!

It’s why lower leg pain injuries like ankle sprains, posterior tib tendonitis, peroneal tendonitis, achilles, shin splints and tibial bone stress injuries are common in runners with these shoes. Ultimately it’s a question of if the soft tissues and bone can handle all oblique that load without failure?

Altered Gait Pattern

Super shoes also affect running cadence and ground contact time (GCT). Think of a spring, when it’s loaded it takes time for the coil to absorb the compression before it recoils. This explains the increase in GCT and also results in a lower cadence. Most people don’t end up with running injuries while they’re leg is in the swing phase. Injuries occur in the time when the foot is impacting and on the ground. If you’re spending more time on the ground, that means there’s more time for imbalances to occur.

Increased Injury Risk

By now, it’s already clear how these shoes can increase injury risk. They haven’t been around long enough in the running world to have a vast amount of true research on them. However, early studies have started to indicate there may be a higher risk/rate of bone stress injuries in runners wearing super shoes. Again, back to Newtons 3rd law - even with perfectly balanced running gait there is more impact up through the skeleton with each foot strike. We’re predominantly seeing these bone stress injuries in the foot though. This is because there are more stresses stored and released in the midsole of the foot verses the tendons with a carbon plated shoe. Dr. Adam Tenforde highlighted 5 cases of navicular bone stress injuries (BSIs) sustained in athletes who use carbon plated shoes in their training regimen.

SO, Should You Run in Super Shoes?

If you’re looking to BQ in your next marathon or PR in your next 10K…then probably, YES. There is no denying the performance benefit of these shoes. They work. You’d be crazy to have these competitive running goals and toe the start line of your next race without them. If you’re a casual runner looking just enjoying the sport for mental or physical fitness, this trendy shoe probably isn’t worth the risk for you.

Supporting Healthy Running in Your Super Shoes

The point of this blog is not to scare you away from these shoes. In fact, our staff of running physical therapist’s all race in them. The goal is to raise awareness around how to support healthy running in them and some of the risks associated. Instead of avoiding these shoes or buying better shoes, consider putting a better body in your shoes first. Running is a high impact, highly repetitive form of exercise. One of the best things runners can do to prevent injury is to make sure their bodies are strong enough to meet the demands of the sport.

Better strength, stability and alignment will give you more durability in these shoes and more running longevity in general. We encourage all runners to take a look under the hood with a detailed running gait analysis and movement assessment that identifies their unique imbalances.

At The Run Rx, we combine our expertise with hard measurements in our gait analysis in the hopes of helping all Boston runners to run healthy and perform at their best. Our performance physical therapy and personal training for runners leverages all this important information to create a customized strength program specific to you and your specific needs as a runner.

If you’re ready to see how we can help you, reach out today!