Choosing Overpronation Running Shoes

So, you’ve decided to make a change. You’ve decided to get fitter and burn off some of your ‘wobbly bits’ by taking up the great sport of running. And you will obviously need a pair of decent running shoes; after all, the last thing you want to do is injure yourself, right? So far so good, but now what? There are literally hundreds of shoes to choose from.

Should you just buy a popular brand that you know from your local sports shop? Or should you spend a little more time getting your feet examined by a professional (or at the very least, by someone that knows what to look for). The answer is most certainly to take your time, and have your feet examined by a podiatrist or specialist running retailer. And this is where it can get a bit confusing.

Firstly, people have different shaped feet that operate in very different mechanical fashions. These mechanics are classified into three broad foot groups:

1. Overpronation: The foot rolls heavily inwards over the ankle just before the lifting of the foot.
2. Supination: The foot does the opposite, and rolls outwards over the ankle just before the foot lifts in the running cycle.
3. Neutral: The foot hardly rolls either way at all, and is described as biomechanically efficient.

As a general rule of thumb, most people pronate to some degree, and hardly anyone has a totally biomechanically efficient running stride. Not many people are supinators either. The trick to finding the ideal injury-preventing running shoe for yourself is therefore to know with confidence how your foot is shaped.

A great and cheap way to start to understand your foot is to do the ‘Wet Paper Test’.

This can be done as follows:

1. Get 2 sheets of white A4 paper and a pen. Have them ready by the side of your bath that you are just about to run.
2. Run a bath shallow enough to just get the bottom of your feet wet. You don’t want to cover your whole foot in water as you don’t want to be dripping water all over your two sheets of paper you are about to stand on.
3. Once both feet are wet get out of the bath and stand on said sheets of paper. Give your feet a little wiggle to shake off excess water before you stand on the paper, as you want to create a nice crisp wet impression of the shape of your feet.
4. The sheets should have been placed in such a position that allowed you to get straight out of the bath and be able to stand naturally, with feet about shoulder width apart. Obviously you have to get your stance right on the first go, or you will form multiple sloppy impressions.
5. What you should be left with is two sheets of A4 paper, with a left footprint on one sheet, and a right footprint on the other. Now draw around the wet imprint with the pen so you can take your time examining your feet.

You will now see one of three basic impressions:

1. A very flat foot shape, showing that most of the foot must have been in contact with the ground. This indicates a flat foot with low or fallen arches, and leads to severe overpronation.
2. A ‘normal’ semi curved foot shape that is tapered in the middle. This is the most common foot shape and shows normal to medium overpronation.
3. If two distinct and separate parts to the foot are shown with the middle nearly, or completely missing, then this is showing very high foot arches, which is generally a sign of supination or neutral feet.

You will now have an idea of what type of foot you have, and can now approach an expert with your results so that he can check them for you, before advising you on a selection of shoes that you could try. For further confirmation of your foot type (which is a sensible option if you have any knee, back or other problems, which could be aggravated by poor shoe selection) you could even undergo a video gait analysis or foot scan. This should further confirm your foot type while providing a more in-depth explanation of your individual running cycle.

You can now choose a selection of the correct shoes for your foot type to decide from, and then choose by comfort, feel and technical details appropriate to what you will be running on. Trail shoes are a world apart from road shoes for example.

Never be afraid to be extremely fussy, to run around in the shop and to try every shoe in every shop you can get to! It’s your body you need to look after, and specialist running shops will understand this.

Happy training!