Changing walking and running stress to lessen Injuries
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I want to present a concept that is often used by sports medicine physicians for their running population (and definitely can be used in the walking population) to lessen overuse stress and hopefully overall injuries.
It is the concept of varying shoes throughout the week from maximalist (Hoka type), to Traditional (Brooks Addiction type), to minimalist (Grounded Footwear type). This is called a “Runner’s Shoe Rotation”. I have found this concept to be so helpful in reducing stress when attempting to run (or walk) 5-6 days a week.
One of the times in my career that I used it tons was during the barefoot craze. Maximalist shoes were not that popular then, but minimalist footwear and traditional shoes were. Being able to convince runners that got injured in their barefoot shoes to first return to activity in a traditional shoe with more support and cushion was not met by too much resistance. As we added back the minimalist shoes, I was usually successful due to the previous disability of the injury, to convince my runners to start rotating with no more than 2 days per week in any one shoe type. And now, with the popularity of the maximalist shoes, I can have a 3 shoe rotation (as mentioned in this article) for all my runners which has worked very well.
