Super Shoes & Form: How New Shoe Tech Alters Running Form with Chris Napier, PhD
The Strength Running Podcast
Jason Fitzgerald
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris Napier is the author of Science of Running, a professor of physical therapy, practicing physiotherapist, 2:33 marathoner, and medal winner at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in 1996 and 1997.
He is also a scientific advisor to Avelo, the world's smartest running shoe (I'm also an advisor!).
Today's focus is on super shoes and how they affect your running form:
- The specific form changes that happen due to high-stack foam and carbon plates
- Specific injury risks from super shoes
- How often Chris recommends wearing super shoes
- Training changes that reduce injury risk while wearing super shoes
Extra Resources:
- Geoff Burns, PhD on the science of super shoes (podcast)
- The main reason runners get injured (video)
- Chris Napier's first podcast appearance (podcast)
Please support our sponsors who help make the podcast possible!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ready, set, go! |
| 0:04.4 | This is episode 427 with the director of the Simon Fraser University Run Lab, author 233 marathoner, and practicing physiotherapist, Chris Napier. Welcome to the Strength Running podcast. |
| 0:27.5 | We surround you with the same experts as pro runners. |
| 0:30.3 | So keep listening to hear coaches, physical therapists, strength experts, dietitians, sports psychologists, and other thought leaders give you the best guidance possible to take your running to the next level. |
| 0:42.5 | I'm your host, coach Jason Fitzgerald. |
| 0:44.5 | I'm a former cross-country and track athlete for Connecticut College. |
| 0:48.1 | I've been coaching runners since 2010, and I'm a former columnist for Trail Runner magazine. |
| 0:53.2 | You can learn more about me and strength running at strengthrunning.com. |
| 0:58.3 | Now, I am feeling pretty amazing after a very fun weekend at my old school, Connecticut |
| 1:04.2 | College, to honor my cross-country coach, Jim Butler. |
| 1:07.1 | He was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his 30 years of coaching service, |
| 1:12.3 | and it was just so great to see him again, to reconnect with teammates from years ago, |
| 1:18.0 | and be around some of the best runners to ever go through the program. Now, Coach Butler was one |
| 1:22.6 | of those coaches that not only made you want to run to your potential and do things the right way, |
| 1:28.9 | but he was a guy that you wanted to be around. He led by example. He set a high standard himself, |
| 1:34.5 | and that's probably the best that you can ask of a coach to help you improve, |
| 1:39.3 | but also give you those life lessons that make you into a better person. So congratulations, coach. |
| 1:45.6 | This honor is very well deserved. Thank you for all your wisdom over the years and your help in |
| 1:50.8 | becoming the coach that I am today. And for our listeners, if you'd like to listen to a conversation |
| 1:56.1 | with Jim Butler, he was on the podcast in the summer of 2023 talking about development. Okay, moving on, |
| 2:04.1 | I'd like to support our sponsors who help make this podcast sustainable. Please consider using |
| 2:10.0 | their discount codes to keep this going. We are supported by Lever, a body weight support system |
... |
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