Have any of you used these?
I’ve seen wrestlers wear them to make their calves bigger and stronger. I think I’ve heard somewhere that they don’t work that well, but I’d like your opinions. I have calf issues, so anything that works I’m willing to try.
My guess is that the shoes are trying to encourage walking on tip toes. If the heel is high enough that’s what’s gonna happen. But you have to get pretty darned high before that happens. Think about a pair of cowboy boots. You have to have more heel height than that before you go to toe walking. And that’s only if you have a spike heel. A wedge heel and folks weight bear through the heel which is not toe walking and does zip extra for the calf. Four inch heels have sprained many an ankle.
Skip the funky shoes. Just lurch when you walk. “Lurching” is that walk when you bounce up and down as you walk because at the end of the stance phase, you raise your heel and push up, not forwards. But don’t do it in public! Tres dorky.
On a related note - i saw an ad for shoes with elevated toes to simulate running on a 3.7 degree incline. seems to me this will just encourage tibial stress fractures and maybe strengthen the anterior muscles on the lower leg. but simulate the cardiovascular and muscular workout of running on an incline? just me or does this sound like BS.
Yeah, now that I’ve been thinking about it, they could be one of those old-school methods that don’t really work but have stuck around. Sort of like the high school football coach who makes his kids puke every practice during pre-season.