Footwear - A Minimalist Approach

People love big squishy shoes.  They are full of support, comfortable and have lots of padding.  But are these really the best thing for our feet??        No way!

Believe it or not, our bodies are designed to run very efficiently.  There are aboriginal people that literally run for days to hunt down thier prey.  So what is the problem with big heeled, comfortable shoes?  They take us away from that efficiency.  They cause us to run in such a way that creates a very high potential for injury.

Do this experiment for me.  Seriously, try it right now.  Take off your shoes and stand on a hard surface.  Now jump up and down as if you were jumping rope on the balls of your feet.  Now try shifting that weight forward and jump on your toes.  Doesn't work very well does it?  Now try lifting the front of your feet and bounce up and down on your heels only.  Painful right?  That does not feel good.  Clearly, landing on the ball of the foot is the winner in this experiment.

So why are we told to run heel-toe, heel-toe?  I don't know!  That is not an efficient or safe way to run.  Does your back hurt when you run?  Chances are, you're landing on your heel. 

Think about this:  If you were to go out to the street right now, take off your shoes and socks and run down the street barefoot, would you run the same as you do in your shoes?  Probably not right?  I guarantee you won't be running down the street on your heels.  You would have a quick cadence, pulling those feet up off the ground quickly because you don't want to land full force on a sharp rock.  When we wear shoes, we ignore all of these environmental factors and just stomp along.

Another issue with big, squishy shoes is this:  They allow our feet to get weak.  Motion control, overpronation, underpronation, stability, heel cushion are all familiar things we hear when we go to the store and check out all the latest running shoes.  We buy shoe inserts, get orthodics made and do whatever we can to "fix" our feet.  Well guess what?  Our feet have muscles in them just like the rest of our body.  If they don't get worked, they get weak.  Putting inserts in your shoes to stop your foot pain is just a temporary solution and doesn't actually fix the root of the problem. 

You need to get those feet strong again!  The Tarahumara Indians are remarkable people that run very long distances with nothing but a piece of leather strapped to the bottom of thier feet.  Here is a good article in the New York Times talking about them:  Kick Off Your Shoes and Run a While. 

So what can YOU do to strengthen your feet?  Try this:  Every time you come to a red light in your car, make fists with your toes.  You can do the same while sitting at your desk at work, or watching tv at home.  Try to walk around barefoot as much as possible.  Go to a field or soft track and and run barefoot.  Start slow and do small amounts of time at first.  Gradually build up to running longer.  Try working out barefoot.  Do some squat jumps or box jumps with no shoes.  I bet you'll land alot softer and your knees with thank you as well!

There is so much info about this stuff, that I could just keep babbling on, but we'll wrap it up shortly.  We started off talking about shoes, so let's finish it.  Since it isn't practical to assume we can go barefoot all the time, what should we do?  Hopefully I've convinced you that mimimalistic shoes are the way to go.  Buy shoes without big soft heels.  They should be very flexible.  Don't buy shoes with huge arch support.  They should be very flat, low profile shoes.  I don't work for any shoe company, but here are a couple companies/shoes I recommend:  Adidas Adizero Pros, Vibram 5 Fingers, Inov8.

Lastly, go check out this website: http://www.posetech.com/  Watch some videos and read some articles.  Start thinking about your feet and how you run!