It has been rumored that the stiff plates contribute to achilles pain. As there are obviously no studies in this area, the experiences you guys have would be greatly appreciated, so please chime in! By the way, I have stiff Nike’s and I do have chronic achilles pain. But maybe I would have had it with a flexible shoe anyway?
Most achilles problems are surely due to lack of flexibility in the area or a training overload … no need to blame the shoes … though of course there might be exceptions if the shoe is very poorly designed.
I could have sworn that an old Charlie post implied wear and tear on the achilles from stiff-plated shoes. If I’m wrong, just slap me around a bit!
If your sole plate won’t bend, you’ll have achilles problems soon enough! And your damn right you can blame the shoes!
Look at the optimal spikes thread, there lot’s of people talk about that. Maybe it has to happen to one to notice.
Wow, I wish I’d spoken up sooner, could have saved me a lot of pain. I’ve got Nike Superfly G5’ s with a stiff plate, and I guess they are making my achilles tendon’s just as stiff. Not to be cheap, but I guess these are just an injury waiting to happen, and I should replace them with a flexible plate shoe?
Well at the end of the day people have different shaped feet etc, so while you may not get on with the G5’s someone else might. Could be a good idea to keep hold of them and sell em!!! I personally would change em if they are causing probs, the last thing we want is achilles injuries…
If you sell them, make sure it’s not to a friend- or anyone who knows where you live!
Hehe-got it!
im bringing this up because i have superfly G5 and i have flat feet, no achilles problems as of yet. Recommended?
i the same spike plate and never had problems. check ur training
You need spikes that allow the big toe to move freely, if not you may get problems with your deep toe flexors, which can cause similar pain to achilles problems.
If the big toe doesn’t move, the stress is transferred to the Achilles, and, eventually, you’ll have a problem, even if you haven’t so far.
guys cast your minds back to barcelona 1992 semi-final.mark witherspoon pulled up in the second semi with a ruptured achilles in what he blamed to his shoes for the cause…i spoke to him about this and he blames the shoes for sure.since then this brandname have address problems
just to point out pretty much every nike guy except francis obikilew wears the spikes with the mentioned plate. be it on the white and red superfly g5’s(the mentioned shoe) like scott or on the green powercats(same upper as obikilew same plate as scott) that you see asafa wearing.
I’m another voter for the stiff plate causing achillies problems: it only became apparent as the intensity continued to rise. With good recovery practices in place, including several massages per week, contrast, tempo, supplementation etc, other variables were changed (flats, surface, plyo’s, reduced training, pool work) except for the spikes (surely it couldn’t be those spikes!) and unfortunately the problem persisted. With everything else constant, a shift from the superfly’s to the flexible plate mizuno saw the achillies problem subside over a month or two. Now, at even higher levels of performance, and everything else being essentially equal, the problem has not returned.
d_nasty, do they train on those though?
i wouldn’t know very well for a fact, but from what i recall from the paucity of training shots i’ve seen of the top guys with nike(specfically powell and gatlin) they ran in the stiff plate that is mentioned. it certaintly doesn’t have a ton of give but personally i don’t think its a bad plate. perhaps in training it should be cycled with a more flexible plate. but it has been the plate of the champions and top performers of the past few seasons:
Asafa obviously. 2004/2005 world/olympic champ gatlin. mo green. pretty much all the nike guys except francis race with this plate with either a light flexible upper or a lockdown upper.
the adidas dudes use a similar spike and adidas doesn’t have a flexible spike for training. so that pretty much covers the final at any major championship everyone is in stiff spikes. only guys i’ve seen in flexible spikes in the 100m are Francis obviously and Marcus Brunson(in some 19.99$ clearance nike rival S’s from 2004, he ran 10.03).
the powercat the top nike spike. used by most nike short sprinters.
this spike has been around in different variants since the late 90’s used by Scott and a few others. same plate as the green ones above
supposedly similar to the gold shoe of MJ this is the shoe Francis uses.
Celar I. the spike Monty used for the old 100WR. supposedly an amazing plate that can be used for 100-400 without problems, pretty much the king of sprint spikes. intrestingly enough nike is gonna bring this plate on a mens spike in january and made a womens spike with this plate last year.
but back to your question nik. i would imagine that all the nike guys train in “stiff” plates just because their alternatives are out of production spikes or mid distance spikes(francis’ spike is actually popular up to the 1600 in high school comp).
i am a bit of a spike fiend. hey their are worse hobbies.
edit: didn’t want to mention the nike mosterfly because simply put they make motion control distance trainers look like jasaris. for those who don’t know jasaris are a nike spike from the mid 90’s that crazy high school distance runners will pay upwards of 125$ for USED.
I saw Tim’s WR spikes and they were very flexible, as were the one’s Marion used. Remember, what the top athletes insist on and what is mass produced may not be the same.
The last few Adidas spikes I saw were just brutal and injured both the wearers I know right away!
Remember when Mo switched over to Adidas- and pulled his calf the first week? Wonder if he hadn’t had a chance to customize his shoes yet?
Yea the newer adidas spikes suck. Anything after the original lightsprint and powersprint release are too stiff and have a “bulky” plate design.