Effect of a Gait Retraining Intervention and a Minimalist Footwear Transition on Foot-ankle Strength, Running Economy and Injury in Endurance Runners.

University of Liege

Status: Completed

Conditions: Wounds and Injuries; Oxygen Consumption; Running

Treatments: Behavioral: Gait retraining intervention; Device: Transition to minimalist footwear.

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05499871

09082022

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main aim is to determine whether a gait retraining intervention will improve the strength of the foot-ankle muscle, the running economy and reduce the injury incidence in a one-year follow-up study. The secondary aim is to seek whether a minimal foot-ankle strength is necessary to reduce the risk to sustain to a running-related-injury to transit toward a forefoot strike pattern or toward a minimalist footwear for an endurance runner.

Participants will be assessed at baseline, at 2 month follow-up, at 6 month follow-up and at 12 month follow-up. Assessment will be composed by questionnaires, a foot screening, maximal voluntary isometric strength of foot-ankle muscle with hand held dynamometer. Then, participants will run on a treadmill at self-paced and at 10 km/h with to measure their running economy and their footstrike pattern. In function of their distribution, participants will receive either nothing (control group) or minimalist footwear or a training to modify their footstrike pattern toward a more forefoot strike.

Enrollment: 140 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 55 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Run 15 km per week since minimum 6 month

Exclusion criteria

• No running related injuries in the last 3 month before the participation.
• Have never worn minimalist footwear (minimalist index superior to 70%)
• Have never modified their footstrike pattern

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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140 participants in 3 patient groups

Minimalist footwear

Experimental group

Description:

Transition toward a minimalist footwear.

Treatment:

Device: Transition to minimalist footwear.

Footstrike pattern

Experimental group

Description:

Transition toward a forefootstrike pattern.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Gait retraining intervention

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention