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Athletic training with minimal footwear strengthens toe flexor muscles

Discussion in 'Biomechanics, Sports and Foot orthoses' started by NewsBot, Dec 13, 2012.

  1. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
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    Athletic training with minimal footwear strengthens toe flexor muscles
    Jan-Peter Goldmanna, Wolfgang Potthast & Gert-Peter Brüggemann
    Footwear Science (online first)
     
  2. Admin2

    Admin2 Administrator Staff Member

  3. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
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    A couple of thoughts on this while I wait for a look at the full paper (and the devil is always in the detail):

    1. Perhaps all those who claim that traditional running shoes weaken muscles could explain why those in the traditional running shoe group got stronger and not weaker?

    2. While both shoes groups (traditional and minimalist) got stronger, the minimalist group got more stronger at the 25 degree of MPJ dorsiflexion. Is that really a good thing? Two takes on that:
    a) The authors have already previously shown that there may be a role for greater toe flexor strength to increase performance
    b) If the muscles get stronger --> muscles must be working harder --> is that a sign of an inefficient gait?
     
  4. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    OK, the full paper arrived (thanks Dan!) and as is often the case, the devil is in the detail

    I not convinced the results show what they did. They have certainly analyzed the data wrong. They have used repeated measure t-tests to do within subject comparisons which NOT how you analyze a randomized controlled trial. They should have done a between groups comparison.

    While I have no doubt based on observing the data that the two shoe groups got stronger, I not convinced that the minimalist group did even better at the 25 degrees if they did the proper between groups comparison (even the within subjects p value for the 25 degree traditional shod group was pretty close to the 0.05 with a p of 0.053 (left foot) and 0.073 (right foot).
     
  5. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    OK, I have had two emails about this (I wish they would post here so the dialogue is public) with one of them being quite vile (which I take as evidence that I am right as they can't actually litigate the issues).

    To respond to the emails publicly:
    There is only one appropriate way to analyse and present the results of a randomized controlled trial and that is clearly outlined in the CONSORT statement. This statement of how it should be done and is agreed to by experts in clinical trials methodology and ALL the editors of ALL the major medial journals around the world. Anyone can go and read the details on the CONSORT website and see that the paper above did not comply (specifically doing a within groups analysis rather than the appropriate between groups analysis).

    For more, see the thread on shockwave for neuromas (in which the appropriate between groups analysis showed the opposite of what the author originally claimed) .

    From the above study and the within groups analysis there is no doubt that the muscle strength increased in both the traditional and minimalist group. HOWEVER, the claims by the authors that the minimalist group increased more is not supported statistically until we know the results of a between groups analysis. Yes, there was a statistically significant increase in the minimalist group at 25 degrees, but we do not know if that was statistically significantly greater than the traditional shoe group which also increased, but did not quite approach statistical significance in the within group analysis (it might or might not be greater). We simply do not know.

    NB: if you want to send me any more vile emails; first convince me you know the differences between a within groups and between groups analysis.
     
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