Shoes with too much medial support will cause what?

Triathlon Forum
1

Hey all,

If you wear a running shoe that has too much medial support to correct over-pronation - what will happen? If it affects anything - where should you feel it?

Thanks,

Dave

2

Hey all,

If you wear a running shoe that has too much medial support to correct over-pronation - what will happen? If it affects anything - where should you feel it?

Thanks,

Dave
Is this a trick question?

3

maybe no where, depends on your footstrike…

but if it’s forcing your foot to supinate or roll towards the outer edge too much you’d probably have pain/discomfort:

-along the outer edge of the foot
-in the connective tissue on the outer/lateral side of the ankle/lower leg
-maybe tightening in the IT band, pain by the side of the knee or even the hip

you’ll also likely note that the shoes lean outwards pretty quickly as on most shoes these days the lateral/outer edge crumples pretty quickly so if you’re putting to much pressure out here you’ll smash it down fast.

4

It was probably a contributing factor to achilles tendonitis for me. I wore Asics Kayanos for 10 or so years and over 10 years my arch and pronation changed. When I finally switched shoes it helped a lot to heal it.

5

It can also be a contributing factor in stress fractures.
Some pronation is a natural part of foot strike shock obsorbtion(sp) and if you are an underpronator/supinator you do not have much of this, losing the rest through incorrect support from your running shoes will lead to harsher impact forces.

6

for me, I developed a nasty case of ITB syndrome over a course of a couple of months running in a stability shoe.

7

medial rearfoot posting in modern shoes are designed to decelerate the RATE of pronation of the rearfoot (subtalar joint). Most people have no issues with this (again, I’ll assume you are in the correct shoe). This is one the main design features of most of the so called “stability” shoes (even 9 oz ones) - the other the midfoot “bridge” or stiffening.

Now, moving up to the “motion control” shoes that VERY few people actually need and you get the large heel flares, very stiff heel cup, medial post, occasional forefoot post, and general “bulk” since the company assumes a heavier runner.

The other poster is right in that eliminating pronation can increase a runner’s likelihood of a lesser metatarsal stress fx (although this is usually from a training error more than anything). Occasionally, you can get some peroneal issues as they try to evert/stabilize the heel the other way as well. I don’t usually see achilles issues from too much rearfoot posting (quite the contrary actually as runners transition to more flats).

8

Thanks everyone - exactly the info I was looking for!

I’m going to try a more neutral shoe for 1/3 runs and see if it helps.

Dave

9

I know I’m a little late on this, but I’ll share my experience anyway.

I was recommended to try a stability shoe over my previous two neutral cushioned shoes to help with a bout a shin splints I had.
During the long runs in my stability shoes, I had a lot of pain/discomfort along the outsides of my feet. I was also getting frequent blisters on the little toe of each foot - something that I had never had a problem with.
I’ve gone back to the neutral shoes and haven’t had the above issues.

I’m thinking about starting a thread that is the converse of yours - “What are the signs that you may need to start wearing a stability shoe?” Besides getting a shoe store to tell you.