Effect of rocker shoe radius on oxygen consumption rate in young able-bodied persons

We studied oxygen consumption rate of eleven young able-bodied persons walking at self-selected speed with five different pairs of shoes: one regular pair without rocker soles (REG) and four pairs with uniform hardness (35-40 shore A durometer) rocker soles of different radii (25% of leg length (LL) (R25), 40% LL (R40), 55% LL (R55), and infinite radius (FLAT)). Rocker soled shoes in the study were developed to provide similar vertical lift (three inches higher than the REG shoes condition). Oxygen consumption rate was significantly affected by the use of the different shoes (p<0.001) and pairwise comparisons indicated that persons consumed significantly less oxygen (per minute per kilogram of body mass) when walking on the R40 shoes when compared with both the FLAT (p<0.001) and REG (p=0.021) shoe conditions. Oxygen consumption was also significantly less for the R25 shoes compared with the FLAT shoes (p=0.005) and for the R55 shoes compared with FLAT shoes (p=0.027). The three-inch lift on the FLAT shoe did not cause a significant change in oxygen consumption compared to the shoe without the lift (REG).