The Monday Shakeout: Do "Illegal" Stack Heights Matter for Recreational Runners?
By Matthew Klein
This week we address a question that is being asked of us more frequently as of late. World Athletics limits stack heights to 40mm for competition. While generally considered for elites only, sensationalism has had many recreational runners ask if they should be worried. Especially with the continued rise in stack height. Our founder Matt Klein attempts to answer this question.
According to World Athletics, the global governing body for sports, there is a stack height limit for footwear in a variety of track, field and road running events. For the 800m and above on the track, there is a 25mm limit. For road races, there is a 40mm limit. This is measured at 12% and 75% of the shoes length and the largest measurement is taken as the maximum. While most applicable to elite and highly competitive athletes placing in the top of major competitions, many recreational runners have asked if these rules also apply to them. This is an especially applicable question as most training shoes are now over 40mm and many shoes trainers/shoes that make excellent distance racing shoes for recreational runners also tower over that limit. These include the ASICS Superblast, Puma MagMax, Hoka Bondi/Skyward X, Brooks Glycerin Max, Nike Vomero Plus and many others that many runners choose to use for both training and racing. Even if you are not placing at the top of your categories, is it still "illegal" to use them in races?
The answer is technically yes, but practically no. Yes, these rules are supposed to be applicable to all people. There is a list that World Athletics provides that shoes all shoes that approved for competition. However, this list is mostly made of super racing shoes that are mostly for elite competitors. Top competitors, be it record breakers, elite category, open category, masters category, etc are certainly subject to these rules as large races do have the human power to observe and check the gear they are using. However, after the top finishers, races really do not have the ability to enforce this for the masses. A few great examples of this is how popular the ASICS Superblasts have been for racing, yet no recreational runners have been banned for their use (to our knowledge) and the number of influencers running in these shoes without consequence. The new Nike Vomero Premium, a shoe with a 55mm heel stack height, has been worn by many as part of a Nike promotion of the shoe at recent marathons (including Sydney, the newest World Marathon Major), and there have been no disqualifications. So unless you are planning on a top placement either as an elite, open or age-graded category in these major races, then you are fine.
From a biomechanical, non-global legality standpoint, there are some considerations with using these shoes. These tools are extreme and while often comfortable and fun, there are some trade-offs that runners need to be aware of. These tall stack height, highly rockered shoes do have some biomechanical trade-offs. Highly cushioned shoes provide the illusion of more cushioning, as runners often land harder and have greater internal joint forces compared to normal stack height shoes (Kulmala et al., 2018). The rockered profiles also shift forces and workloads from the foot and ankle up to the knee and hip (Sobhani et al., 2017). Loading patterns and the ability to shock absorb may change as you adapt to these shoes, making returning to moderate or lower stack shoes different. These shoes have different injury risk factors compared to normal training shoes and across the population do not decrease injuries. They have different injury types, so we suggest that during training, runners consider using a variety of shoes and stack heights if tolerable as a shoe rotation is one of the few things beyond smart training and strength training that can decrease injury risk (Malisoux et al., 2015).
For most recreational runners, illegal stack heights do not matter in races. Race officials will not be checking this for thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. If you are competing at the top of your level, be it elite, open, masters or age-graded, then you will have to follow the above strict standards. For individuals in those categories who do not want to use legal super racing shoes, this can be a challenge, given that there is an increasingly limited number of training shoes under 40mm. For everyone else, your race shoe should be the one you are most comfortable and confident in for that distance and pace. If that is an "illegal" stack height shoe, then use that shoe for your race. Unless there is some biomechanical or medical issue that prevents you from doing so, we still encourage you to use shoes with a a variety of stack heights during training to expose your body to different stimuli of injury prevention.
References
Kulmala, J. P., Kosonen, J., Nurminen, J., & Avela, J. (2018). Running in highly cushioned shoes increases leg stiffness and amplifies impact loading. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 1-7.
Malisoux, L., Ramesh, J., Mann, R., Seil, R., Urhausen, A., & Theisen, D. (2015). Can parallel use of different running shoes decrease running‐related injury risk?. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 25(1), 110-115.
Sobhani, S., van den Heuvel, E. R., Dekker, R., Postema, K., Kluitenberg, B., Bredeweg, S. W., & Hijmans, J. M. (2017). Biomechanics of running with rocker shoes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 20(1), 38-44.
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