[pct-l] ROLLED & SPRAINED ANKLES - FOOT PLACEMENT

[Yoshihiro Murakami]

Dear Edward

The papers concerning gait and injury are very limited. They are
mainly about the rehabilitation of the patients.  I think your
hypothesis of foot direction may be a hypothesis.  I don't think your
hypothesis is proved.

In Japan, most of the trail are rugged and steep. Then, we are taught
to walk forward, putting right and left legs apart each other. And
many Japanese hiker are wearing boots. As a result,  their major
concern is injury of leg joints, not of ankles.

According to Japanese statistics,  294 persons were dead or missing in
2010. The cause is lost of   trail and fall from the cliff. The many
accidents happened at 14:00 pm.

We are also taught to walk within 70% of physical energy. When we are
tired, we tend to be careless, and accidents happen.

To avoid fatigue, I recommend to walk with a little narrow step,
because energy consumption decreases drastically.  The optimal walking
speed is 4-5km/h.

My circumstance is different from American, so I cannot understand why
American loves running shoes. Soft sole is unstable (Robbins, S.,
Waked, E., Gouw, G.J. ,\& McClaran, J. \ \ 1994 \ \  Athletic footwear
affects balance in men.{\it British Journal of Sports Medicine}, 28,
117-122.)

I think trail running shoes is more suitable for hiking if you love
shoes, because they have harder sole than normal running shoes.

-- 
Sincerely
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Hiro    ( Yoshihiro Murakami  村上宣寛 )
facebook  http://www.facebook.com/completewalker
Blogs  http://completewalker.blogspot.jp/
Photo  https://picasaweb.google.com/104620544810418955412/
Backpacking since about 1980 in Japan
JMT, 2009, 2010, 2011(half), 2012
Handbook of Hiking will be published in 2013
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