I have been seeing ads for
the new athletic shoes called Skechers, Reebok’s EasyTones, and other brands of
athletic shoes with rocker-like soles that claim to do great things for your
workout. The companies all claim that
they aid weight loss, tone muscles and relieve stress on the knees and hips. What
do you think?
I have been around long
enough to remember Earth Shoes, clogs, Crocs and every other shoe fad that has
come and gone, but so far the only shoes that I truly love are the running
shoes with the springy air knobs on the bottom.
Can they possibly be as good
as they say? Have any of you in our age
group tried them yet? I have seen them
mentioned in Prevention magazine as well as the Wall Street Journal so it looks
like they are marketing all age groups.
These new athletic shoes are
built to be unstable rather than on providing a stable foundation. Rather like doing your exercises on a ball or
a wobble board at the gym. It sounds
like it would be good as a balance exercise but it makes me dizzy just to think
about it? Still, as we get older our
balance is a little less predictable than it used to be anyway so I wonder if
teetering on a curved shoe would be a good thing or a bad thing.
The idea is that to stand or
walk in these shoes you must use more muscles than in a regular shoe. If the
idea sounds good but the weird shape freaks you out you might look at the ones
by Rebok called EasyTone. The EasyTone doesn’t
have a visible rocker sole but rather has air pockets under the heel and ball
of the foot. Logically, the shoes seem like a good idea
but not enough studies have been done and caution is advised re: using them for
running or heavy sports activities.
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