If you're a man who is carrying around a few extra pounds, it can affect your running form and gait, making you more prone to injuries. Wearing the right running shoes will go a long way toward helping you stay in shape.
Shoe Mechanics
Most running shoes are made with extra cushioning and support for your feet and legs. Running shoes with stability and motion control features are geared to runners with certain types of feet and gait styles. To determine your foot type, wet your feet and stand on a paper towel or slab of concrete. If the entire outline of your foot on the concrete is filled in, you have low arches. If a portion of the inside middle of your footprint is missing, you have normal arches. If there is just a thin line connecting the top and bottom of your feet, you have high arches. Overweight runners commonly have low arches or flat feet.
Pronation, Supination
Your arches influence your running gait because they determine how your foot rolls when it hits the ground. Pronation is the inward roll of the foot as the outer edge of the heel strikes the ground. Runners with low arches tend to overpronate; their feet roll inward more than normal. Without proper shoe support, overpronators sustain injuries caused by excess pressure on the joints. Runners with high arches tend to supinate, which means their feet roll excessively outward.
Shoes for Your Foot Type
Runners with regular arches have a slight amount of pronation and can do well wearing a variety of running shoes. By contrast, overweight runners have low arches or flat feet, as excess body weight puts pressure on the arches, causing them to collapse. If you have low arches, look for running shoes with stability features. Stability shoes help limit the rolling motion in your stride. If you have no arches at all, try motion control shoes. Motion control shoes are even firmer than stability shoes and limit the excessive pronation caused by flat feet. Stability shoes also help limit the excess outward foot movement of runners with high arches.
Considerations
Overweight runners put extra pressure on their joints, especially their legs. For more support, choose running shoes with extra cushioning. Cushioning lessens the impact of your body weight.
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