Selecting a Running Shoe

How should you select a running shoe? Here at OSR, we treat lots of runners of all different levels, so this is a question we here quite often.

There are many factors that go into running shoe selection:

1. Does your shoe match your current muscle strengths and imbalances? (Yes, we all have muscle imbalances!)

2. Does your shoe match the kind of activity you wish to perform? For example running sprints versus playing tennis are very different uses for running shoes.

3. Does your shoe match your running technique? For example, a Newton is a forefoot striker shoe. If you are a hindfoot striker, the shoe won't automatically make you a safe and effective forefoot striker.

4. What was your last shoe? Sometimes changing types of shoes can be very beneficial. However, changing from an over-pronation shoe to a minimalist shoe is too many levels of change in support at once. This can be a factor in contributing to injury.

5. Do you have an injury or nagging pain? While changing shoes may be part of the answer, your running technique, training schedule, and muscle imbalances all play into safe and effective running. Changing the shoe alone is unlikely to resolve your pain in most cases.

You can read about more factors, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine via this link.

OSR Physical Therapy offers running analysis for both patients and non-patients.  We also have an Anti-gravity treadmill both for rehab and public use. You can read more about it here.

This article was written by Meredith Butulis, DPT, CIMT, ACSM HFS, located at our Eden Prairie office.