Whole Body Kinematics When Walking with an Unstable (MBT) Shoe

Background: Many positive biomechanical effects have been attributed to the use of a shoe with unstable sole in the anterior posterior direction. When tested, however, only minor changes have been found in relation to each of the investigated joints and muscles in the lower limb. The purpose of this study was to evaluate biomechanical effects on whole body gait characteristics during walking with the Masai Barefoot Technology shoe (MBT) with focus on lower limb and trunk kinematics.
Methods: 18 healthy volunteers were tested using 3D gait analysis and force plates. Data were collected both for common training shoes and the MBT shoes. Joint and trunk specific data for the two different shoe types were compared using the non-parametric Wilcoxon matched pair test.
Results: The overall gait patterns were very similar when the MBT shoes were compared to normal training shoes. Some angular differences were statistically significant but the absolute changes were very small.
Interpretation: Many people experience positive effects when they use the MBT shoe but the biomechanical and kinematic changes are very small compared to common training shoes.