Walk your way to a better body?

In the past few years a plethora of shoe companies have come forward to suggest that their shoes will provide magical muscle conditioning results because since they work to optimize the biomechanics of the leg muscles.

Some of these shoes even claim that the wearer will no longer need to pay for a health club membership...that's simply not the case.

What is true is that the feet experience a tremendous amount of force when they hit the ground--gravity is accelerating the weight of your body--through the feet--into the ground and the reaction force caused by the solid ground can be up to 6x your bodyweight (when running, walking is more like 1.5x bodyweight) on your poor feet.

the feet have 28 bones and numerous muscles and joints with each having their own sensory receptors. these sensory information is critical for relaying necessary info to the brain about which muscles to use and how much force each needs to produce to stabilize the body as it moves over the ground.

the wrong type of footwear can severely limit or restrict this neural feedback and put your knees, hips and/or low-back at risk of injury. so there is some science to support the claims made by the marketing materials of various shoe companies.

solid shoes like heels or over-cushioned running shoes provide too much support and do not allow the normal actions of the transverse tarsal and sub-talar joints (of the foot)--which are critical for creating the proper biomechanics all the way up the muscles of the leg into the core.

when looking at a 'fitness shoe' you want to find one that allows your foot to move as much as possible--the foot is supposed to be mobile when it hits the ground but will convert to a stable lever as the bodyweight passes over it during the mid-stance phase of gait. if the foot is not able to convert to a solid lever for toe-off then it puts a lot of strain on the fascia on the bottom of the foot and if this fascia works too hard it gets 'pissed off' and inflammed and voila--there's your plantar fascia.

my advice would be to find a shoe that allows your foot to move through its normal motion, but pay attention to costs and spend only what you feel comfortable (meaning do not buy into marketing hype) if you try the shoe on and feel that it meets your needs and the price falls within your budget, then get it.

here's a recent interview I did with cnn.com on the subject:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/12/shoes.fitness/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCText