Orthotics or barefoot? HELP!

Barefoot

dude, if your shoes weigh as much as rollerblades do, go neutral low-profile (thinking the Saucony Kinvara for instance)

To add to my last response, Orthotics are known to absolutely screw around with your gait and it sounds like you are using hard (not soft) orthotics. In this case, your feet is locked in a coffin and your knees are not acting normally. Also, certain muscles are bound to get strained or contused as a result of the heavier shoes (I can let the sport science majors explain this one)

I treat sports injuries for a living. The only time I recommend orthotics is for heel strikers with a pronation problem that causes issues with the tibialis posterior (medial ankle and medial lower shin pain). Sometimes, people's posterior tibs are so weak that even with a mid for forefoot strike there is extreme heel valgus. If you don't have this problem and you forefoot or midfoot strike, stick with the minimalist, or as minimalist as you can handle for the mileage you do. If you run 100+ miles a week, you might be better doing the longest runs in the normal trainers. While barefoot running may seem natural, pavement/blacktop/track surfaces are not natural surfaces so please wear shoes when not running on grass or other natural surfaces without sharp stones.

What kind of injury? What's your footstrike? What brand/model of shoes?

Well if minimalism and barefooting work so well, how'd you end up injured in the first place?

Ironically as you say that about the posterior tibialias, I recall that was a cause of my plantar fascitis case and I found a mix of supplemental barefoot running and ankle strengthening was a major fix in both the PT and the PF (I did find a way to maintain mileage during the rehab by using ankle supports so that the knee wasn't thrown off, but the ankle was still getting supported)

I've done both. I was a pretty good high school runner (4:15). I had shin problems my whole career. Once I went to college and put in more miles, my shins became worse...6 posterior tibial stress fractures. In the middle of my college career, I was given custom made orthotics and switched to different shoes. I was excited because a teammate of mine did the same with a different injury and was feeling better. Well...it did nothing. Actually it made it worse. I went on the rest of college injured and hardly racing. After college, I took a year off of running and then started back up. I did a bunch of things to try and make sure my shins wouldn't act up like before. One of those things was the whole minimal/barefoot idea. It has completely changed my running around. I wish I would've tried this back in college. Who knows what I would've done.

The thing is...everyone is different. Like I said, my teammate did great with orthotics. You need to make a decision and stick with it. Keep a log so you can look back. If things go bad, go the other route. The good news is I bet one of them will cure you.

Good luck!

hey i would try both everyone is different but what worked best with me well the only thing i ever tried was orthotics and they helped my running out a lot

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We weren't made to wear shoes. However, our society is constructed in such a way that shoes are necessary and expected. Some shoes are like casts, limiting pronation (which is natural) to the point that all sorts of problems occur. And others offer little to no support, which leads to all sorts of problems as well. Our feet and legs aren't used to going long periods of time without support because we've been wearing shoes our whole life! Luckily many shoes are in the middle of these two extremes, and that's the kind of shoe you will want. It will take a bit of time to build up your ankles and feet to handle less supportive shoes. But they offer a better long term solution to minimalist shoes and your current shoe bricks.

I personally have a shoe "rotation." I wear Nike Zoom xc's and spikes for all of my track workouts. When on the roads or longer runs I'll wear my adizeros. I also have a pair of lunarglides that I'll wear if my feet or ankles feel sore and I feel they need a break. It took me a long time to figure out what's best for me, and it will take time for you to find out what works for you. Just be patient and willing to pull pieces of info and advice from both sides of the never ending shoe debate to create your ideal combination. Good luck!