Should You Toss Your Running Shoes and Just Go Barefoot?

vibram five fingers ouchie warning

I first saw the vibram five fingers on this site which does contain great information:

http://barefootrunningshoes.org/vibram-fivefingers/

The shoes are amazing but be warned!! first time you run in them TAKE IT EASY! you be sore for a while.. took about a week for me and even then i felt a little more tight near the calf areas... I'm not sure i there's a good way to slowely work your way up to vibrams or barefoot.. Now i love them, but be warned... if you havent ran for a while or if you enver run barefoot.. walk for a while first.

btw I have the KSOs.

http://barefootrunningshoes.org/vibram-fivefingers/men/kso-men/

vibram fivefingers

hi katherine, i wonder why you didn't mention the vibram fivefingers in your post but happened to mention all the other brands of shoes that are supposedly barefoot. Some of them are more minimalist than regular shoes. but most of them still have too much bulk to really give you the full benefits of barefoot running.

The popular runner barefoot ted mentions that even the nike frees are too bulky.. he suggest going straight barefoot and sometimes training with the vibrams if the terrain allows. There's actually a wealth of information on "barefoot running shoes" out there, im particularly interested in the vibrams thhough, any thoughts?

The site i found with a lot of relevants posts is this one:

http://barefootrunningshoes.org/

How I fixed my uncomfortable running shoes

I’ve been attached to my running shoes and I thought they were fine but I started to get back pain and a friend recommended I get new shoes at this place called Foot Solutions. If you haven’t heard of them I highly recommend a visit. I went and had a free foot screening done and they told me so much about my feet and how the proper shoe can help with other health issues which seem unrelated to your feet. I also didn’t realize that my feet could actually be sending me "early warning signs" of diabetes, arthritis and circulatory problems. They don’t just have running shoes they also have sandals and inserts made specifically for your feet which you can add to your heels. Try looking for a nearby location at www.footsolutions.com

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Yes toss them, your old shoes are hurting you

At least toss them for some of the time so your natural foot strength gets retained rather than withering away due to the support of modern shoes.

You don't run on the balls as someone suggested, you land midfoot slightly on the outside edge with a slight roll onto the front for almost flat. Knees bent slightly and your legs doing the shock absorption. It's a complex area.

Build up takes time and can reveal all sorts of problems your regular shoes hid and probably caused. Transition over the last four months has revealed my body has been hiding an imbalance from me that caused an injury by the right leg taking extra load. "Barefoot" has made it easier for me to notice getting out of balance while running.

I'm (back) up to double figure miles comfortably in marathon training using FiveFingers but agree with other comments, suitable alternatives seem none existent and FiveFingers for running only exist as an accident.

If joints hurt from barefoot running your style is wrong. The only thing that hurts (except pre existing injury) for me barefoot is my feet that are still building up to taking the effort and most of the hurt is just fatigue. The muscles in my feet (now well developed) are still getting used to the increased distances which the rest of me was used to.

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Sandal Running

You've got to read the book, Born to Run before passing judgment on barefoot running. While primarily a travel-adventure book in the vein of Up in Thin Air and Walk in the Woods, it is replete with citations from peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Sports Biomechanics which indicate that expensive shoes, with their built-in orthotics cause greater injury than cheap shoes from Kmart. In fact, in one experiment just to prove the point that all the engineering "advancements" are nothing more than snake oil salesmanship, one researcher wore his shoes to a thin sole, then ran for additional months wearing his right shoe on his left and vice versa--without injury, all the while questioning the necessity of shock coils, forward thrusters, lateral stabilizers, etc. While there are no relevant statistics on the barefoot vs. shod debate (because there are not enough barefoot runners to make a statistical difference), one study found that as the price of the shoe increased (read: more cushioning, gels, arch support, pronation control), so did the injuries. Plus the book provides a good backdrop on the money/economics of the shoe business, which, coupled with the suspect science of 1970's podiatry, engendered the current frankenstein-ian shoe designs we see today. The book also implores us to look at the Kenyan running philosophy which requires barefoot running until the age of 17. Running mechanics analysis indicates that Kenyans and runners from other barefoot cultures run with horizontal thrust whereas Americans happily pound vertically down, slowly pulverizing their joints to mush. Personally, I have been running for weeks with sandals with a personally modified neoprene strap and in the beginning the muscles in my calves and my quads were experiencing incredible deep tissue soreness. But now that they've adapted sufficiently, I can run barefoot without problems. The best part? No knee pain (lateral ligament) which I used to experience in both legs whenever I upped my mileage (6-8 miles daily). I am now a convert. I recommend giving it a shot (intelligently/gradually of course).

Cheap shoes

I just read Born to Run which was a great read and have been trying running in minimal foot ware, plimpsole type things bought for about $5 which work fine.

It does not put much stress on your hips or knees because you land on the ball of your foot and the natural springyness of the legs absorbs the force. It does use different muscles though and so far I have only gone short distances.

It's an interesting experiment if you take you shoes of, stand on the balls of your foot and try bouncing up and down an couple of inches and then do it standing on your heel the mechanical system is way more springy on your balls vs on your heels.