Login | April 19, 2024
Minimalist running shoes
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: October 11, 2021
I’ve seen a lot of athletic fads over the years, with most residing more on the goofy and harmless side than in the serious and risky realm.
And over those years a lot of these fads seem to have run their courses and kind of faded away into obscurity.
Yet just when I’d thought one such fad was in the books and out of sight I suddenly found that it’s still stubbornly holding sway with some folks.
he fad I’m talking about, well, it’s the use of those minimalist running shoes, the so called foot gloves.
Now before I charge in here to voice my opinion, let me take you through a very brief, yet very neutral pro and con regarding this issue. And I’ll start with the pro side.
Minimalist running shoe advocates believe that our traditional running shoes encourage heel strike, which translates into a lot of bad stresses reverberating up through the rest of the body.
Minimalist shoes, they claim, lower heel to forefoot positioning which can help with dorsi and plantar flexion, thus allowing the foot to flex in a more appropriate manner.
And through the gradual process of adaptation, minimalist shoe runners can eventually improve flexibility and elasticity in both the Achilles and the soles of their feet, thereby saving the rest of the body from incurring all those negative stresses.
Now on the con side, the traditional running shoe advocates’ primary argument against minimalist running shoes hinges on the concept of adaptation.
They believe that our bodies and our biomechanics have adapted to cushioning footwear.
Thus, they claim that the minimalist shoe wearers must spend a considerable amount of time at low intensity/low volume efforts––on appropriate surfaces––to reverse adapt to the new foot striking positions and forces.
In essence the con side is an argument against reverse adaptation because it takes too long to occur and because it’s just too fraught with risks of injury.
Okay, so my stand on the issue is with the folks who aren’t in favor of minimalist shoes, and that’s for three reasons.
One, because of the reverse adaptation argument, two, because I think that you need to be graced with great running biomechanics to run in said shoes, and three, because if minimalist shoes made people better runners then most elite runners would use them.
Now to me, the funny thing about seeing Ohioans running in minimalist shoes is that they bare absolutely no resemblance to those fleet-footed, rail-thin, cardiorespiratory phenoms who happen to run in minimalist footwear––nor do they have even a scintilla of innate running biomechanics to hang their singlets on.
Nope, most of the minimalist runners I see around here are stockier, slower and far less biomechanically gifted runners, runners who ought not be lumbering down an asphalt recreational trail in skimpy “running slippers.”
What typically happens here is John and/or Jane Q. Public reads an article about the virtues of minimalist running shoes, rushes out and buys a pair, velcros up and then continues on with their regular running program with nary a hint of change.
All that with the most crucial component of the periodization plan missing––adaptation to the shoes. And I’ve witnessed the end result of that scenario, which usually entails metatarsal stress fractures and a host of other ailments like tendonitis––common in all runners––but a tendonitis that comes on much quicker due to minimalist running shoes.
Now you can certainly cite a handful of elite runners who are very successful at racing in minimalist running shoes, but let me tell you there ain’t many. And as I said, if most of the elites aren’t using them, then that certainly speaks volumes on the subject.
So my advise to those of you who are still toying with the idea of trying to up your running game by wearing minimalist running shoes you’d better be a very, very, very patient person with very, very, very good running biomechanics because it’s going to take a whole lot of low and slow miles before your feet, your body and your mind adapt to this new style of running.