Hi everyone it's a Bretta Rches from
RunForefoot.com and today I'm going
to be talking to you about how a runner
particularly runners who wear running
shoes that have a very, high stacked
cushioned heel, how these runners are at a
greater risk of getting an Achilles
tendon injury. Now if you do a lot of
your walking and a lot of your running
in running shoes with a very high heel-
to-toe offset, so basically your
running shoe positions your foot where
your foots on an angle because the shoe
would have a very thickly cushioned under
heel and the problem with this is that
if you look at how the foot is
positioned your Achilles tendon actually
loses length in a way it becomes
progressively shorter this is why a lot
of East Africans who spend most of their
years running barefoot a lot of these
runners actually have a longer Achilles
tendon what happens when you run
barefoot or you walk and run in
minimalist shoes the Achilles tendon has
the ability to maintain a very natural
length versus if you were to walk and
run and very high thick cushion running
shoes as you can begin to realize that
this over time allows for a little bit
of a shorter Achilles tendon the problem
with having a shorter Achilles tendon is
that there is essentially less room for
elastic energy to be stirred within the
Achilles tendon what you really want is
you want a longer Achilles tendon not by
doing stretches but by avoiding wearing
running shoes that essentially look like
a woman's high-heeled running shoe and
studies have also found that this
increases pension fort on the Achilles
tendon if you run and walk in a running
shoe that has a very high heel so
there's a study which I will link below
by wearing at Al and the researchers
found that healed running shoes increase
tensile loads on the Achilles tendon or
by high temp fell loes is very heavily
linked to Achilles tendon injuries
basically the definition of a tensile
load when it's pertaining to the
Achilles tendon is that tensile load is
a shear stretching forth on
Achilles tendon that may actually pull
or tear the fibers within the Achilles
tendons now when you run with a heel
strike in cyclic assured running shoes
when the foot swings out when the foots
that's up to heel strike this tugs on
the Achilles tendon this is how the
Achilles tendon rapidly stretches and
this rapid stretching of the Achilles
tendons may also increase tensile load
forces on the tendon as well and this is
why he'll strike running is a major risk
factor so there's an ultrasonic device
that a lot of researchers use to see
exactly the physical or elastic changes
that's going on in the Achilles tendon
during running and walking in what this
ultrasonic device measures is acoustic
velocity so basically like I just said
changes in the 10th I'll loading and the
10th I'll length or for the Achilles
tendon this is what this ultrasonic
device measures and this will tell you
what forces are exerted on the Achilles
tendon and if these forces are a risk
factor for Achilles tendon tearing or
rupture the study compared barefoot
conditions Bertha's shod conditions and
the shoe with use in the study were
thick high-heeled running shoes and what
was examined is how these two conditions
exerted forces on the Achilles tendon
what early studies have found with using
this ultrasonic device was that high
acoustic velocity measured within the
Achilles tendon during running or
walking was correlated with tension
forces exerted on the Achilles tendon
therefore the higher the acoustic
velocity during running and walking the
greater the tensile forces that is
exerted on the Achilles tendon and
therefore the greater the fragility the
Achilles tendon becomes I'm surprisingly
the researchers found that peak acoustic
velocity within the Achilles tendon was
significantly higher in the people who
wore healed running shoes as compared to
those who walked barefoot and one of the
reasons why there is greater Achilles
tendon tensile force in the high-heeled
shoe condition was due to the fact that
walking or running in these types of
footwear so very high heeled cushion
Footwear resulted in several basic
changes
in gate so basically how the legs and
feet move as compared to the barefoot
conditions basically walking in a healed
running shoe cause unnatural movement in
positions of the foot ankle complex
which place more attention or tensile
forces on the Achilles tendon the
significance of this data is that very
obvious that cushion yield running shoes
offers inadequate therapeutic benefits
for those suffering from Achilles tendon
injuries and that the foot is better off
being in a more natural state where the
Achilles tendon can adjust naturally
rather than being forced into extreme
position that causes it to be shorter
this is why upping your barefoot
activity or avoiding wearing very high
yield running shoes will halt the
progression of any kind of Achilles
tendon injury so if you're struggling
with Achilles tendon injury you should
avoid wearing high-heeled running shoes
for obvious reasons and instead adopt a
more barefoot lifestyle or make sure
you're always running and wearing middle
of shoes and a much smaller heel to toe
differential so you want to make sure
that the heel in the toe area is almost
level or better yet as level as possible
so you what you want to do is you want
to aim for zero dropped minimalist shoe
and this will allow natural lengthening
of the Achilles tendon and a more
natural function of the Achilles tendon
for more information about four foot
running versus the dangers up he'll
stick running please turn over to my
blog run for free com where you will
also find information on barefoot
running as well and don't forget to
subscribe to my youtube channel to stay
updated on the latest research on
running biomechanics have fun out there
on the roads bye for now