‘Am I pronating enough?’ ‘Am I pronating too much?!’ ‘Is that why I’m getting injured?’ Are questions runners have recently asked me when talking about their feet.
Studies seem to be saying a big resounding NO! pronation is not associated with an increase injury risk.
In fact some studies actually have concluded 7-10 degrees of pronation may be an advantage! SO don’t go thinking you need to aim for neutral!
Why do people have a view that pronation is bad and increases injury risk?!
Well the most likely explanation is down to marketing from shoe companies labelling pronation as harmful and providing a solution which is normally a very expensive shoe aiming to correct something that was never an issue!
Shoe companies may claim that their products help reduce injury risk but to date there is no evidence that supports this.
Sales>science.
Comfort has now been found to be a factor in determining injury risk.
If you had gone out and bought a new pair of shoes based on the fact you thought it was going to ‘correct’ an issue you had with your foot and persevered with using it. You are more than likely doing more harm to yourself!
In a study- 106 participants were told to pick the most comfortable shoe insert.
There were 6 to pick from and 5 were seen as the most preferred (picked at roughly the same frequency)
After being left to train for 4 months against a control group, the test group ended up having 53% less lower extremity injuries!
So there you go, don’t worry about finding the perfect angle or worrying about correcting your foot. Just go out and pick what shoe feels most comfortable for you!!
To have a look at the journals in this post go to:
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/20/1290.full
Br J Sports Med 2015;49:1290-1294 doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-095054