The Monday Shakeout: Who Does Best In Certain Stack Height Shoes?
By Matthew Klein
We are back with some regular Monday Shakeouts for the new year. In this edition, Matt discusses the rising height of shoes and the current science on who may benefit more than others with certain stack heights
As running shoes have continued to get taller and taller, I've had to refrain how I think about "normal" running shoes. We just finished testing and reviewing the Mizuno Wave Rebellion Pro 3, which sits at 61mm in the heel and 57 mm in the forefoot. That is 11mm taller than the next highest shoe, the Adidas Adizero Prime X Strung 2, that I have tested. Interestingly enough, the Rebellion Pro 3 actually didn't feel that crazy. This is likely due to how much the midsole foam compresses underfoot, bringing my foot closer to at maximum compression but also due to the fact that so many shoes now sit in the 42-50 mm stack height range. What was once considered crazy tall is now becoming the normal. Most of the flagship training shoes, like the New Balance 880, Saucony Triumph, Asics Nimbus and many others are meeting or breaking the 40mm heel stack height in what was once considered "normal" stack height. In fact, the new normal is maximal, which begs the question is the new maximal? Will we keep getting taller or will there be a limit?
An Industry "Stacked" in One Direction
Running shoes are getting more extreme. Most running shoes are getting taller every year, while the only shoes that are staying consistent are the ones from purely minimalist companies like Xero. This means that instead of having a variety, we really have this decent gap between 5-10mm and >40mm, putting most shoes into either maximalist or minimalist, with only a few traditional stack height shoes left. One of the primary purposes of this website is to educate consumers on which shoes may work best for them as individuals. People are quite different, so trying to figure out which shoe type may match certain people often comes down to unique factors and preferences that require some experimentation and learning. However, there are a few things we know.
Are There People Who Many Benefit From a Specific Stack Height Shoe?
I wrote a post previously (HERE) discussing the current evidence on body weight and running shoes, where the current evidence suggested that body mass is not a risk factor for many issues unless you are talking about lighter runners who actually benefit from more cushioned shoes (Fuller et al., 2017; Malisoux et al., 2020). We know that those who train less frequently may have a lower injury risk in minimal shoes but those who train more frequently may need more cushioning (Fuller et al., 2017). That does not tell us about specific stack heights, so here is where my theorizing comes in.
Ultimately if people can afford to do so, they should train in a variety of different stack height shoes. We know one of the few things that reduces injury risk is training in different shoes, so variety is a big suggestion regardless of the following (Malixous et al., 2015). However, when it comes to being more specific, I believe that proprioception and lower extremity joint movement strategies may play a large part. Those with poor proprioception, ie joint sense, may struggle with taller stack height shoes due to the inability to get sensory input from the ground. Whereas those with better proprioception may do ok in taller stack height shoes due to still being able to get input into those receptors to successfully send signals to the brain about where their limbs still are. Those who are sensory seeking may have the opposite response, where they need more input from the ground because they seek it, whereas those who are sensory sensitive to stimuli may like more cushioning as it dampens the impact/stimulation to those distal mechanoreceptors (nerve endings that pick up mechanical changes, pressure, etc). Given many of these maximal shoes require extensive rockers that replace much of the natural ankle movement mechanisms and decrease work at that area, those who use more of a hip/knee strategy during running gait may do better with maximal shoes, while those used to using more of an ankle strategy may do better in a lower/traditional stack height shoe where that can be done (ie one that doesn't have significant rockers or replacement geometries). Rockered shoes tend to shift work from the ankle up to the hip and knee, requiring better movement strategies through those areas to appropriately use them (Sobhani et al., 2017).
These are all hypotheses above and there will be plenty of outliers. I am hoping to test one of them shortly as I think I might have some ideas for how to research this, but am still in the development stage. Ultimately the simplest answer is use whatever shoes feel most comfortable for you and keep you healthiest. We still do not have any long term data on how maximal or super shoes impact our bodies, but they are enabling us to go faster, longer and even allowing some people to continue running that may otherwise have not been able to. My point with all of this is not to cause fear but to ask better questions on who may work best in certain things so we can help people optimize their movement. I further suspect that one shoe type is not any better than the other in regards to injury rates but may have different injury types. The next question will therefore be how to reduce injuries in each specific footwear type if a runner decides to use only that one. We still need to figure out what mechanics or other factors leads to someone to do better in different shoes, so we still have a few steps to get through first.
References
Fuller, J. T., Thewlis, D., Buckley, J. D., Brown, N. A., Hamill, J., & Tsiros, M. D. (2017). Body mass and weekly training distance influence the pain and injuries experienced by runners using minimalist shoes: a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(5), 1162-1170.
Malisoux, L., Delattre, N., Urhausen, A., & Theisen, D. (2020). Shoe cushioning influences the running injury risk according to body mass: a randomized controlled trial involving 848 recreational runners. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(2), 473-480.
Malisoux, L., Ramesh, J., Mann, R., Seil, R., Urhausen, A., & Theisen, D. (2015). Can parallel use of different running shoes decrease running‐related injury risk?. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 25(1), 110-115.
Sobhani, S., van den Heuvel, E. R., Dekker, R., Postema, K., Kluitenberg, B., Bredeweg, S. W., & Hijmans, J. M. (2017). Biomechanics of running with rocker shoes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 20(1), 38-44.
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