The Effects of Carbon-Plated Shoes on High Mileage Runners
Running injuries are most commonly overuse injuries. They come slowly without an acute onset of symptoms. Modern running shoes add to this with their large amounts of foam and even more so their carbon plate. Overuse injuries are not just from the pure quantity of training load but also the uneven distribution of training load.
Carbon plated shoes have been studied many times for performance but there are minimal studies looking into the long term effects. One study done by the Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT), had their subjects run for 10 kilometers in carbon plated shoes reported that there was significant form alteration by the final kilometer. They reported that the runners altered their form to optimize the load on their lower extremities while still maintaining performance. This alteration helps with performance but over time could lead to weaknesses and injuries.
Ankle load redistribution is a key part of the story when it comes to the risks of using carbon plated shoes. Multiple studies including the one done by CUT, a study done by the University of Calgary, another study done by California State University, and one done by Iowa State University (ISU) found significant redistribution of load on the ankle. Unfortunately the limited number of studies and the gradual nature of the issue, mean that the studies have not been able to find specific areas of the ankle that are loaded differently. The ISU study found increased ankle aversion with carbon plated running shoes, however the sample size was not enough that they could confidently reject the null and say that it was the carbon plated shoes specifically. Ankle eversion is one of the main causes of peroneal tendinopathy according to a study published in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics journal.
Form fatigue causes similar effects to the runners rearfoot and ankle. Form fatigue occurs when an athlete is tired. They may know the best way to run but when an athlete is tired they may start to cheat or become unable to run in their normal style due to fatigue. This alteration in form due to overall fatigue is called form fatigue. According to a study done by the Institute of Biomechanics and Orthopaedics in Cologne, Germany, there is a significant increase in rearfoot motion and ankle eversion. High levels of ankle eversion was found at a much higher level in injured runners in a study done by Azusa Pacific University and California State University. A study done by the Department of Health and Sport Science at Wake Forest corroborated this claim in their own independent study. These three studies show that form changes can and do lead to overuse injuries. These effects found in form fatigue are the exact same ones found when an athlete uses carbon plated shoes. There is an increase in rearfoot movement and ankle eversion when runners are in shoes with a carbon plate so the same increase in injury risk can be applied.
The more one runs the more important it is to keep form consistent. A study done by a group of fellows from a variety of sports medicine fellowship programs shows that increases in training load comes with greater risk of injury. This can be attributed to the lower margin of error when the training load is high. With a high training load there is significantly less room for error in form and training. Sudden changes in either can lead to the mismanagement of load to areas of the body that can’t handle it. After years of training the muscles become used to the load that is put on them. If an inexperienced runner attempted to start running 80 miles a week they would get injured. The same principle applies if an experienced runner tries to put 80 miles of training load onto a new muscle or joint. The muscle or joint is not prepared for the huge increase in load and therefore injuries are very common.
One of the most common reasons for an injury is inadequate footwear. Typically that comes in the form of dead shoes or the misapplication of shoe type. For the average person one or two runs in sneakers would not hurt them. For runners with high mileage and training load the misapplication of footwear is much more nuanced and volatile. No one recommends doing high mileage in sneakers. An inexperienced runner may however do consistent mileage in a shoe not meant for consistent use. Shoes mainly fall into three categories: everyday wear, workout shoes, and race shoes. Carbon plated shoes typically fall into the latter two but recently they have become much more widespread. This leads to inexperienced runners using carbon plated shoes in new applications that could lead to injury over time.
Slight weaknesses and instabilities in the foot and ankle affect the whole leg. A study done by the American Podiatric Medical Association found that altered or malfunctioning foot alignment has far reaching repercussions like the changing of gait and form on a whole. The changing of gait can lead to weakness, instability, and eventually injuries. One of the more interesting studies was done by the University of Salzburg in partnership with the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center . That study was done on an experienced elite female endurance athlete and showed a change in footfall patterns over short distances. The study emphasized the essential nature of individualized training because when that particular athlete used the carbon plated shoes an old injury cropped up. When the carbon plated shoes altered the form of the athlete it forced her into her old injury and caused pain. Injuries like these are what leads people to the anecdotal evidence that carbon plated shoes lead to long term problems. Individualization makes studies on distance running difficult. Individualized training is becoming more and more common and with it comes many individual challenges. Athletes who have a high training load have to make sure that the shoes work for them because if they don’t the consequences can hurt a career long term.
When paired with the study done by CUT that showed that form changed more over time there is a reasonable worry that having athletes run more in carbon plated shoes could lead to injuring them. Studies like the ones done by CUT and the University of Salzburg that show clear changes in gait and footfall patterns also show increases in injury risk and should be used to show the need for caution when using carbon plated shoes.
References
Hata, K., Noro, H., Takeshita, T., Yamazaki, Y., & Yanagiya, T. (2022). Leg stiffness during running in highly cushioned shoes with a carbon-fiber plate and traditional shoes. Gait & Posture. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2022.03.021
Kiesewetter, P., Bräuer, S., Haase, R., Nitzsche, N., Mitschke, C., & Milani, T. L. (2022). Do Carbon-Plated Running Shoes with Different Characteristics Influence Physiological and Biomechanical Variables during a 10 km Treadmill Run? Applied Sciences, 12(15), 7949. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157949
Subramanium, A. (2024). Effects of advanced footwear technology on running mechanics and performance (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. https://hdl.handle.net/1880/119375
Moore, S., Martinez, A., Schwameder, H., & Stoggl, T. (2023, July 12). THE MEDIOLATERAL CENTER OF PRESSURE MOVEMENT DIFFERS BETWEEN TRAINING AND RACING SHOES: A CASE STUDY [Review of THE MEDIOLATERAL CENTER OF PRESSURE MOVEMENT DIFFERS BETWEEN TRAINING AND RACING SHOES: A CASE STUDY]. Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Salzburg, Austria Red Bull Athlete Performance Center, Thalgau, Austria. https://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2665&context=isbs
Matties, J. (2024, May 1). BIOMECHANICAL AND ENERGETIC TRENDS IN RESPONSE TO 8 WEEKS OF TRAINING IN ADVANCED FOOTWEAR TECHNOLOGY [Review of BIOMECHANICAL AND ENERGETIC TRENDS IN RESPONSE TO 8 WEEKS OF TRAINING IN ADVANCED FOOTWEAR TECHNOLOGY]. https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/2b88qm33k
Sinclair, J., Brooks, D., Taylor, P. J., & Liles, N. B. (2021). Effects of running in minimal, maximal and traditional running shoes: a musculoskeletal simulation exploration using statistical parametric mapping and Bayesian analyses. Footwear Science, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/19424280.2021.1892834
Dudley, R. I., Pamukoff, D. N., Lynn, S. K., Kersey, R. D., & Noffal, G. J. (2017). A prospective comparison of lower extremity kinematics and kinetics between injured and non-injured collegiate cross country runners. Human Movement Science, 52, 197–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2017.02.007
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Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
—Unclear all the way.
—Overuse causes injuries.
—AUTOMATICALLY, readers will draw the conclusion that running TOO MUCH is injurious. Why would you want to plant that idea if you’re going to have to REFUTE it immediately?
—They come slowly . . . not acute.
—Now you’re CONFIRMING that too much running leads to injury.
—We don’t know what maximalist styling is. It doesn’t sound FUNCTIONAL.
—But the Carbon Plate probably is. Very confused now.
—A third time, now, you call them OVERUSE injuries, compounding our belief that running too much is the problem.
—Finally: “not quantity . . . uneven distribution.”
—Those willing to continue reading despite their confusion NOW know to look for evidence of “uneven distribution” as the cause of injury. PLEASE follow that thread from here on.
—What’s that?
—Do form fatigue and alteration have something to do with uneven distribution?
—You’d better connect those dots immediately. I’m about to bail.
—What’s eversion?
—What does it have to do with uneven distribution?
—What does it have to do with carbon plates?
—This sounds promising. As soon as I know that eversion is some kind of measurement of uneven distribution AND that it’s caused by a carbon plate, I’ll be able to connect the plates with the eversion and the injuries.
—Maybe “form changes” means something to do with “maximalist styling,” a type of which is the inclusion of carbon plates. So form changes (like the plates) create something called eversion, which is related somehow to uneven load distribution, which, over time, results in more overuse injuries (if overuse means overuse of just one set of muscles) or something.
I made some minor changes but overall was unsure how to fix it. Overuse injuries is the category of injury and was not created by me. I’m not sure how to stop you from drawing that connection although there is a paragraph in my Definition argument that hopefully clarifies. The argument is structured so I establish that changes in form cause injury, then I show that carbon plates cause changes including ankle eversion which is key because it is a specifically mentioned in both the form change studies and the carbon plate studies. If the two parts are too separated then I need advice on how to join them better. I understand it is dense so any help on where I need to make explanations is also good.
Highly recommend you have a non-runner read your essay, Student12121, and report to you what they understand, paragraph by paragraph.
Even for experienced runners familiar with the terminology, little reminders keep them on track and don’t require full paragraphs of definition.
Let me know if you need more clarification before continuing with revisions.
Do your best to clarify the causal chains you’re hinting at all the way through this essay. Put the post into Regrade Please or back into Feedback Please, or both, after any significant revisions.
This won’t be hard because the causal claims are not complicated. They’re just a bit technical, so you need to be clear EITHER who your audience is (experienced runners familiar with the jargon: if so SAY SO. TELL readers this is for them.) OR what the terms mean for the benefit of non-runners.
—We know a TIRED runner is in danger of injury.
—BUT you start by introducing an athlete WHO IS TIRED and changes his gait because of FATIGUE.
—But you don’t distinguish between FORM FATIGUE and BEING TIRED. So please indicate that FORM FATIGUE is a CHANGE TO RUNNING MECHANICS THAT RESULTS FROM FATIGUE.
—Then, in THIS PARAGRAPH (if you haven’t already) CONNECT FORM FATIGUE with how the CARBON PLATE CONTRIBUTES to the danger of injury, if in fact it does.
—You’re taking too long to play out this Causal Chain.
—I would sketch it out in the INTRODUCTION, but you can play it out a PARAGRAPH AT A TIME IF . . . IF . . . IF you clearly define a Causal link in every paragraph instead of expecting us to hold all the steps in our heads until the end. Nobody has that kind of patience.
—In this paragraph we want to know HOW DOES THE CARBON PLATE contribute to overloading a new muscle or joint?
—I continue to feel as if the causal argument is running backwards. You act as if we know where the chain is headed, and you’re talking us BACK from the conclusion.
—We don’t care HOW A RUNNER CHOOSES THE WRONG SHOE until we know that CHOOSING THE WRONG SHOE will lead to damage AND THAT choosing a shoe WITH A CARBON PLATE is a particularly dangerous choice.
Apply that same logic going forward through the rest of your paragraphs, Student12121. Your writing is generally quite impressive, and your marshalling of evidence is powerful, too, but your ORDERING OF THE ARGUMENT is very frustrating.
You received a Grade Improvement on November 23, Student12121. Since then, the only revisions I see are two paragraph breaks. What sort of feedback are you looking for now?
That was completely my mistake. I did not see the previous comment that addressed my ask. I have now attempted to reorder the argument to be more easy to follow and added the small causal links in the paragraphs named. I also changed the title both to avoid a rhetorical question and to try and specify more about my intended audience. Please let me know if I fulfilled your request correctly and any more feedback you have on the argument.