Mother Nature has outpaced science once again: the bare human foot is better for running than one cushioned by sneakers. What about those $125 high-tech running shoes with 648 custom combinations? Toss em, according to a new study published online January 27 in the journal Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). "Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts," Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, said in a prepared statement. "But actually you can run barefoot on the worlds hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain…It might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes." Lieberman and his group used 3-D infrared tracking to record and study the running and strike style of three groups of runners: people who had always run barefoot, people who had always run with shoes, and people who had switched from shoe to shoeless. They found that when runners lace up their shmancy sneakers and take off, about 75 to 80 percent land heel-first. Barefoot runners—as Homo sapiens had evolved to be—usually land toward the middle or front of the foot. "People who don wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike," Lieberman said. Without shoes, landing on the heel is painful and can translate into a collision force some 1.5 to 3 times body weight. "Barefoot runners point their toes more at landing," which helps to lessen the impact by "decreasing the effective mass of the foot that comes to a sudden stop when you land," Madhusudhan Venkadesan, an applied mathematics and human evolutionary biology postdoctoral researcher at Harvard who also worked on the study, said in a prepared statement. But as cushioned kicks have hit the streets and treadmills, that initial pain has disappeared, and runners have changed their stride, leading to a way of high-impact running that human physiology wasn evolved for—one that the researchers posit can lead to a host of foot and leg injuries. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that our bodies are still better engineered than new-fangled trainers. When taking into account our ancient ancestors, "humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years," the researchers wrote in their study. "But the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s." Another recent study, by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and published last December in the academys journal, PM R, found that wearing running shoes "increased joint torques at the hip, knee and ankle," when compared to barefoot running. Even a jog in high heels was better for joints than specialized tennis shoes. Despite the growing movement of barefoot (or more lightly shod) runners, many researchers are calling for more evaluation before all those sweaty sneakers are abandoned. "There is no hard proof that running in shoes… causes injuries," William Jungers, a professor of anatomical sciences at Stony Brook University in Long Island, NY, wrote in a commentary that accompanies the new study. But, he asserted, "In my view there is no compelling evidence that it prevents them either." And as a boost to the barefoot argument, he added: "There are data that implicate shoes more generally as a plausible source of some types of chronic foot problems." So perhaps you can skip those sneakers, say the study authors. "All you need is a few calluses," Lieberman said. 研究发现：赤脚跑步可能更有利 自然之母又一次胜过了科学：赤脚跑步比穿运动鞋跑步更加有利。那些有648种定做组合的价格高达125美元的高科技跑鞋还有什么用?扔掉它们吧，这是在线发表在1月27日的《自然》(Nature)杂志上的一项新的研究的建议。(《科学美国人》Scientific American杂志是自然出版集团(Nature Publishing Group)的一部分。) Daniel Lieberman是哈佛大学(Harvard University)的一名人类进化生物学教授，他在一份声明中说：“今天大多数人认为赤脚跑步很危险，容易受伤，但是实际上你可以在世界上最坚硬的地面赤脚跑步，你不会有丝毫的不适和疼痛…赤脚跑步比有些人穿鞋跑步的方式可能更不容易受伤。” Lieberman和他的研究小组用3维红外线跟踪来记录和研究三组跑步者的跑步情况和他们的触地方式。这三组跑步者分别是：经常赤脚跑步的人;经常穿鞋跑步的人;原来穿鞋跑步，后来赤脚跑步的人。 研究者们发现，当跑步者穿上新奇时髦的跑鞋起跑后，大约75---80%的人脚后跟先着地。赤脚跑步者——正如智人进化过来那样——通常用脚的中部或者前部着地。Lieberman说：“不穿鞋的人在跑步的时候，他们的触地方式非常的不同。” 不穿鞋的时候，用脚后跟着地会很痛，这样导致的碰撞力有体重的1.5到3倍。来自哈佛大学的Madhusudhan Venkadesan是一名应用数学和人类进化生物学的博士后研究人员，他也从事这项研究工作，在一份声明中他说：“赤脚跑步者在着地的时候更多地用到脚趾，这样通过降低足部在突然停止时候的有效质量，从而有利于减轻冲击力。”但是，穿上鞋后，触地就有了缓冲，人们在街道上或者在跑步机上跑步的时候，这种原有的疼痛就消失了，跑步者改变了他们的跑步步态，这样就产生了一种高冲击力的跑步方式，而人类生理学却没有进化成这种方式—研究者们认为这种跑步方式能导致很多足部和腿部的伤病。 我们的身体仍然比新奇时髦的跑鞋设计的更为合理，对于这一点，或许我们不会感到奇怪。研究者们在他们的研究中写道：“考虑到我们的远古祖先，人类进行耐力跑已有几百万年的历史了，而现代跑鞋直到上个世纪70年代才发明出来。” 最近另外一项研究由美国身体医学与康复研究院(American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation)完成，该项研究成果发表在该研究院去年12月份的杂志PM R上。该研究发现，与赤脚跑步相比，穿跑鞋跑步“增加了髋关节、膝关节和踝关节处的转矩”。即使在慢跑中穿上有根儿的鞋子也比穿专业网球鞋对关节更有好处。 尽管赤脚(或者穿很轻的鞋)跑步的风潮越来越热，许多研究者呼吁在完全扔掉那些臭烘烘的运动鞋之前，仍然需要进行更多的评估。来自长岛(Long Island)纽约州立大学石溪分校的(Stony Brook University)的William Jungers是一名解剖学教授，他在这项新研究的评论中写道：“还没有确凿的证据表明穿鞋跑步能导致伤病。”不过，他肯定地说：“就我的观点而已，也没有令人信服的证据表明穿鞋就能避免伤病的发生。”他补充说道：“有数据显示，对于某些慢性足部问题而言，鞋子通常被认为是问题的可能根源。”这也可以作为对赤脚理论的一种支持。 这项研究的作者说，或许你可以不用穿那些运动鞋了。Lieberman说：“你需要的只不过是一点儿老茧而已。” Vocabulary: Barefoot：赤脚 Outpace：赶超 Cushion：垫子;缓冲 Sneaker：运动鞋 Evolutionary：进化论的 Discomfort：不适 Injurious：有害的 Infrared：红外线的 Astonishing：令人惊奇的 Homo sapiens：智人 Collision：碰撞 New-fangled：新奇怪异的;时髦复杂的 Ancient：古老的 Ancestor：祖先 Endurance：耐力 Rehabilitation：修复;康复 Shod：穿着…鞋的 Evaluation：评价 Abandon：抛弃 Anatomical：解剖的 Commentary：评论 Assert：断言;明确肯定 Compelling：令人信服的 Boost：增强;提高 Implicate：涉及;表明…是起因 Plausible：有道理的;可信的 Chronic：慢性的 Callus：老茧
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