Sports
How to Choose the Right Running Shoes and Avoid Injury
Sports medicine physician Ana Paula Simões breaks down sizing rules, debunks pronation myths, and evaluates carbon-plated shoes.
Choosing the right running shoes goes far beyond style or what your peers are wearing. Sports physician and orthopedic surgeon Ana Paula Simões explains how to find the ideal footwear, protect your feet, and leverage footwear technology to boost performance.
Choosing the right running shoe is one of the most critical decisions in any road runner's or endurance athlete's routine. On Stemma Performance, host Bruna Mahn spoke with sports physician and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ana Paula Simões about essential criteria for picking footwear, preventing injuries, and knowing when advanced tech—like carbon plates—actually makes sense in your training plan.
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Comfort as the primary filter and leaving room in the toe box
Personal comfort should always be the top criterion when choosing athletic footwear. Dr. Ana Paula Simões advises against trying on or inheriting shoes already molded by someone else's gait. Additionally, shopping for shoes at the end of the day is a smart strategy, as feet tend to be more fatigued and retain fluid due to vasodilation, closely mimicking the conditions of a long run.
When trying on shoes, the golden rule is to leave roughly a thumb's width of space between your longest toe (which for many people is the second toe, rather than the big toe) and the end of the upper. This buffer keeps toes from suffering repetitive microtrauma against the shoe's structure, preventing blisters, calluses, and common subungual hematomas that lead to lost toenails.
Protecting toenails and activating foot flexors
Losing toenails during marathon and long-distance training does not have to be an inevitable rite of passage. In addition to ensuring adequate room up front and applying petroleum jelly to toenails to reduce friction, Dr. Simões points out that many toe injuries stem from weak flexor muscles (such as the flexor hallucis longus and the toe flexors).
When runners rely solely on the calves and Achilles tendon, the toes tend to strike the top of the upper rather than contributing to flexion and propulsion. Incorporating functional barefoot exercises helps retrain these intrinsic foot muscles, relieving excessive load on the forefoot.
Cushioning, drop, and the myth of stability-correcting shoes
For beginners, shoes with moderate cushioning and an intermediate drop (around 8 mm) help the body absorb impact while muscles and tendons have yet to build an effective spring-like mechanism. Footwear with excessively high stack heights or overly plush foams requires caution, as it increases joint instability and raises the risk of ankle sprains on turns and uneven surfaces.
Regarding the traditional division between overpronation and supination shoes, Dr. Simões clarifies that modern sports medicine prioritizes neutral, stable footwear. Because anatomy and gait dynamics vary widely from person to person—often differing between the left and right foot—biomechanical issues should not be addressed with off-the-shelf stability shoes. True corrections require a professional evaluation and custom orthotics placed inside a neutral shoe.
Midsole recovery and shoe rotation
Modern performance foams undergo mechanical compression under the continuous pounding of each stride. To regain their original density and shape, midsoles need an estimated 24-hour rest period.
Daily runners benefit significantly from alternating between two pairs of shoes. This practice extends the lifespan of the foam and ensures that the cushioning system performs efficiently on every run.
Carbon-plated shoes: speed boost or muscular liability?
Using carbon-plated footwear demands baseline musculoskeletal conditioning. The plate acts as a rapid propulsion lever that shifts greater mechanical stress onto the posterior chain and foot structures if the runner lacks adequate strength.
Rather than relying on a strict pace cutoff, suitability depends on athletic maturity and load tolerance. The general guideline is to reserve plated models for specific quality workouts (such as track intervals and tempo segments in long runs) and race day, keeping daily base miles in standard trainers to build foundational strength.
The importance of strengthening the foot core
A runner's foundation starts with strengthening the foot core. Modern habits of spending the entire day in restrictive footwear weaken the plantar musculature and diminish proprioception.
Simple habits—such as walking barefoot in safe indoor environments, performing towel scrunches and marble pickups, or doing short barefoot strides during cooldowns—help rebuild foot strength, making runners more efficient and far less prone to injury.
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