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A little beach forensics, anyone?

As far as we know, there is only one shoe that makes a print like this one. You guessed it, a Newton (great going guys! You are all the way out here on the east coast!). We are pretty sure it is an MV2, because it has 5 actuator lugs. (Danny, Ian, Jordan, please feel free to chime in!)

Look at the top left and right images; left is running, right appears to be walking or a midfoot strike). What do you see? One foot imprint (the left) is accentuated and they are a forefoot striker. We are pretty sure this is how Newton encourages folks to run and if you have ever been in the shoe, you know it is pretty rockered and pushes you on to your toes.

Now look at the images that compare left to right. Notice how the outside of the forefoot makes a deeper impression on the left? Looks like that lateral column is sinking in the sand more. What type of forefoot type may cause this? You guessed it, a forefoot varus!. The forefoot is striking (and coming off the ground) in more supination on the left than the right.

Anything else? what about that right foot in the top right image? More printing on the medial aspect. Hmmm, maybe some increased forefoot pronation or possibly some forefoot valgus.

You could argue that due to the slop on the beach, we may be seeing this…and that would be a good argument, except that these are on the flats and repeat for many cycles.

Yup, we probably should be looking at all stuff north of the feet on the beach, but hey, we ARE geeks and “feet” are our thing.

The Gait Guys. Yes, we are always watching!…Even at the beach!

copyright 2012 The Gait Guys/The Homunculus Group. Al rights reserved. If you want to use our stuff, just ask nicely : )

Abnormal wear pattern on a Newton Shoe

Understanding what went wrong in this runner to cause unilateral Right shoe “toe off” wear pattern is important.  It happens alot.  Many times it doesn’t get this far but there is evidence on a shoe, more on one side, none the less.  It is quite often “What is wrong with the part/person that goes into a shoe”, than “the shoe itself”. It wasn’t the Newton Shoe in this case (it is almost never a shoe material issue), it was the limb attached to it. The shoes are the window to the gait cycle!

This is one of our running clients.  They presented with some right hamstring soreness and pain after longer runs.  There were no foot complaints, the shoe wear pattern was just something that we felt was interesting to share as it made sense with their clinical presentation. 

Client clinically demonstrated:

1. inhibited right glute max
2. tight right quadriceps
3. weak right lower abdominals

Summary:

Subsequent to #1-3 above there was a loss of right hip extension, thus shortened right stride. When hip extension is limited the heel rise is premature and the calf engagement can be premature. When premature the calf is asked to lift the person during midstance instead of forward propulsion and its other activities during late midstance.

Premature heel rise, premature calf muscle engagement, premature foot plantarflexion all lead to greater pressure at the forefoot and thus through toe off……plus some hamstrings complaining as well !

Knowing your gait cycles, knowing which muscles should fire at a given time in the gait cycle, and knowing why they fire and what joints they stabilize is a valuable tool in diagnosis of a runners issues.  Of course, it would be very simple to say “hey, you are toeing off real hard on that right side”.  “BRILLIANT SHERLOCK ! ” would be our first response, there is nothing like stating the obvious.  But the how and why is where the brain actually needs to be engaged, and when it is, things can get very interesting and fun in figuring out what is going on in athletes and patients. Knowing how and why things happen allows you to fix the problem.  And in this case if you are attempting to fix this person at the level of the foot you are missing the true problem originating at the hip.  And when you know the origin of the problem in this case, you also get a new shoe wear pattern for the next shoes and best of all, you conquer a chronic  hamstring problem as well.

Shawn and Ivo………. Pipe smoking English sleuths…….. (OK, we are good at the board game CLUE and nothing more, who are we kidding !)