I recently read the book Born To Run. It was a great book. Only a few books that I’ve read have ever actually changed my behavior, this was one of them.
These shoes are called Vibram Five Fingers. The most obvious thing about them is they look like gloves for your feet. I’m into these because they have a little foot support as possible.
A few points that Born to Run makes is that humans evolved without shoes. For thousands of years we got on fine without Nike Air. Our feet have arches. Our feet are very sensitive. Our feet have as many bones as the entire rest of our body. After thousands and thousands of years of evolving the human body, and our feet, how is that putting on shoes can help? Have running and walking injuries increased, or decreased with the advent of shoes?
Born to Run points out that people with the most expensive shoes suffer the most injuries, where the opposite is true of cheap shoes. The author guessed that people ran more carefully in beat up cheapo shoes than brand news Asics.
Thankfully, I’ve never had any major running injuries. I did, however, begin to find it real boring. I wasn’t getting too much out of running, and what a neat way to spice it up than a new weird shoe.
I’ve been running in these off and on. Besides my calf and shin break in period, it’s been a real breath of fresh air.