My most Favorite shoes in the world!! These are 2 of my 4 pairs of NEW BALANCE MINIMUS shoes. I absolutely love these. I wear them all do at work here at God-Built, and I wear them to workout in! These are “minimalist” type shoes that among other positive attributes, have “zero drop” or “minimum drop” therefore putting you in a more “natural” position for movement.
I sent out some info here on godbuilt.com a few months back about these type of shoes and I believe the title was something like: MINIMALIST SHOES. BUYER BEWARE! I love these shoes and really Promote them for anyone, BUT you must be careful with incorporating these into your daily life and workouts.
So Again I AM PROMOTING MINIMALIST TYPE SHOES, and along with it giving you a WARNING: Ease into wearing Minimalist shoes if you have never had a pair and or wore them on a very limited basis in the past. One of the biggest issues is that most shoes that most people wear for work and play have a big “Drop” from the heel to the toes. This basically means your heel is jacked up so your heel muscles, achilles, soleus and calf muscles are shortened to some extent. *Actually the entire “Posterior chain” (all that stuff involved from low back down to heels) is shortened and altered to some extent. So when you start wearing “Minimalist” shoes, now you are LENGTHENING those muscles, ligaments, and tendons back out to there “natural” or “intended” state. This is a good thing, but if they are not use to being under pressure in there “natural” state from normal everyday activity and or workouts then you can run into some serious problems. All this to basically say BE WISE and Introduce these type shoes SLOWLY!
My basic recommendations:
#1 Get a pair
#2. Start off by just wearing around the house on a daily basis. also, if it is appropriate, wear them to work. According to your “on your feet” time at work, you may need to only wear them for 1/2 days at a time to start with. **As far as “around the house”, going bare foot is very beneficial for all of us for many reasons.
#3. Wear them during workouts. Again, start slowly though especially if there is any running and or jumping movements involved.
#4 Running – this is where you really have to be careful. The general rule of thumb I have heard is to start with 10% running time. And then gradually increase from there. I am surely no expert in this category so i recommend you search the interweb for better specifics on this.
Most of the Shoe companies that offer these Minimalist shoes will also give you “break in” instructions as they too understand the risk for people wearing these for the first time.
TRY YOU OUT SOME MINIMALIST SHOES as I believe they can be very beneficial for many reasons, and on top of that they are just tremendously COMFORTABLE!
Many companies are making these now of course. The only ones that I know of from my own experience or close friends experience that I will recommend: NEW BALANCE, ALTRA, REEBOK.
YOUR HEALTH, YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHOICE Godbless u kj