Health pros and cons
This body concept explains how joints, muscles, and nerves work together like connected links to move.
And when you use super spikes, this causes disruption in the ____.
What is the bio-kinetic chain?
Super spikes combine ultra-lightweight foam with this rigid component to maximize energy transfer.
What is a carbon fiber plate?
The earliest versions of running shoes with metal tacks hammered into the leather soles emerged during this century.
What is the 19th century (mid-1800s)?
These track shoes feature a highly rigid spike plate, maximum spike wells, and zero heel cushioning for maximum sprint velocity.
What are sprint spikes?
The fabric, knit, or mesh material covering the top portion of the foot that ensures breathability.
What is the upper?
Because the body is interconnected, Using spikes causes a breakdown or weakness in this core/hip area which often causes pain in this higher part of the back.
What is the lower back?
Super spikes can improve a runner's overall running economy by this approximate percentage.
What is 2%?
This founder of the company that would later become Reebok commercially sold some of the very first track spikes in the late 1800s.
Who was Joseph William Foster?
Unlike sprint shoes, these track spikes feature a softer, more durable heel region to cushion the foot over longer laps.
What are distance spikes?
The crucial middle layer of a running shoe responsible for shock absorption and housing specialized foams or plates.
What is the midsole?
Training strictly in highly-cushioned carbon footwear can lead to this problem in the intrinsic muscles of the foot.
What is muscle atrophy (or weakening)?
Rigid plates minimize flexion at this joint—the ball of the foot—preventing wasted energy during a push-off.
What is the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint?
The introduction of this material in the mid-20th century allowed spikes to be easily added or removed by athletes for the first time.
What is plastic (molded bottom plates)?
Designed with highly durable rubber outsoles and thick midfoot stabilization, these shoes handle dirt, mud, and grass.
What are cross-country shoes?
The direct vertical height difference between a shoe's heel cushion thickness and its forefoot cushion thickness.
What is the heel-to-toe drop?
This type of painful structural breakdown can happen to midfoot bones like the navicular if shoe geometry doesn't align with an athlete's stride.
What is a stress fracture?
While super shoes decrease structural fatigue in muscles, they drastically increase this type of stress on the upper leg bones.
What is mechanical/vertical loading stress?
In 1968, Puma introduced the "Tahoe" brush spike featuring 68 needle-like pins, which resulted in this action by World Athletics.
What is being banned from competition?
These non-spiked shoes offer a massive stack height and plush foam cushioning, completely isolating the foot from the ground.
What are maximalist running shoes?
The rigid, structured plastic insert at the back of the shoe that stabilizes the heel bone and prevents ankle slippage.
What is the heel counter?
When super shoes reduce the work required by the calves, the extra impact forces are shifted upstream to these two major joints.
This training strategy involves limiting super spike use to race days and high-velocity workouts to prevent injuries.
What is a periodized footwear strategy?
Brooks became the first company to use this lightweight, air-filled foam alternative to heavy rubber midsoles in 1975.
What is EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate)?
This classification of shoe uses firm material under the inside arch to explicitly limit overpronation (the foot collapsing inward).
What are motion control (or stability) shoes?
The upward curve at the back of a running shoe's sole that mimics the calcaneus bone to create an efficient landing roll.
What is a heel bevel?