Athletics News

Can carbon-plated running shoes cause injuries? Five Questions with Dr. Adam Tenforde, Mass General Brigham Hospital

Can carbon-plated running shoes cause injuries? Five Questions with Dr. Adam Tenforde, Mass General Brigham Hospital

We found this interview timely. Dr. Adam Teneforde has done research on CFP shoes. He suggests that, like all running shoes, CFP shoes are equipment, and the body must be given time to get used to the effects and added stress on the body. 

In new research recently published in Sports MedicineDr. Adam Tenforde, leading sports medicine physician at Massachusetts General Brigham, suggests that carbon-plated running shoes – the shoes that nearly every elite runner and most everyday runners use today – may be causing an increase in bone stress injuries.

Dr. Adam Tenforde, photo from Mass Bringham Hospital

Dr. Tenforde, Director of running medicine at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, one of the only centers in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of running-related injuries, and Associate Professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, studied 5 elite runners and found that all of them developed acute pain, later diagnosed as navicular bone stress injuries (BSI), during or after running exclusively in carbon fiber-plated shoes.

Here is the link to the MGB press release: https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsroom/press-releases/bone-stress-injuries-after-using-carbon-fiber-plate-footwear

And here is the full research paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-023-01818-z

Five Questions with Dr. Adam Teneforde on Carbon Plated running shoes.

RunBlogRun, # 1. After your research, would you recommend that young athletes, those with active growth plates, use carbon plated running shoes?

Dr. Teneforde: it’s unknown how these shoes may affect growth plates for young athletes. In general, any change in footwear should be done gradually with monitoring for the development of pain to suggest injury. There’s no clear evidence on how these new shoes may influence the risk of injury in a developing athlete.

RunBlogRun, # 2. How do carbon-plated running shoes both benefit and harm the athlete?

Dr. Teneforde: The overall research supports the use of CFP shoes to improve performance during running events. Anecdotally, regular use during training may result in running at faster speeds and potentially recovering from training bouts. However, risks with the use of novel footwear, including CFP shoes, include changes in running biomechanics both from shoes and behaviors around footwear that could place runners at elevated risk for injury.

RunBlogRun, #…

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