Effects of a rebound shoe to reduce impact forces in jump-landing tasks

Abstract

Objectives: Impact forces are risk factors for injuries during jump-landing tasks. Rebound shoes could reduce impact forces and show potential applications in training and rehabilitation programs. Here, we determine the capacity of a rebound shoe in attenuating impact forces during different motor tasks involving foot landing.

Design: Crossover laboratory research design.

Settings: Women not trained for jump-landing tasks performed different exercises while the vertical ground reaction force impact peak, time to peak, and asymmetries were determined. They were wearing a commercial rebound shoe and a control running shoe. Paired t-tests were used to compare the shoes and asymmetries.

Participants: Fifteen physically active women (average age of 23 years old, height of 1.64 m, and body mass of 63 kg).

Main outcome measures: Ground reaction forces.

Results: The rebound shoe reduced the impact peak force and elicited slight asymmetries between the legs. The rebound shoe also showed a longer time to peak.

Conclusions: The rebound shoe tested reduced impact forces during jump-landing tasks, which is a potential application in training sessions and rehabilitation programs, requiring lower impact forces to the lower extremity. The effects of long-term use of these shoes still need to be investigated.

Keywords: Kinetics; Knee; Lower extremity; Motion analysis; Shoes.