The Best Shoes for Runners (with an Injury)
Running shoes are an important part of running. No matter your pace, if you run the whole thing or do a run walk combo you need good shoes. If you’re injured you’ve searched for the right running shoes for you because you’re told shoes make or break your ability to run, so keep reading and I’ll share some of my favorite shoes and how to find the best ones for you.
In this article
Types of shoes
There are different types of shoes and words about the structure of the shoe that get thrown around so let’s go over some of them.
Neutral shoes
When someone talks about neutral shoes they’re referencing where the support is: in this case it’s “neutral” meaning it doesn’t give support to someone who overpronates or has a high arch. It’s the middle ground, the in between.
Overpronation / Medial support shoes
Overpronation refers to the way your foot moves when you walk or run. Pronation the the movement of rolling inward. An example is: if you’re standing on the outsides of your feet so your pinky toes are on the ground but your big toes are off the ground so the soles of your feet face each other and then you rolled from the position to make it so your big toes and soles of your feet touch the ground, you have just done the movement of pronation of the foot.
Shoes with medial support are the types of shoes that are build up on the inner portion and arch of the foot.
Overpronation shoes benefit
The arch support here will help alleviate inner (medial) knee pain. If you are knock-kneed or your knees tend to move toward each other a shoe with medial support will be helpful. By having the medial portion and arch of your foot supported this will offload the inner portion of your knee to give your knees some relief. This shoe can also help someone who is flat footed or does an excessive amount of pronation while they’re running.
*note that pronation during the running gait cycle is normal, so excessive can be a subjective term
Supination / Lateral support shoes
Lateral support shoes have the soles built up on the outer portion of the shoe. This type of shoe will help someone who has more of a bowed leg or pressure on the outer portion of their feet when they run.
Benefits of supination shoe
This will realign their foot to offload the knee to alleviate pain that happens on the outer portion of the knee.
How can you tell where the support of the shoe is?
If you look at the inner portion and outer portion of your shoe notice how high the sole is. You notice this very well with athletic shoes because they tend to have a different color sole than the rest of the shoe. Look at the inner portion and the outer portion the part that is literally built up with more material is where the support is. So, for a medial support shoe you’ll find that the arch and inner portion has a higher lift than the outer portion of the shoe. You can also usually feel it when you put it on. When you put on a shoe with arch support or a medial build up you will notice that the arch of your foot lifts up and if you are looking in a mirror you may even notice that your leg lines up better with your knee not knocking toward the other knee.
What’s a zero drop shoe?
The drop of a shoe describes the amount of height difference, in millimeters, between the forefoot (front) and the rearfoot (heel) of the shoe. A zero drop shoe means there is no drop in height from the heel to the front of the shoe. Compare this to a 10mm drop shoe means that the difference between the height (cushion) of the heel of the shoe is 10 mm compared to the front of the shoe.
Is the drop of the shoe important for injuries?
Maybe. It’s less about the actual drop, and more about have you just gone from a 10mm drop to a zero and not practiced slowly using the shoes? You’ll find different answers to what amount of drop you should use if you have something like shin splints: I just did a quick google search and one site says use a zero drop shoe for shin splints because you’ll have less impact on your lower legs, whereas another site says zero drop wouldn’t be good for someone with shin splints. You’ll have to try different shoes to see what works for you.
What’s the best running shoe?
The best running shoe is person dependent. As you can see above I just went through 3 different types of running shoes, and instances that would make those a beneficial shoe for some runners. You probably noticed I didn’t put specific injuries with specific shoe types. That’s because just because you’ve been diagnosed with a specific injury doesn’t mean a specific shoe will work best for you.
There are a few factors that go into choosing a shoe for an injury:
What caused your injury?
What does your gait look like during a run?
What other injuries or factors do you have?
For the majority of runners their running injury wasn’t caused by bad shoes, it was caused by overuse: doing too much too soon. So before you blame your shoes let’s look at a few things:
What has your training looked like for the past 4-6 weeks?
How old are your shoes?
What’s your running gait look like?
What is your strength routine?
What is your stretching routine?
What is your stress level like?
What is your post-run recovery like?
All of these questions are important. I ask my clients to look at their past 4-6 weeks of training because it’s not just 1 training run that causes an injury, just like it’s not 1 pair of bad shoes.
Look at how old your shoes are: it’s recommended to change your shoes every 300-500 miles depending on how heavy-footed you are. Someone who is light and airy on their feet may not need to replace their shoes quite as often as someone who is very heavy on their feet.
What’s your running gait look like: are you running on your toes, heels, or landing flat? I don’t believe there is any one right way to run, but there are more efficient ways to run. For example, I used to be a heel first runner and I didn’t get injured but when I watched the way I ran on camera it was like I was putting a full door stop in front of me with every step because I was reaching forward with my leg and so that forced me to land on my heel. When I switched it up and ran more on my toes it forced me to run with my legs under me the whole time, and it turned out that I didn’t need a big built up heel cushion for my shoes because once I changed my pattern I didn’t wear down my shoes as much.
Your strength routine could be contributing to an injury like runner’s knee or shin splints. A well balanced strength routine is best, and not an injury-specific routine.
What does your stretching routine look like? Maybe it’s not the shoes, maybe your stretching routine could use a face lift to better support the mileage your adding on.
What’s your stress level? Stress from other parts of your life contribute to injury. If you’re stressed out from a deadline at work that raises cortisol levels in your body and too much cortisol levels wreak havoc on your immune system and your body’s ability to heal minor injuries. So something that wouldn’t have bothered you in the past is now hanging around longer.
What is your post-run recovery routine like? If you’re adding on more miles or more runs each week and not upping your post-run recovery routine then your body’s going to take a hit. More mileage in 1 run or across a week’s worth of runs needs more TLC or it can make day after soreness turn into week after soreness.
There’s more to it than just these quick explanations, but ask yourself these questions when you’re thinking about getting new shoes. Running shoes can be expensive and if you’re needing to try new shoes every few months because injuries are creeping up and lingering the cost adds up.
Where to get the best running shoes
Shoe finder
To get the best running shoes for you and your needs I urge you to at minimum use a shoe finder tool on running websites.
For example, my favorite running shoe brand right now is Brooks. And they have a shoe finder part of their website and I think it’s wonderful. It takes into consideration where you have some aches and pains, and where you’re running, in addition to other questions it asks. I went through it with a few different scenarios and was pleased with the options it suggested.
I have not worn Asics but they also have a shoe finder feature. I didn’t like this one as much, it did take into account how many miles I’m running, but did not ask about what surface I run on or if I have any aches or pains.
Gait analysis
You can also get a gait analysis done. Now, many running stores do a very good job at analyzing and recommending shoes. However, some stores do not. Take a gait analysis with a grain of salt. They’ll recommend something, but you’ll still need to try them out and see if they are a right fit for you.
Brands
I, personally, am partial to Brooks Running for shoes. When I first started running I wore Adidas because I was a brand loyal college student. I wore Adidas for soccer cleats, so why not for running shoes. They worked fine for me. But then the shoes I liked changed in some iteration and I branched out. When I branched out I started looking at brands that were all about running. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m looking for something of good quality I’m going to go with the product or brand that sticks to that thing. I know Nike sells running shoes… but have you seen their store or website, they also sell stuff for so many other activities and they didn’t start with running shoes. So I first went toward a company that focuses first, or mainly, on running.
Having said that, there are so many good brands out there. Most running shoes are similar in pricing and quality, you need to find what works for you.
If you’re still wondering what the best shoes for your particular injury are I urge you to go back and read this blog from the beginning. There is no one right shoe based on what injury you have, there are factors to take into consideration and the best way to find what works for you is to try a bunch on. When you’re looking for new shoes because of an injury don’t just look at the shoe, it’s rarely the shoe that caused the problem, and more often that’s one part of a whole.
If you’re looking for more guidance on what to do for your injury, reach out to me to find out if working together makes sense.
