One of the key elements for me when training with longevity in mind is avoiding injuries. Progressing slowly but steadily is a way better long-term strategy compared to spikes of hard training interrupted by recovering from injuries.
That said, I’ve always struggled with knee pain. I already had it during high-school where I had to skip sports class quite often due to getting knee pain from running etc. Later as well, when I started running more consistently, it became my favourite form of cardiovascular training. Quite often, I still got knee pain seemingly quite randomly, even when being careful with increasing the load.
A couple of years ago, I became interested in barefoot shoes — after starting using a pair for walking, I realized my toes had been pressed together and since then, most of my shoes are now barefoot-style. I avoided getting barefoot running shoes though, as I thought that since my knees already start hurting with cushioned shoes then it’d be even worse with barefoot shoes.
Since I became very aware of my little toe being pressed quite hard during running with regular shoes, I decided to try regardless — just 10 minutes first time, ramping up gradually. Surprisingly — the knee pain hasn’t occurred anymore over the past year! I noticed that when running with regular shoes, I’m naturally hitting the ground with heel more. The impact goes straight up from heel to the knee — with nothing to absorb it along the way. When running with barefoot shoes, I’m naturally landing on the forefoot first, and the foot “rolls” over to the middle- and backfoot smoothly. The ankle and calf seem to absorb part of the impact before it ever reaches the knee.
After I had tested it out and saw the results, I also researched if I can find any studies about this, and I did find a couple of supporting studies: Kayll et al., 2023 which concluded that minimalist shoes may reduce load through the kneecap joint while running, which is one plausible reason some runners feel less knee pain in barefoot-style shoes.
Also, Bonacci et al., 2014 study analyzed running barefoot and it found that running barefoot reduced peak patellofemoral joint stress compared with running in conventional shoes. As barefoot shoes try to mimic being barefoot as much as possible, this can also explain my reduced knee pain.
Running with barefoot shoes puts much more load on the tendons though — for the same reason it impacts the knee less — tendons absorb more impact. Since tendons adjust slower than muscles, it’s very important to start with small load and increase it carefully (I wrote in more detail about it here). Otherwise, it can still result in an injury!
Disclaimer: This is my own experience, not medical advice.
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