Foot pronation is not associated with increased injury risk in novice runners wearing a neutral shoe

It has long been believed that correct footwear based on a runner’s foot type is a major intervention to prevent running-related injuries due to foot pronation. Recent evidence seems to contradict this long held belief and the authors of this study wanted to evaluate this further. They hypothesized that running distance to first running injury would not vary across different foot postures running in a neutral shoe.

927 novice runners were selected and using the foot posture index (FPI), their foot posture was categorized into highly supinated, supinated, neutral, pronated and highly pronated. Participants were all given a neutral running shoe (Adidas Supernova Glide 3) and Garmin Forerunner GPS watch and followed for 1 year. A running-related injury was defined as any musculoskeletal complaint of lower extremity or back causing restricted running for at least 1 week. 252 participants sustained injury with 63 bilateral injuries.

The study found no significant difference in distance to first running-related injury between different foot postures compared to neutral feet and actually, pronated feet sustained significantly fewer injuries per 1000km of running than neutral feet. > From: Nielsen et al., Br J Sports Med 48 (2014) 440-447. Copyright BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. 

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