You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks......

That’s what our 14 year-old collie-cross Rufus would say. Actually, he wouldn’t. He’d tell you (in a slow, Yorkshire accent) that there’s no requirement for an old dog to learn new tricks because he’s acquired plenty during his life and nowt good would come of learning new ones, they’d just spoil a tried and trusted routine.

And it’s interesting to ponder on whether that’s a lesson for us humans as well at times. A lot of new ideas keep being thrown at us, in terms of training, recovery, injury prevention etc. Some are backed up by solid medical evidence, others aren’t (even though they may claim to be to some extent).

From my own personal viewpoint, I’m always open to new ideas, but I want to be able to understand the principle behind it and see some kind of evidence that it has been tried and tested. And, if an idea looks worth further investigation, I will want to ensure that I make changes gradually and allow the body time to adapt.

The “barefoot running” craze is one example of this. I think that there’s a perfectly good principle behind the idea (allowing the foot to do what it’s supposed to!) but that it needs to be introduced gradually to a body that has been used to running in cushioned shoes for a long time and will have adapted to this.

And what has set me thinking about all this? A fascinating article I read very recently that suggested that the term “overpronation” is an entirely redundant one, since there is no perfect model of how a person should pronate. Indeed, the “perfect” model was defined in a lab and, in various tests that have taken place, very few examples of this have been seen in real life.  Crucially, the research also stated there is absolutely no medical evidence that “overpronation” (as currently defined) is linked to a higher incidence of injuries.

Yes, it is shocking isn’t it!?! I’ll repeat that last statement – “there is absolutely no medical evidence that “overpronation” is linked to a higher incidence of injuries”.

And yet, for many years, shoe manufacturers have been telling us that we need to be forced into shoes that have been reinforced to “correct” this very problem.

When I started running (a fair few years ago!), I too went for the shoe assessment, was told I overpronated and sold a pair of shoes that would correct this. Within a few weeks, I had bad knee pain and hip pain and was forced into a trip to my osteopath to see whether he could help. We talked through what I’d been doing and, after telling him that I’d got new shoes to stop over-pronation, he set to work and sorted out the problem and I still regard his wise words highly now in my own practice: “For 30+ years, you’ve been walking and running with your feet pronating naturally. Your body has built up its muscular system to deal with this. Now, all of a sudden, you’ve forced your feet to be positioned differently by these new shoes. What do you think is going to happen? The stress that this causes has to be felt somewhere. In your case, it’s in the knees and hips”.

Since then, I’ve always worn fairly neutral shoes (especially in more recent times as a fellrunner, where Inov8s and Walshes only come in “neutral”!) and I can’t honestly say that I feel any of my injuries along the way have come from that. Injuries I’ve had seem to me to be far more to do with weaknesses in muscles, and this is what the article suggested as a conclusion – that it is almost lazy to plump for “overpronation” as the cause of an injury, when we should be looking at the body as a whole to assess the problem.

It’s a fascinating article, very thought provoking and, if it filters through to the general domain, it will be reminiscent of the situation that arose when evidence came forward that, far from being an aid, over-cushioned soles in running shoes may actually cause injury.

So where does it all leave us? I would suggest it leaves us referring back to the first paragraph. If “over-pronation” shoes are what you’ve been wearing and they work for you, don’t change – keep to the tried and trusted routine. Otherwise, regard both sides of the argument with a healthy scepticism and look into the matter before deciding what shoes to purchase in the future.