Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
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Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
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Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#2Don't show this to Christopher McDougall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run_(McDougall_book)
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#3[flagged]
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#4Why?
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#5Great read, that site is also super useful for fairly objective shoe reviews and breakdowns in a world full of influencers trying to peddle you shit they don’t understand
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#6Why?
The indigenous runners that he wrote about wore sandals made of recycled tire tread.
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#7As a year-round flip-flopper for many years now, those clips of shoes rocking sideways under pressure are nerve wracking to look at. Most (all?) shoes are terrible ankle hazards. Never have I twisted my ankles with flip-flops.
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#8Don't show this to Christopher McDougall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run_(McDougall_book)
He's not wrong though.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5G93ta66xSk
The tribals from the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northern Mexico - called the Tarahumara or the Rarámuri people - are considered to be among the best endurance runners in the world.
Some of the First Nation tribes of the Americas (especially their messengere who ran hundreds of miles to deliver messages) and the traditional African tribals (such as the Maasai tribe) are also among the best endurance runners in the world.
Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge is the first human to run sub-2-hours marathon.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MoxFkJlVZlA
And when we look at exactly how these world's best endurance runners (truly superhumans) run (i.e., their running style), we realise that all the fancy sports shoes we normies tend to run in aren't really conducive for proper running.
The best endurance runners run in such a way that their feet land on the front of their foot during running, but the typical sports shoes cause our feet to land on the heels (ball on the back side of the foot) (which is what causes injuries due to such daily bad way of running).
Humans evolved to be the best long distance endurance runners, compared to any other animal. It is high time modern humans realised what's the right way to run long distance.
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#9Don't show this to Christopher McDougall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run_(McDougall_book)
> He writes, some claim hyperbolically, that "[i]n Tarahumara land, there was no crime, war, or theft. There was no corruption, obesity, drug addiction, greed, wife-beating, child abuse, heart disease, high blood pressure or carbon emissions. They didn’t get diabetes, or depressed, or even old." This and other statements in the book have been criticized by some authors.
"Some claim hyperbolically" - masterfully understated there, Wikipedia.
Re: Energy return in running shoes explained (2025)
#10As a year-round flip-flopper for many years now, those clips of shoes rocking sideways under pressure are nerve wracking to look at. Most (all?) shoes are terrible ankle hazards. Never have I twisted my ankles with flip-flops.
Considering this article is about running shoes, I have to ask - you run in flip-flops?