Do barefoot runners fly in aeroplanes?

March 3, 2010

We have all seen one of the arguments that they love to make to support barefoot running. The argument goes something like: We were created to run barefoot. We are not born with running shoes. Because we were created that way then we should run barefoot. You know the story that they try to tell.
We [...]

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The lack of evidence for running shoes? – you can’t have it both ways!

February 27, 2010

Who can remember the media flurry and hype on barefoot running sites when Craig Richards published his systematic review last year: Is your prescription of distance running shoes evidence-based in the British Journal of Sports Medicine? Here is the abstract:
Objectives: To determine whether the current practice of prescribing distance running shoes featuring elevated cushioned heels [...]

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Do running shoes weaken muscles?

February 25, 2010

That is what the barefoot running community and the anti-running shoe community would have you believe.  You see this claim being made all the time on barefoot running websites, books and on running forums. We know that the barefoot running community are really good at all sorts of intellectual dishonesty, should we believe them on [...]

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Where are all these impact injuries that runners are supposed be getting an epidemic of?

February 23, 2010

Again, this is something that only exits in the minds of the anti-running shoe lobby. I have already shown how they have misused the research to scam us into believing that there is no decrease in the rate of injury from the alleged improvement in running shoes over the years. Some have even tried to [...]

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Why does the barefoot running community continually fall for this nonsense?

February 21, 2010

I have already gone over how the barefoot running community generally misrepresented and misreported the Liebermann research and how they misrepresented and even lied about the Kerrigan research, so now let’s take a closer look at the online article that they all seem to quote as ‘evidence’ (and we all know that the barefoot running [...]

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Why do no elite runners run barefoot?

February 17, 2010

If barefoot running was so great, then why are there no elite runners doing it? Why have no world records been broken when running barefoot? Don’t you think that every elite runner and their ’staff’ have looked at everything that could possibily give them a competitive edge? Why have they chosen not to run barefoot? [...]

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The problem with n=1 and ‘evidence’

February 16, 2010

You often see barefoot runners responding to comments about the lack of evidence for barefoot running by doing one of two things:

They point to evidence. However, when you look at it, it’s not evidence (they are really good at doing this intellectual dishonesty. For example, see how they fell for some of the research: [...]

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What has happened to injury rates? Are running shoes to blame?

February 9, 2010

You can often read comments or statements to the effect that running shoe technology has allegedly improved massively over the last 20-30-40 years, yet when you look at the epidemiological studies of running overuse injuries, there has been no change. The barefoot running community tend to use such statements as evidence that running shoes are [...]

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Do barefoot runners wear tin foil hats?

February 4, 2010

When you look at many of the websites and blogs that promote barefoot running you cannot help but be left with the impression that running shoes are close to being the source of all evil on this planet. “Global warming can be reversed and world peace achieved if we just stop wearing those damn running [...]

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Are Podiatrists snake oil salespersons?

February 2, 2010

One thing you quickly learn about the barefoot running community, in general, is that they are very sensitive to criticism and cannot engage in rational discussion about the issues (more on that later). Instead they resort to name calling and use other diversion tactics, which is a classic sign of people arguing from a position [...]

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