Category Archives: Sports Medicine

Biomechanics, Foot Problems, Sports Medicine

Cuboid Syndrome

The cuboid is a smaller cube shaped bone on the lateral side of the foot around about the center of the foot. The bone is a little bigger than a common gaming dice. The bone participates in three joints and operates as a lever for the tendon of the peroneus longus muscle to pass under. Since this is a strong muscle it can move the cuboid bone too much if it is not secure and strain those joints that the bone is a part of resulting in a ailment known as cuboid syndrome. This is probably one of the more common causes of pain on the outside of the foot, generally in athletes. The pain commonly begins quite mild and is located around where the cuboid bone is on the outside of the foot. The pain is only at first present during activity. If the exercise levels are not lessened the problem will most likely progress and then show up after exercise in addition to during. From time to time the pain can radiate down into the foot. Although this is the commonest reason for pain in this area, there are others like tendinopathy and nerve impingements.

The main management of cuboid syndrome is relief of pain. This is normally done with a reduction in exercise levels and the using of low dye strapping to immobilise and support the cuboid. Mobilisation and manipulation is frequently used to fix this condition. Over the longer term foot orthoses may be required to control the movement and support the lateral arch of the foot. This helps make the cuboid more stable so it is an efficient lever or pulley for the tendon to function around. Generally this approach works in most cases. If it doesn’t there are no surgical or more advanced treatments and a further reduction in activity amounts is usually the only option.

Sports Medicine

Barefoot Running

Running without shoes had been all the rage not long ago however interest in it and the number doing it have dropped of considerably. It was a craze that continued for several years and was mostly influenced by social media commentary. It was a short lived trend towards barefoot running that took off around 2009 with a lot more interest in running free of running shoes. It was touted in numerous books, blogs and magazine articles and Youtube Videos thhtbarefoot running was more natural, that it was a more economical method to run and that you got significantly less injuries running that way. Many runners tried barefoot running as an alternative to using running shoes and interest in it peaked about 2013. The sales of minimal or barefoot running shoes furthermore peaked at around that time, getting to nearly 10% of the running shoe market.

After that original attention and peak interest in barefoot running and minimalist running shoes have been steadily decreasing. Runners lost interest in running barefoot. The sales of the minimalist running shoes have been dropping steadily since around mid- to late 2013. The believed advantages for it failed to eventuate to many runners who tried barefoot running but, needless to say, those who touted barefoot running simply claim that those runners were doing it incorrectly. When the scientific data accumulated, the advantages weren’t just there. All of the injury rate reports were showing that the risk of injury was the same had you been running in footwear versus running without shoes and the majority of of the running economy investigations were also showing that generally there weren’t any systematic advantages.

While some runners, who’re rather vocal, still do their running without footwear the big market shift has now been towards the maximalist running shoes with the Hoka One One running shoe being the innovator in that group of running shoes. It has now reached the stage where the Hoka’s now outsells the entire group of minimalist running shoes giving an obvious sign of the popularity of cushioned running shoes compared to barefoot running.

Sports Medicine

The Spring Loaded Enko Running Shoes

The most recent entrant in to the running shoe marketplace is a unique shoe from Enko. These unique athletic shoes from France were initially promoted in late 2014 and created via a crowd financing project at Indiegogo at the beginning of 2015.

This footwear features mechanical spring loaded pieces which are included in the sole. This particular design provides the shoe with additional shock absorption and energy return. This is believed to help increase comfort along with running economy. The springs are interchangeable and are calculated depending on the weight of the athlete. Data supplied by Enko report that the gains provided by the shock absorbers when it comes to mechanical energy is somewhere between 6% and 14% according to the pace of the athlete.

It is not apparent if the Enko footwear will likely be broadly used at this point, however, some issues have been expressed concerning the structure and how it may affect the running biomechanics.

Sports Medicine

The new Metarun running shoe from Adidas

The ASICs Corporation is one of the most well-known and widely used athletic shoes available on the market. Like every running shoe brand they always innovate to maintain that market leading position. Asics currently have a variety of athletic shoes with different versions in an attempt to meet the requirements of a wide range of athletes. Each of those models is often updated. Asics recently created a different model to the range, the Metarun. Very little was at first known about the footwear, simply a taster online video on the Asics website and a countdown clock ticking down to a unveiling on November 12 2015. When the clock arrived at zero a tweet was dispatched by the company to a video that revealed further information and the website was refreshed with more on the Metarun. Asics certainly claiming that this is their best ever athletic shoe.

The running shoe goes against the current tendencies of less gadgets and features in running shoes, adding several designs which have patents attached to them. The midsole, termed FlyteFoam, is their lightest and most sturdy midsole material. They discuss “organic fibers” for the highest level of cushioning. The shoe gets its stability from the patented AdaptTruss which is a carbon reinforced adaptive stability system. The “Sloped DUOMAX” is a dual density midsole which is expected to change easily to dynamic motion of the runner. The upper features a glove-like, one-layer Jacquard Mesh as well as MetaClutch exoskeleton external heel counter with a built-in memory foam. There is also a X-GEL hybrid high-tech gel in the midsole to assist shock absorption.

Is it their finest running shoe ever? Time will tell. Runners will vote with their feet once they test the Metarun. There was a little bit of hype in social media before the launch. The Metarun won’t be available until late November and they are going to be expensive and just available in restricted release.