I had the pleasure of handing out water and snacks to participants at last month’s Bremerton Marathon. With hundreds of runners passing by my station over a few hours, I often got a good look at their shoes as I handed them a cup or wished them well.

Seeing so many footwear choices that day reminded me of a debate in running circles over the past several decades: is more cushioning or less cushioning better in running shoes? At first glance, it would seem like more cushioning would be better, especially when you consider that a runner’s lower extremities are subjected to forces several times greater than their body weight with every step. And if you were to ask the general public, most people would agree that shoes with more cushioning are better.

But is that really true? Is more cushioning ideal when it comes to running shoes? A deeper look into this topic, specifically regarding shock abruption and running economy, tells a different story.

We’ll start with shock absorption and an interesting 2018 article that provided some clarity on the effect that cushioning has on impact forces. The researchers in this study compared two running shoes (one with less cushioning and one with more cushioning) to see which shoe produced higher impact forces in runners. Interestingly, they found that wearing a highly cushioned shoe generated more impact forces than wearing a less cushioned shoe. They demonstrated this at two different training speeds, 10 km/hour and 14.5 km/hour.

One theory for this finding is that runners who wear highly cushioned shoes may subconsciously adopt a running pattern that increases loading rates. One example is overstriding or contracting the ground with your foot far out in front of your body. Overstriding is much easier in shoes with more cushioning and results in a higher loading rate than contacting the ground with your foot close to your body.

Running economy, or the amount of energy a runner expends while running at a specific speed, is also influenced by the amount of cushioning in the shoe. It has been shown that for every 100 grams of weight that you remove from the foot, in this case, the shoe, you save about 1% in economy. While this number seems small, it can translate into large changes in energy expenditure when running long distances such as the Bremerton Marathon. And even though the weight of the shoe is not directly related to the amount of cushioning, shoes with more cushioning are almost always heavier than those with less cushioning. Since a strong correlation exists between running economy and running performance, wearing a more cushioned, heavier shoe may actually decrease a runner’s performance.

Shock absorption and running economy are just two examples demonstrating that more cushioning in running shoes isn’t always a better choice. There is certainly a case to be made for some cushion, and there is an optimal amount, but just because a shoe feels comfortable when you try it on in the store doesn’t mean it will translate to the road, track, or trail.

Dr. Jordan Duncan is from Kitsap County and writes a monthly health column for Kitsap News Group. He is the owner of Silverdale Sport & Spine.