Minimalist style military boot does not improve walking economy under load in trained males.

Footwear may be a simple external factor to improve rucking economy (RE) for soldiers that must carry heavy external loads, but it is also possible that with no flight phase, RE may not be enhanced by footwear style. This study compared RE with an ~500 g minimalist style boot (MIN) versus an ~800 g traditional style boot (TRD) while wearing a 16 kg external load consisting of a 7.5 kg weighted compression vest and ruck sack with 8.5 kg of weight. Male participants (n = 14) completed two testing sessions for this study. In session 1 participants completed a VO2 peak test (46.6 ± 7.3 ml/kg/min) under load while wearing their normal athletic shoes. The second session consisted of two 5-min walking treadmill sessions under load. Treadmill speed was based on the highest speed stage that allowed the participant to walk for the full stage during the VO2 peak test. RE was evaluated using indirect calorimetry (TrueOne2400, Parvo Medics Inc. Provo, Utah) and calculated by averaging the 60-s average values of minutes 3-4 and 4-5. Steady state was confirmed by a difference \u3c 0.1 L/min between minutes 4 and 5. MIN and TRD were worn in a counter-balanced crossover order. There was a 10-min rest period between rucking bouts. RER did not differ between treatments (MIN = 0.86 ± 0.48; TRD = 0.86 ± 0.51; p = 0.96). A two-tailed t-test with an was ran for all data (α = 0.05). Although MIN (1.79 ± 0.23 L/min) tended (p = 0.13) to improve RE versus TRD (1.85 ± 0.30 L/min), breathing RPE was the only measure that reached significance (p = 0.045) between MIN (2.0 ± 0.9) versus TRD (2.4 ± 1.2). Altering boot type does not improve RE