Effects of the material of running shoes on biomechanical characteristics during running

Abstract

Running as a sport is beneficial to the enhancement of cardiovascular function and body health. Running shoes play an assisting role during running. Running shoes which are made of different materials and have different sole rigidity can produce different counterforces to the sole of the foot and, moreover, have influences on running. In this study, running shoes with different rigidity of soles were manufactured using natural rubber and ehylene-vinyl acetate foaming composite material. The tracks of all the reflection points were captured using an infrared camera, and then the kinetic data of the subjects were recorded. The influence of the rigidity of sole on sport dynamics and biomechanics of lower limbs was analyzed and compared through kinetic test. The results demonstrated that the hardness of the sole had no influence on the first peak force, but had influence on the appearance time, maximum loading rate, and 50-ms passive impulse. When the hardness of the sole was 10°, the first peak force appeared the earliest, and the loading rate and passive impulse were the largest. The hardness of the sole had no influence on the motion of knee joints and abduction exercise of ankle joints, but had influence on the flexion and extension and internal rotation motion. When the hardness of the sole was 10°, the maximum flexion angle and internal rotation angle of the ankle joints were the largest.

Keywords:

• Mechanics
• kinetic analysis
• angle
• hardness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).