This is indeed the most important step and the least likely to be mistaken. If you make a mistake, you may end up spending hundreds or even thousands on running shoes that you think are awesome and wear them for a day of running, and you will be worse off than dead! Regarding this point, little Su Wuwang, please come out and speak for yourself!
Generally, there are three running postures, valgus, varus, and severe varus. These three are continuous and progressive relationships.
Generally speaking, these three have this corresponding relationship:
Valgus - high arch - no splayed feet or splayed feet - corresponding running shoes: shock-absorbing type
Pronation (insufficient eversion) - no splayed feet or splayed feet - medium and low arches - corresponding running shoes: stable type
Severe varus - typical flat feet - —Severe external pronation—corresponding running shoes: posture correction type
The vast majority of people are either valgus or varus, and there are very few people who still run with severe varus. If you have severe pronation... Unfortunately, it is difficult to buy shoes with severe pronation... Very few are particularly good ones...
It is easy to judge the shape of your feet. You can tell it yourself by taking off your socks. . However, you can roughly judge your posture based on your foot shape, but remember: this judgment is inaccurate! People with high arches can also turn out, and people with low arches can also turn in! It can be slightly more accurate if you have splayed feet, but the running posture and walking posture are slightly different, so it is still not 100% accurate.
There are several ways to make a 100% accurate judgment. One is a professional machine that measures your running posture, or an experienced person can look at your posture while running. For those selling running shoes in Europe, the United States, and Japan, this is the basic configuration and the basic common sense of the store clerks. Sorry, I can hardly find it in the country.
Another 100% accurate method is to find a pair of running shoes without posture correction, including shock-absorbing running shoes, horse shoes, etc., until they are severely worn, and then judge by the wear and tear. This method is very accurate, but I don’t recommend it! Because most people can’t figure out whether their shoes have posture correction. If the shoes themselves have posture correction functions, the judgment results will be biased! Shoes that clearly do not have posture correction include Dovi's marathon shoes, Double Star and other ordinary sneakers. If you have run in these shoes, you can take a look at the forefoot. If the front sole is worn on the outside (the side of the little toe), then you have valgus, and if it is on the inside (the side of the big toe), it is varus. If the two sides are basically the same, but the middle seems to be severely worn, then you can try both shock-absorbing and stability running shoes.
Since most people who can make 100% accurate judgments are not qualified to do so, what should you do if you want to judge what shoes you should use? The method I recommend is as follows:
Determine your foot type, high arch or low arch. Then, in shoe stores, people with high arches mainly consider the shock-absorbing type, and also try the stable type. For those with low arches, they mainly try the stable type, and also try the shock-absorbing type. See which one is most comfortable and which model to choose. Remember, don’t put it on and take two steps, but put it on and run two laps! This is a big difference!
Let’s explain the specific differences between the various types of shoes.
In fact, all running shoes are shock-absorbing. So the so-called "shock-absorbing" running shoes do not mean that they are more "shock-absorbing" than others, but that they have no more functions besides shock-absorbing. The stability and posture correction type, in addition to shock absorption, is also responsible for correcting a bad running posture into a good running posture, making you more comfortable. So if you buy the wrong type, you may face the problem that your running posture will be wrongly distorted, making it even more uncomfortable. You can think of it this way: the best running posture is 0, and our running posture is a range from -2 to 2. Running shoes provide an addition and subtraction to make your value closest to 0. If your posture is 2, you should buy running shoes with -2. If you buy a +2 running shoe, your posture will become a more painful 4!
If possible, go directly to a Mizuno store and let them do a test for you.