Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Barefoot Running -- my dream shoes. :)

I know... the whole barefoot running epidemic. Well, of course it's going to hit me... I'm barefoot all the time anyways. :) The first thing people always ask me is... what about the arch? Well, the idea behind that is if you wear supportive arched shoes, obviously the muscle in the arch will be very weak and if you go w/o the support, well, it won't be good. There is no muscle to hold up the arch. Like any other muscle, you must build it. If you're suddenly going from wearing full supportive tennis shoes to being barefoot then you have to build up the running time. You must still run in your supportive shoes and run a few short runs in your minimal support shoes or barefoot, gradually building it up.
Another thing about popular running shoes is the raised heel...
This encourages a lot of runners to slap the heel down first. The feet were designed to run on the balls of the feet, not the heels. Since the heels are so high in running shoes, often the heels his first.  A better option are minimalist running shoes. You can google that and find many options. Here's one.... it's adidas....
But, what I really have my heart set on and is on my Christmas wish list... are these:

These are vibram five fingers Sprints. Don't they just look like something I'd wear??? :)

2 comments:

The Piersons said...

My sister has been doing the whole barefoot running thing. She says it is great! I am scared to try it. I just know I would hit a rock and cut my foot rite open! A lot of the students at John's med school wear those toe shoes (your last pic). I think they look really neat!

Adelina Priddis said...

Those look wonderfully comfortable!