United States
Ryan Ford (of APEX Movement fame) and Dr. Kenneth Kao (Vital Balance Chiropractic) take an in-depth look at the problems with traditional running shoes, common injuries caused by shoes, pros who train barefoot, how to choose a good shoe, proprioception, pressure pad graphs of different footwear and how to start training barefoot.
They used the Aqua Lite as an example of a “good shoe” [ahem, of course]. Here’s what they said about our barefoot shoes:
“How do you choose a good shoe? You want a wide space for your toes to fit inside the shoe”
“You want the thinnest material possible from your foot to the ground – which means you will be able to sense more”
“One thing I notice about VIVOBAREFOOT, which is fantastic, is that you can basically roll them up in a ball; which means that they will be more responsive to the environment around you “
There is an extended version in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2
Junior Varsity
I made the full-time switch to barefoot walking shoes last October, thanks to the Vivobarefoot line of casual footware, with the intent of gradually breaking myself in and eventually working my way up to running.
Threw out my Brooks Beast running, and after many months of reprogramming my brain to walk differently, I successfully began running with an awesome pair of Ultras. Increased mileage over time from 1.5 miles to 6 over the past 3 months and was feeling great, but now seem to be developing shin splints.
Any ideas on tweaks I can make to my running technique to avoid this? Is this common? Need some guidance here…
Comment by Junior Varsity — August 21, 2012 @ 5:34 am
Alex
I would say do some shin exercises to strengthen those shin muscles- foot raises etc. I like to think a good indicator of shin strength is the sound made when you make contact with the ground- I have watched a few people with weaker feet who ‘slap’ the ground when they run- there shouldn’t be much noise at all. Then again, I’m not a physician, it’s just how I avoid shin splints.
Comment by Alex — January 9, 2013 @ 9:54 pm