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Biomechanics is the science of muscular activity, and biomechanical footwear is meant to

help us move more naturally and easily. Its a discipline devoted to building shoes and insoles
that work with our bodies throughout our daily lives. Footwear with a combination of many
of these key features is considered biomechanical:

1. Diffusion of foot pressure

2. Shock absorption
3. Custom-like cushioning
4. Arch support
5. Heel stability
6. Balance
7. Guidance for the feet and toes
8. Promotion of body alignment

Biomechanics and Your Shoes

Everyone walks a little differently, but for the most part youll fall into one of three
categories:

Youre a pronator After your heel strikes the ground, you roll your foot to the
inside, and you tend to have slightly more wear on the outside heel and inside ball of
your soles.
Youre an over-pronator You roll your foot more than normal (and tend to have
flat feet), and have excessive wear on the outside heel and inside ball of the foot.
Youre a supinator You roll your weight, and wear the soles of your shoes out,
along the outside of the foot. Supinators tend to have high arches.

Pronators need shoes with moderate amounts of cushioning and stability.

Over-pronators require more than stability, they need shoes with motion control to
prevent their foots excessive inward roll.

Supinators require maximum cushioning and flexibility in their shoes to make up for
the lack of natural shock absorption in their stride..

Wearing the wrong type of shoe can cause extra wear on your joints and soles and can create
training and over-use injuries.

By studying the motions of an athlete engaged in a sports movement, biomechanical engineers can
apply mathematical and engineering principles to derive functional criteria for the problems
encountered by the human body in motion.

Gait Analysis
Biomechanists utilize a method known as 'gait analysis' to evaluate human kinetics quantitatively.
These studies are conducted in the laboratory using high-speed photography and a force-measuring
platform. In high-speed photography, runners are filmed at speeds up to 500 frames per second. The
film is then analyzed by a high grade projector, which moves the experimental film through one
frame at a time. In most cases, markers are placed at specific 'points of interest' before filming takes
place. This new technology is better known as 'motion analysis.' As the individual moves about the
laboratory, a number of cameras scattered throughout the perimeter of the testing area detect the
spatial locations of each of the markers. These markers are placed at locations where important
measurements are to be taken, including the hip joint, the back of the shoe, and the back of the leg.
A screen displays the markers as dots moving about in a three-dimensional plane. The detected
signals are then converted to numerical data for mathematical analysis of each point throughout the
running cycle.

The second important tool in gait analysis is the force platform. This device is specially geared to
measure variations in forces under the foot during running. Data collected from force platform
measurements allow scientists to visualize 'invisible' forces acting on the soles of the feet. It is from
this device that we are able to observe, for example, that the reaction forces under the foot during
running can rise up to two to three times body weight. Pressure distributions throughout the foot
can be observed at given points in the running cycle

Shoe Testing
Biomechanics also plays an important role in the shoe testing process. Before the advent of dynamic
mechanical methods for evaluating shoe performance, the primary concern of the shoe industry was
to test materials for adhesion, attachment, seams, and fatigue due to the structural breakdown of
the shoe with use [3]. Biomechanical testing concentrates on the shoe in action and the resulting
stresses imposed on the runner.

There are several methods for shoe testing. In the general process, advanced technology is used to
determine the shoe requirements of runners in motion. Results of the test are analyzed and the
opinions and feelings of the runner are considered. These results are combined to produce a shoe
that both tests and fits well. Factors tested both in and out of the laboratory include shock
absorption, flexibility, heel counter stiffness, rearfoot stability , overall rearfoot control, sole wear
test, traction, and permeability to water. The testing procedures associated with these factors will
not be described at length in this article. However, the following image provides a summary of
selected running shoe features and corresponding design functions that have resulted from research

Shoe design, especially running shoe design, is a very precise and complicated process. It is also
paramount to the overall health of the end user. The shoes will be used under a broad variety of
conditions, by an infinite variation of body types. Who would have thought such a great
responsibility would fall on the shabby and smelly old sneaker?

Biomechanics is the study of how the systems and structures of biological organisms, from the
smallest plants to the largest animals, react to various forces and external stimuli. In humans,
biomechanics often refers to the study of how the skeletal and musculature systems work under
different conditions. In biomechanics more generally, scientists often try to apply physics and
other mathematically based forms of analysis to discover the limits and capabilities of biological
systems.
In a way, biomechanics has been around since the inquiring ancient Greek and Roman minds
began dissecting animals and vivisecting humans to discover the inner systems of our bodies.
Many of the great philosophers and scientists of our past tried their hand at some form of
biomechanics, from Aristotle, who wrote On the Motion of Animals in the 4th century BC, to
Leonardo da Vinci, who studied human muscle and joint function in 15th century Italy. In the
19th century, scores of Europeans were incredibly fascinated, for some reason, with the gait of
horses and extensively studied the biomechanics of a horse's galloping motion.
Today, rather than a field that scientists and philosophers dabble in, biomechanics is its own
branch of human and biological science, with entire departments in hospitals and universities
devoted to the subject's study.

Applications
Since biomechanics is the study of human movement and interaction with the environment, the
field has myriad applications in daily life and touches on many different sciences. Let's look at a
few examples of the areas in which biomechanics is most commonly used.
Biomechanics is certainly popular right now in sports and athletics. Sports teams and athletes
themselves often hire entire teams to study the movements and forces inherent in the various
regular motions and important actions during the playing of a sport. A good example of this is
the swinging of a baseball bat or golf club. These are both motions that contort the human body
in strange and irregular ways. Teams and/or individual athletes often hire scientists and
therapists well-versed in biomechanics to study an athlete's motion, often using slow-motion
cameras to study the angles and forces that go into each action. At the highest levels, figuring
out a way to squeeze that extra little bit of power out of a baseball player's swing can be the
difference between a pop fly and a home run.

What is Sport and Exercise Biomechanics?

Sport and Exercise Biomechanics is a title that encompasses the area of science concerned with the analysis of
mechanics of human movement. In other words it is the science of explaining how and why the human body
moves in the way that it does. In sport and exercise that definition is often extended to also consider the
interaction between the performer and his or her equipment and environment. Biomechanics is traditionally
divided into the areas of kinetics (concerning the analysis of the forces acting on the body) and kinematics
(concerning the analysis of the movements of the body).

What Do Biomechanists Do?

The following are the some examples of the areas where Biomechanics is applied to either support performers or
solve issues in sport or exercise:

The identification of the optimal technique for enhancing sports performance

The analysis of body loading to determine the safest method for performing a particular sport or exercise
task
The assessment of muscular recruitment and loading
The analysis of sport and exercise equipment e.g., shoes, surfaces and racquets.
Biomechanists are generally involved in attempting to either enhance performance or reduce the injury risk in the
sport and exercise tasks examined.