The Influence of Footwear on Running Style and Injuries

In recent years running has become a very popular sport. Therefore it is nowadays often discussed whether it is shod running or barefoot running that is better. The aim of this thesis is to provide a summary of scientific pieces of knowledge on the effect of footwear on running style and related injuries. The introduction chapter describes the basics of running techniques and progressive development of running styles in relation to the development of running footwear. The following chapters describe in detail results of studies about the impact of footwear on kinematics, foot strike pattern and ground reaction forces, muscular activity and the running economy. Other chapters deal with the influence of footwear as a source of running related injuries while the most common running injuries are subsequently analysed. The last part is a practical section. It is a questionnaire study in which in total 93 runners participated. The conclusion summarizes the essential pieces of knowledge on the topic of footwear influence on running style and related injuries which are compared with the results collected in the questionnaire