Effects of a seven-week minimalist footwear transition programme on footstrike modality, pressure variables and loading rates

Purpose: The aim was to compare footstrike modality and kinetics pre and post a seven week minimalist footwear transition programme.

Methods: Ten recreational athletes (mass: 78.6 (8.7) kg, height: 179.4 (7.6) cm, age: 21.0 (0.7) years) performed overground running trials (3.8 m·s⁻¹) whilst barefoot (BFT), minimal shod (MS) and shod (SH) both pre and post the programme. Ground reaction force and pressure data were simultaneously recorded for all footwear conditions. Footstrike modality was determined via visual inspection of the pressure distribution. Peak impact force, loading rate and peak regional pressures and impulses were compared pre and post, and between footwear conditions. The transition programme comprised of a two-week foot strengthening period followed by a five-week running transition.

Results: Post transition there was a general trend for runners to adopt a more anterior footstrike in all three conditions. Additionally, loading rates and several peak pressures and impulses were found to decrease after the transition programme, with region specific changes evident for the effect of footwear. Furthermore, loading rates were higher whilst BFT and MS (instantaneous loading rates pre transition of 446.0 and 379.3 BW·s⁻¹, respectively) compared to SH (105.8 BW·s⁻¹).

Conclusion: Whilst a seven-week MS transition programme was shown to decrease several kinetic variables, it was evident that both BFT and MS led to greater loading rates and peak pressures than SH running.