What a Running Shoe Placebo Teaches Us About Pain and Recovery

Researchers at the University of Waikato in New Zealand brought 21 runners into the lab and put them through a full “clinical” gait analysis, like a high-end specialty running store experience.

Their foot shape was assessed, pressure data was collected, and their movement was observed during walking, running, and single-leg squats, all to supposedly fit the runner with the best possible shoe for their body and running style.

After the analysis, participants completed treadmill runs in either their “gait-matched” shoes or generic ones.

Runners found the gait-matched shoes to be more comfortable, better for performance, and lower risk for injury, but here’s the catch….

The two experimental shoes were identical in every physical way, except for color.  The only thing that changed was the story the runners were told about the shoe.

The “basic” shoe was described as generic and not particularly suited to the runner. The “gait-matched” shoe, on the other hand, was presented as the best option for their body and running style, enhancing comfort and performance while reducing injury risk.

And despite these perceptions, there was no meaningful change in the runners’ biomechanics.

The recommendation worked… without working.

I found this far more interesting than just exposing a deceptive ploy to sell running shoes. 

It showed that belief alone is enough to change our reality.  This phenomenon is known as the expectancy effect, also called a marketing placebo, which says that if you expect something to help, your brain often plays along.

And I find this especially relevant to pain and injury.

We usually frame recovery in terms of tissue healing, load tolerance, and progressive exposure. And those things absolutely matter, but the brain is still the gatekeeper.

Recovery isn’t just physical; it’s also perceptual change. And in a sense, we can gaslight ourselves into a faster recovery.

Pain, stiffness, confidence, and readiness to move are all filtered through perception.

If someone believes their joint is fragile, their movement is dangerous, or they’re “one wrong rep away” from re-injury, the nervous system stays protective, which slows recovery.

But if we flip that belief, with or without changing the physical inputs, pain often gets quieter and movement starts to feel better… just like the shoe.

This isn’t condoning lying to people or ignoring real tissue constraints.
It’s about recognizing that belief is a powerful variable.

This study shows that perception can be altered without biomechanical change, and in rehab and training, that means language, framing, and confidence all matter.

Sometimes the intervention that works best isn’t actually changing the body, but rather providing an input that changes what the brain expects.

At the same time, if you’re spending large sums of money or getting into potentially risky interventions without much scientific backing, it’s worth remembering…

You may not be changing the system at all; you may just be changing your beliefs.

But if you’re comfortable with what goes into the black box, and you’re happy with what comes out the other side, then you’ve got an effective solution…regardless of the mechanism.