Transitioning from Low Drop to High Drop Shoes

Audio Transcript

Coach Sinead: Hi everyone. Welcome to this latest episode of Extra Kick brought to you by Runners Connect.

I’m back to answer your training questions and help you run smarter and faster. Today, we have a great question from Chris.

Chris: I know when you switch to a lower drop shoe from a higher one, you should ease into that transition over a period. Is there a transition period needed if you switch from a lower drop shoe to a higher drop shoe?

For example, if I’m going from a 4 mil to an 8 or a 10 millimeter drop, is that something that I need to ease into or can I switch into that relatively quickly? Thank you.

Sinead: This is a great question Chris and one that I don’t think we’ve ever gotten at Runners Connect. Usually, like you said, the question is how to transition from a high drop shoe to a low drop shoe.

I will say with anything, you always have to have a bit of a transition period. If you’re changing anything at all, whether it be in your training, what you wear on your feet, what you use to fuel, everything requires a bit of a transition period and a bit of a period of adaptation.

I will say that unlike transitioning to a low heel to toe drop shoe, transitioning from a low drop shoe to drop shoe doesn’t take as much adaptation.

For those listening who aren’t familiar with the heel to toe drop, this is the difference in the combined height of the midsole and the outsole, where the back and front of your feet sit in a shoe.

For instance, if a shoe has a height of 21 millimeters in the heel and a height of 15 millimeters in the fore foot, the heel to toe drop would be 7 millimeters.

When you are transitioning from a high drop shoe to a low drop shoe, there is a transition period needed to avoid injury and to make sure that your body can adapt to the new footwear.

Say you are doing the opposite of what Chris is asking, you are transitioning from a high drop to low drop shoe; Most runners have weak lower leg muscles and so this is true of people in general; most people do have weaker lower leg muscles.

When you transition from something that’s got more cushion and more of a difference between the heel and the fore foot, you are going to engage the muscles in your feet more – you’re going to engage your lower leg muscles and even your core more.

This is partly because your stride will start to shorten, and you will also start lending more on your mid foot and fore foot when you’re running in these more minimalist shoes.

That’s why, when you do transition from a more cushioned shoe to a more minimal shoe or from a high drop to a low shoe, you should do so very gradually because this forces your running form to change slightly.

It forces you to recreate muscles in your feet that you don’t normally use in more cushioned shoes and more high drop shoes.

Oftentimes when you see people transition too quickly to these low drop minimalist shoes, you’ll see they get calf muscle strains, Achilles, tendonitis, lots of lower leg injuries that could be avoided if they just transition more gradually.

By transition I mean you must rotate your shoes. If you are going to go from high drop to low drop, you want to wear the shoes you’ve been training in about every other day for a few weeks.

I would say four weeks minimum. What you could do is either wear the low drop shoes on one day, the high drop shoes the next day, and just keep alternating day by day.

Or you can wear the high drop shoes more on your long runs and your easy days and wear the low drop shoes on your workout days, where you want to be a little bit closer to the ground anyway and a little bit lighter on your feet.

That would be a good way to transition as well. Chris, you’re asking if there needs to be a similar transition period when transitioning from low drop to high drop.

My short answer for this is that yes, there needs to be a transition period but it’s nowhere near as long as if you were to transition from high drop to low drop.

This is because when you make this transition, the higher drop shoes you’re transitioning into are not only going to distance your foot further from the ground, but the muscles in your feet and lower legs that you’ve been recruiting, wearing these learned drop shoes, won’t be recruited as much when you switch to these higher drop shoes.

That’s why you don’t hear about a lot of runners transitioning from low to high drop, getting injuries like Achilles and Tendonitis because you’re just not recruiting as many of the little muscles in your feet and lower legs, as you would be with these lower drop shoes.

When transitioning from a shoe that’s got a lower drop, to a shoe that’s got a higher drop, and you mentioned a four millimeter to either an eight millimeter or 10 millimeter drop shoe, this won’t take much time for your body to adapt.

Rotate your shoes for a week.

Wear the shoes you’ve been running in every other day and the new pair every other day and by the end of the week, you should be nice and ready to make the full transition.

I really just say that because I do like to err on the side of caution. When changing anything, like I said earlier, if you’re going to change something in your diet or training, there is going to be a little process of adaptation but with this, you can very nearly do it immediately.

You can make that transition quickly.

Again, I like to err on the side of caution and would rather have you rotate between the shoes you’re familiar with the new shoes every other day until you want to go ahead and make the full transition.

I would say that with any pair of shoes you buy, just make sure that you do rotate for a few days until you make the transition into the new ones.

When it comes to high drop and low drop shoes, everybody is different. There isn’t one that is best for everybody.

Sometimes I wish it were that easy – that there was a universal shoe that was just perfect for everyone – but everyone is different.

Everyone has their own preferred movement path, and everyone has different proportions. Of course, not one type of shoe is going to suit everybody. You should experiment a little bit and see what works best for you.

But in terms of transitioning from a low drop to high drop shoe, Chris, that’s what I would say. It’s a very brief transition process.

Rotate your shoes for about a week to ensure your body can adapt and you’re not throwing it for any loops.

Chris, I hope that helps. Thank you so much again for submitting that one. Really interesting question and we have not ever had anything quite like that on the show yet. I enjoyed answering that one for you.

For all our other listeners, if anyone has any questions they would like answered in an upcoming episode again, please do feel free to submit those at runnersconnect.net/daily.

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