Efficacy of motion control shoes for reducing excessive rearfoot motion in fatigued runners

Objectives: Excessive foot pronation and fatigue in running are possible risk factors for injuries. Motion control footwear was designed to limit excessive foot motion in runners, but its clinical efficacy has not been well reported. This study investigated the rearfoot kinematics in runners when running with different footwear before and after fatigue of the lower leg muscles. Design: Within subjects repeated measures. Setting: University gait laboratory. Participants: 25 female recreational runners. Main outcome measures: A Vicon three-dimensional motion analysis system was used to capture the rearfoot motions of 25 recreational runners who had excessive foot pronation, when running with motion control shoes and neutral shoes before and after fatigue of the lower leg muscles. Results: The findings with neutral shoe testing revealed a significant increase in rearfoot angle of 6.5⁰ (95% CI 4.7–8.2⁰) (p<0.01) when the muscles were fatigued. However, the findings with motion control shoes revealed that rearfoot angle was marginally insignificant (p = 0.06) in subjects before and after muscle fatigue. Moreover, rearfoot motion when running with neutral shoes was higher than that with motion control shoes in both pre- (p<0.01) and post-fatigue states (p<0.01). Conclusions: Motion control shoes can control excessive rearfoot movements in runners with over-pronation regardless of the state of leg muscle fatigue.