Even if it doesn’t seem like it, spring break has passed and summer will be here before you know it. And with summer comes less clothing and more skin. Now with spring holiday starting this week, we might get the wakeup call we need to shed those “insulation pounds” and resume working on our New Year’s resolution plan. 

Though the Carmichael Complex offers a plethora of classes, there will still be plenty who pound the pavement with their iPod on their pump-up playlist, running until their lungs cry for help. Running was always thought to be simple, with undisputed theory about it, until the “minimalist” or “barefoot” trend emerged recently. 

The barefoot trend started to emerge in the beginning of the 21st century and continues to gain followers. But it never should have disappeared in the first place. 

Look back to when you were a kid running through the lawn playing games like capture the flag and tag. How did you run? Or take your shoes off and go for a jog around the Lower Miller Fields. Feel different from running in those gigantic-soled running shoes? When running started to become popular, companies started producing what they thought were proper running shoes. They produced shoes with massive heel-toe drop, or heel drop for short. It simply means the larger the heel drop measurement, the taller the heel is than the forefoot. Traditional running shoes are manufactured with approximately a 12 mm difference between the heel and forefoot, according to a Harvard study. With these shoes, there was only one way your foot could strike the ground — heel first. 

Now the new barefoot trend follows shoes which have a 0mm heel drop. This forces the foot to strike the ground with the forefoot. So basically you either have a heel strike with traditional running shoes or a forefoot strike with barefoot style shoes. 

Being an avid runner my entire life, I didn’t accept this nicely. But forefoot strike is how we were meant to run. Watch a young child run before he slips his feet into traditional running shoes. He won’t be landing on his heel. Studies have been researching this new fad with increased interest. 

Harvard conducted a study about biomechanical differences between foot strikes that made me grin from ear to ear. While the data was fun to sort through, they provided some simple analogies to summarize what they found. According to this study, a heel strike leads to a high impact transient about one-and-a-half to three times your own bodyweight, while forefoot strikes have impact forces seven times lower. The study compared heel strike to being hit in the heel with a hammer using one-and-a-half to three times your bodyweight over and over. The giant heels on traditional running shoes only hide the impact — they don’t get rid of it. Think about it: Why land on your bony heel while your forefoot has plenty of tissue? 

But while I am upset at Nike, Adidas, Asics and the rest of the running shoe market for misleading us, I strongly recommend running exactly how you are supposed to. During my freshman year of college I became a barefoot follower and slowly made the painful transition. Since I had been conditioned to run with heel strike, I wasn’t utilizing certain parts of my calves and feet until then. I had to start very slowly and build up to larger distances, but now I’m all barefoot.