Do Running Shoes Cause Running Injuries?
I’ve spent the last several months buried in research papers about running injuries and their causes. (For a story that will appear in the March issue of Runner’s World.) This has not been a happy period. The problem: Almost nothing is known. For example, consider the best medical paper I could find on the subject–“Incidence and determinants of lower extremity running injuries in long distance runners: a systematic review”–which appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2007. The Dutch research team began by identifying more than 1000 journal articles on running injuries. Then they tossed out the ones they found of poor design, poor analysis, and generally bad science. This left them with 17 papers. Get the picture? And what causes running injuries? The Dutch researchers felt confident about only two causes: previous injury, and high weekly mileage. Frankly, I’m growing weary of the studies, they contribute so little. The only thing I truly believe at this point are the w
