A majority (40%) had been running barefoot for greater than 1 year, with 23% of respondents between 6 months and 1 year, and 23% for 2–6 months. Only 6% of runners who partook
in the survey had tried barefoot running for less than 1 month (Fig. 2). Over 94% of participants incorporated some type of barefoot running into their weekly mileage. The majority of respondents ran only a small portion of their running barefoot, with 34% running less than 10%; however, 16% of participants ran 100% of their running barefoot (Fig. 3). The respondents ran barefoot on a variety of surfaces including grass (60%), city streets (55%), sidewalks (55%), trail (42%), and treadmills (19%). Respondents were allowed to select multiple surfaces, leading to totals equaling greater than 100% (Fig. 4). A majority of the participants KU-57788 molecular weight (53%) viewed barefoot running as a training tool to improve specific aspects of their running. However, close to half (47%) viewed barefoot training as a viable BTK inhibitor cost alternative to shoes for logging their miles (Fig. 5). Forty-two percent of respondents used minimalist shoes as part of their running shoe rotation, with 17% of respondents using them for 25%–75% of their runs, and 19% of the runners using them for less than 25% of their runs, 5% of respondents had plans to purchase a minimal shoe in the near future, and 17% did not use a minimal shoe in their training (Fig. 6). A
majority of runners (55%)
who participated in the study found no or slight performance benefit secondary to barefoot running. Over 39% of the runners found moderate to significant improvements in their race times. However, only 6% of respondents claimed to have gotten slower after starting barefoot training (Fig. 7). A large majority (64%) of runners participating in the study experienced no new injuries after starting barefoot running. Those who did experience Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase injuries mostly suffered foot (22%) and ankle (9%) problems (Fig. 8). Thirty-one percent of all respondents had no injury prior to starting barefoot running. A large amount of runners (69%) actually had their previous injuries go away after starting barefoot running. Runners responded that their previous knee (46%), foot (19%), ankle (17%), hip (14%) and low back (14%) injuries all proceeded to improve after starting barefoot running (Fig. 9). The data revealed that most respondents (55%) experienced Achilles or foot pain when they initially began the transition to barefoot running. However, 47% of these runners found that it resolved and went away fairly quickly. Only 8% of these runners had Achilles or foot pain develop into a chronic injury. A large percentage of respondents (45%) never experienced Achilles or foot pain during the transition to barefoot running (Fig. 10). This survey is the first study to obtain data on barefoot running and injuries.