Advanced Footwear Technology in Well-Trained Athletes: Methodological Insights from Outdoor Running

Borja Muniz-Pardos^1,2Konstantinos Angeloudis³Irina Zelenkova²Fergus Guppy³Luis Alberto Marco-Contreras⁴Alejandro Gomez-Bruton²Gabriel Lozano-Berges²Yannis Pitsiladis^5*Jose A Casajus²

• ¹University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
• ²GENUD research group, Zaragoza, Spain
• ³Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• ⁴Universidad San Jorge, Villanueva de Gállego, Spain
• ⁵Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China

Background. Advanced footwear technology (AFT) is reported to elicit an approximate 4% average improvement in running economy (RE). However, a large inter-individual variability remains unexplained, and limited research examined the impact of AFT during outdoor running. The aim was to compare the physiological, biomechanical and perceptual responses of 36 well-trained athletes to running outdoors using three different AFT and a traditional racing shoe. Methods: Thirty-six well-trained athletes (19 males and 17 females) had their maximal aerobic capacity (V̇ O2max) and anaerobic threshold (AT) determined in laboratory conditions and were familiarised to the different shoe running conditions. Within seven days, athletes ran 4 x 6 min running bouts, paced outdoors at 95% of their individual AT with 10 min recovery, in three different AFT conditions and a traditional flat. Oxygen uptake (V̇ O2), heart rate, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), lactate, shoe perception, and biomechanical responses were compared between the four running trials. Results. No differences were observed in the RE between shoe conditions, with a great inter-individual variability (range: 12% impairment to 14% improvement in RE). This variability was accompanied by a significant V̇ O2 order effect across exercise bouts (bout 2 lower than one [-1.1 mL/kg/min, p= 0.002]; bout 3 lower than 2 [-0.8 mL/kg/min, p= 0.027]; no differences between bouts 3 and 4). This variability was likely due to methodological issues such as one squared-wave RE measurement per shoe condition or the lack of a mirrored experimental design, among others. There was no order effect in other physiological or biomechanical variables. No significant differences were found in lactate, heart rate or rate of perceived exertion between running trials. Biomechanical responses to the different shoe conditions were also highly variable. One of the advanced AFT shoes showed a greater strike angle (+2.07o; p= 0.001), with no other significant differences between shoes conditions. Conclusions. The large