What type of person is attracted to barefoot running/vibram five fingers?

Ah yes "Born to Run' the bible! Running barefoot will make you better, cure cancer and free the world of racism! Get real, some of you people sound like muslim radicals who would kill someone for not accepting the "faith"

I am not a person who thinks barefoot or minimalist running (in doses) isn't a good idea. I just am so tired of people talking like it is a cure all and that the alternative is a shoe company conspiracy. "We didn't evolve running in shoes" and?? we didn't evolve driving cars around either. Should we ditch them and start walking... Please give me a f*ing break!!!

Ah, but we don't drive cars under the premise that it is healthier. The 'shoe conspiracy' is about questioning whether or not they are actually helping or hurting feet... and what type of activities in shoes help or hurt what type of people.

There are very few radicals, people love to classify and group people that way, but really most people are near the 'midline'... but on the internet when people are posting short responses they seem radical because they have only posted a small section of their beliefs. Many of them have already had a discussion about the topic and are paraphrasing.

I pretty much agree with you on all you say here. The majority of the places we are forced to walk in our daily lives are generally as hard as cement and flatter than a pancake. This is a phenomenon that only developed within the last century or two. Unfortunately, the human body has not had enough generations to adapt to this unnatural surface, so shoes have been developed, at least in some part, to help us deal with this problem.

It's not that running barefoot is necessarily bad for quite a number of people(those who are fairly symmetric and biomechanically efficient - if you are not, you probably won't feel comfortable with it and will stop, hopefully before you get injured), it is where and how they do it that can be dangerous. Reading through the posts here, I think that most of the minimalists posting here seem to acknowledge this.

Yea, minimalist shoes must be eased in to for most people, but I think the people that do/did have problems with minimalist running probably did something wrong... rushed into it, bad technique, etc. I just have a hard time believing using cushion and support from shoes is really helping people. It just seems like it would mask the problem or shift it elsewhere, but perhaps it all ends up averaging out.

Interestingly, when I was out running today I noticed many people seem to have this awkward looking jog... stiff, small strides, like they have bad knees or something. Not sure why, but form is probably an issue for people... but is that bad form developed by them adapting to running on cement? In shoes? Bad shoes? Something else? To me, it seems like minimalist shoes would provide the right balance between support and natural motion.

Come on you know that the time you are throwing out is not important.

The main this you run free and can openly say you live as a human.

A dumb human that will eventually live on welfare and always mumble about the day you ran barefoot when your boyfriend shared you with all his buddies.

I love how quiet they make my footfalls. Every time I run up behind another person I always have to cough because when I don't they freak out. Kinda funny, but I don't need a guy getting surprised and reflexively punching me. Besides that, they're great for running.

That would be a world record.

I think if people started to run in their lightweight shoes pretending that they were running barefoot they would master perfect form in a setting of a shoe that also protects them from the cement.

It is definitely form where people are losing it, and relying rather on the cushion of their shoe to fix it.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

... next day I was walking through Wal-Mart and saw some aqua socks for $8. I've been running in those for about a month now and it sure beats paying $120.

What type of aqua socks are best for running in?

there is no way there is enough support and cushioning in Vibrams for people to jump into running with them. They should be supplemental only, at first, then very, very, very gradually run in a little bit more.

It's not the barefooting or the Vibram-wearing that makes the difference, it's what wearing Vibrams or barefooting causes you to do --> RUN CORRECTLY!

I've run my whole life in shoes and (until recently) have had a heal-strike running form (totally wrong.) If you can overcome heal-striking in shoes, more power to you. I couldn't and didn't even know I had to. I tried Vibrams on a whim and noticed how my running form changed. Now I can't run in my old shoes because the heal is too high.

Effects of Running Barefoot/Vibram'd-up:

- Sore calves (I was running too much on the balls of my foot rather than "kissing" the ground with the heal slightly to take pressure off my calves),

- Blisters (running barefoot on hot treadmill. Put on the Vibrams and this went away.)

- Joints feel GREAT: My knees and back used to kill me after longer runs (longer for me is 3+ miles.) Since changing my running form (no more heal-striking), my body isn't taking such a beating.)

- I can run farther: Within a month of wearing the Vibrams, the lack of pain has pushed me from 3 miles to 6 and 10 mile runs. I just ran 10 miles for the first time in my life yesterday.

- I run faster. I've gone from 27min 5k to 24min 5k using Vibrams (probably attributed to the fact that I don't hurt so much after runs and now am running more to build speed/endurance.)

I'm an engineer by profession, so I'm sorry, but I just don't see how a little bit of rubber and gel can cushion the force of my foot fall better or more effectively then proper running form (ie, using your feet and legs to properly act as shock absorbers.)

So to answer the question: What type of person is attracted to barefoot running: People who are more passionate about running then what other people think of them. Your Nikes might look sweet, but if you're not running properly, you'll be sitting in a lazyboy at 50 while I'm out running comfortably.

I'll keep wearing my normal shoes and run 8+ minutes faster than you for a 5k.

In a few years we will all see the Vibrams disappear except for a couple old shuffling 25 minute 5K'rs showing up. Born to Run, everyone will realize, is a poorly written book with bad advice where all the fast people in the book except the Mexicans don't run barefoot or in Vibrams. If Vibrams were that great and barefoot running was the answer we'd see a bunch of Vibram sponsored elites out running in them. But that will never happen because anyone who knows anything about running will tell you that you can improve your form without wearing toe socks with some rubber on the bottom. The whole Vibram/barefoot thing is for people who are looking for an easy answer, they won't get it. Need to do the work - ain't no magic bullet. The funniest thing is to see all the slow Vibram wearers shuffling around on the trails in my area.

First- why bump this old thread? good lord

Second, look at the guys in the front of the pack THAT is who you should mimick. Vibrams are a back of the pack trend. It's the equivilant to taking financial advice from poor people.

frozen north wrote:

She also doesn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on shoes.

^This! Do you realize how many thousands (literally) of miles a minimalist runner can get out of a pair of FiveFingers!?? Shazamm!! So it seems a minimalist logging miles in these things would be more in tune with their body, in the sense that if an unusual ache or pain pops up, they know it won't be the result of their shoe foam breaking down and thus, time to blow another $100 on a pair of shoes. Shazamm!!!

when I was a young runner, I did all my faster sessions in spikes on a grass track, and did the cooldown jog barefoot also on grass.

the rest of my running was on roads/pavement in whatever shoes I could afford/get my hands on.

ran 120-140k a week, and never had a chronic injury. I think SOME barefoot running is great for your form, and also for injury prevention.

Now I'm older, I still do one or two barefoot jogs a week on grass. And the rest of my running (now that I can afford to be choosy) is on roads/pavement in the lightest, yet still reasonably cushioned shoes I can find. Still haven't had a chronic injury.

Incorporating barefoot is great,but you don't need monkeyfeet yachting shoes to do this. You don't need any shoes at all to strengthen your feet.

Of course, some people just love the whole idea of going barefoot all the time, and run in these things to avoid getting cut up on nasty surfaces. Good for them. They don't harm or bother me, and they're out there doing something they love that's good for them, and good for the rest of us: running to stay fit and healthy.

Why would anyone have a problem with that?

Besides, the way I see it, this whole 'barefoot' movement has encouraged the mainstream shoe companies to pare back a lot of their models and start producing proper running shoes with some support and cushioning, but without massive heel-lift and crazy amounts of spongy rubber.

Nike, Saucony, New Balance, Brooks, etc are now moving away from the hyper-protective, hyper-cushioned shoes that plagued the market only a couple of years ago.

This is GOOD for all of us.

So let the barefoot freaks live on the margins and do crazy stuff and have their fun. Ultimately, it's the people who live on the extremity who help us all find the perfect middle-ground.

stentorian wrote:

But for the love of God, take a step back and realize that another shoe company is getting you to run down the sidewalk in socks!

But the difference here is that these shoe 'socks' last literally THOUSANDS of miles! Think about it, every runner that goes 'super-minimalist' and can eventually log most of their miles in these FiveFingers things means $$$THOUSANDS$$$ lost in future shoe sales that would have gone to the big shoe companies. Do you think maybe they might have a desire to come on this message board and repetitively try to discredit barefoot running, something as old as man himself?