title: Oxygen cost of running barefoot vs. running shod.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the oxygen cost of running barefoot vs. running shod on the treadmill as well as overground. 10 healthy recreational runners, 5 male and 5 female, whose mean age was 23.8±3.39 volunteered to participate in the study. Subjects participated in 4 experimental conditions: 1) barefoot on treadmill, 2) shod on treadmill, 3) barefoot overground, and 4) shod overground. For each condition, subjects ran for 6 min at 70% vVO (2)max pace while VO (2), heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were assessed. A 2 × 2 (shoe condition x surface) repeated measures ANOVA revealed that running with shoes showed significantly higher VO (2) values on both the treadmill and the overground track (p<0.05). HR and RPE were significantly higher in the shod condition as well (p<0.02 and p<0.01, respectively). For the overground and treadmill conditions, recorded VO (2) while running shod was 5.7% and 2.0% higher than running barefoot. It was concluded that at 70% of vVO (2)max pace, barefoot running is more economical than running shod, both overground and on a treadmill.
authors.affiliation: Health, Physical Education and Recreation, University of Nebraska at Omaha, United States. njhanson@gmail.com
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deka
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Meendering
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D012775:Shoes; D055815:Young Adult