What really irks me about Nike Free is they have a heel and cushioning yet are lumped into the minimalist category. That means all the real minimalist shoes get taken down by injury data in the category that is really caused by Nike Frees because they are pieces of shit.
In my head strong opinion, the only injury that could possibly be more likely in a minimalist shoe than in a regular shoe or Nike Free is a achilles injury. Knees, hips, plantar fascia, toes, ankles, all much better off in a real minimalist shoe. I will qualify this statement by saying the plantar fascia is at risk if you transition too quickly into a minimalist shoe.
Btw, someone above said they don’t want to wear minimalist because they don’t want to think about their running form. That is the exact opposite of the truth. When you run barefoot or in minimalist shoes you naturally run correctly. If you run in regular running shoes or cross trainers you can run correctly but only if you think about your form or if you’ve had years of training.
[quote]on edge wrote:
Btw, someone above said they don’t want to wear minimalist because they don’t want to think about their running form. That is the exact opposite of the truth. When you run barefoot or in minimalist shoes you naturally run correctly. If you run in regular running shoes or cross trainers you can run correctly but only if you think about your form or if you’ve had years of training.[/quote]
That was me. Just my opinion, but I am not a consistent weekly runner. I am a weightlifter who gets pulled into 5k’s by my endurance junkie friends. So I am not going to put in the time to safely run in a minimalist shoe to “failure”. What I mean by failure is when I run a 5k, I am racing against the clock (and my bag of bones & lungs friends), and I don’t want to compromise my time. At the end, when I am tired, I probably heel strike from time to time. But when I beat a few of my gaunt friends, it is well worth the fatigued heel striking.
If I had to train for a half marathon (at 5’10"/190lbs it is probably not a good idea), I would buy into the idea and invest the time needed to convert over to a minimalist running shoe. From what I have read, it may take a few months to properly strengthen the muscles in your feet and work up to a respectable distance. Cut a corner, and you can injure yourself. Right now, I don’t see the upside for me, or most people who are not logging big miles every week.
Be careful with simply jumping into minimalist shoes thinking they’ll correct your flat feet. All research I’ve seen points to minimalist shoes having no effect on longitudinal arch height. When I tried the shoes in school I developed knee pain.
Flat feet can be a compensation for many issues that don’t necessarily get solved by a different shoe. You have to consider structural foot variants, ankle rocker mobility, hip mobility, excess weight, anterior leg compartment strength, posterior leg compartment hypertonicity, prioprioceptive loss, etc. Intrinsic foot muscle strength is pretty far down that list and is the only thing a minimalist shoe will directly address unless you’re running in it and transition from a heel to mid/forefoot strike.
So, while you can ruin foot mechanics with improper shoe wear, you cannot always simply fix them by taking off the shoes.
I dropped into Big 5 to see if they had my all time favorite shoe the New Balance Minimus MT20. Oh yes they did and for only 39.95. I bought the two pairs that were my size. If they had had 5 pairs I would have bought five. I also bought a size 9 1/2 for my 12 year old son. He has freakishly large feet being in a size 9, but still not quite ready for 9 1/2. Tomorrow I may call the Big 5 on the other end of town to see if they have a size nine. Or, more size twelves I could plunder.