Effect of a Gait Retraining Intervention and a Minimalist Footwear Transition on Foot-ankle Strength, Running Economy and Injury in Endurance Runners.

NCT ID: NCT05499871

Last Updated: 2025-05-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 140 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-09-01
• Study Completion Date: 2024-09-30

Brief Summary

The main aim is to determine whether a gait retraining intervention will improve the strength of the foot-ankle muscle, the running economy and reduce the injury incidence in a one-year follow-up study. The secondary aim is to seek whether a minimal foot-ankle strength is necessary to reduce the risk to sustain to a running-related-injury to transit toward a forefoot strike pattern or toward a minimalist footwear for an endurance runner.

Participants will be assessed at baseline, at 2 month follow-up, at 6 month follow-up and at 12 month follow-up. Assessment will be composed by questionnaires, a foot screening, maximal voluntary isometric strength of foot-ankle muscle with hand held dynamometer. Then, participants will run on a treadmill at self-paced and at 10 km/h with to measure their running economy and their footstrike pattern. In function of their distribution, participants will receive either nothing (control group) or minimalist footwear or a training to modify their footstrike pattern toward a more forefoot strike.

Conditions

Running; Wounds and Injuries; Oxygen Consumption

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Minimalist footwear

Transition toward a minimalist footwear.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Transition to minimalist footwear.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Participants will receive a running minimalist footwear.

Footstrike pattern

Transition toward a forefootstrike pattern.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Gait retraining intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive a training to modify their footstrike pattern toward a more forefoot strike and increase their cadence by 7.5%.

Control

No intervention

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Gait retraining intervention

Participants will receive a training to modify their footstrike pattern toward a more forefoot strike and increase their cadence by 7.5%.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Transition to minimalist footwear.

Participants will receive a running minimalist footwear.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Run 15 km per week since minimum 6 month

Exclusion Criteria

• No running related injuries in the last 3 month before the participation.
• Have never worn minimalist footwear (minimalist index superior to 70%)
• Have never modified their footstrike pattern

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 55 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Liege

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Abran Guillaume

PhD student

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Guillaume Abran

Liège, , Belgium

Countries

Belgium

Other Identifiers

09082022

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id