The Benefits of Alternating Running Shoes

Recent researched published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science and reported in Lower Extremity Review, January 2014 found a 39% reduction in running injury rates if runners used multiple running shoes during their running week as compared to runners who predominantly used only one pair of shoes.

The study theorized that alternating shoes with varying midsole densities and characteristics may reduce the injury rates by varying loads on the soft tissues and the joints during running. This variation in loading patterns in short is a way of resting the tissues by creating different load and stress patterns during the typical running week.

Whether you run or walk for exercise it makes sense to mix things up and it appears that wearing different shoes during your weekly exercise plan may provide the first step in injury prevention.