Rotate between two pairs to reduce injury risk

What to Do

Once you're running regularly, buy a second pair of running shoes (different model or brand) and alternate between them on different days.

Why It Works

A 2013 study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that runners who rotated between multiple shoe models had a 39% lower injury risk than single-shoe runners. The mechanism: different shoes alter your biomechanics slightly, distributing stress across different tissues rather than overloading the same structures repeatedly.

Tips

• The two pairs don't need to be drastically different — even two models from the same brand works
• Your primary pair handles most miles; the secondary pair can be for shorter or recovery runs
• This also extends the life of each pair since foam has time to decompress between runs
• Wait until you're running 3+ times per week before investing in a second pair