Why are Minmalist Shoes bad for your health?

I think that you will find very few elite distance runners who subscribe to the minimalist philosophy.

I think people with bad mechanics or who don't really understand the mechanics of good running can benefit from barefoot/minimalist running - sort of like tearing everything down and starting from scratch. However, for the vast majority of runners, I agree that this sort of full-on reboot strategy is unnecessary at best and could be disastrous at worst. High level distance training is hard enough on the body without looking for ways to make it worse.

Running on pillows wrote:

I think both minimalists and high-heelers would agree with this statement, though they would recommend different approaches.

My contention being that good mechanics are good mechanics, regardless of what shoe you wear. I don't care who says otherwise, having the heel of your shoe one centimeter higher off the ground isn't going to prevent you from running with good form if you have good form in the first place. All other things being equal, I'd rather have some cushioning between my feet and the hard ground.

Also, I saw a dude running in Vibrams the other day (first time I've seen one specimen in the wild).

He was heel-striking like a motherf**ker.

I run in Saucony Kinvaras; the pair I currently own are the first minimalist shoes I've ever bought. Before, I used to run in heavily-cushioned shoes and stability shoes, but I kept succumbing to injury because of my tight calves. Most people who start running in minimalist shoes are supposed to make a gradual progression, I did not. I was near the end of my track season, and I jumped right into them. Did all my workouts in them ever since. I was used to running mileage barefoot because I ran a lot on the beach, walked around barefoot a lot, etc. I have not gotten a single injury, and I have done all my XC summer mileage on concrete (no trails where I live, unfortunately). Vibrams are on the extreme end of the spectrum of minimalist shoes. Aside from the Bikila model, the rest are supposedly just tools to help you with training, on recovery days or when just walking around to simulate barefoot running and to strengthen your legs. Ever since getting these shoes, my training has never gone better, and I'm injury free for almost 3 months now. If you actually bothered reading this, I think that everyone is different. I don't think that everyone should use minimalist shoes, but I do think everyone has a shoe that is perfect for them. If you're extremely injury prone, then they're probably not very beneficial to you unless you build into them very gradually. But who knows? I'm injury prone and I started doing all my workouts in them since day 1.

The Kinvara is a minimalist shoe? Seems like a lightweight trainer to me.

Wait . . . you say you jumped straight into minimalist training, but you also say that you had been running barefoot on the beach a lot. So . . . you went from running barefoot on sand to running in shoes on concrete, and your tight calf problems went away? I don't think "minimalism" is the issue here.

It is really hard to go back to heavier shoes when you are somewhat used to minimalist shoes.

I want nike to re-release the original Lunaracers.

minimalist shoes are bad for your health for the same reason all shoes are bad for your health. Because they block important sensory feedback that you body uses to assess its current state.

There's nothing wrong with minimalist running or barefoot running except for the fact that it takes a good deal of time to transition into it safely and most people don't take that approach.

And if you think there are no elite athletes running barefoot, I challenge anyone to visit a high school in Kenyan there there are 18 year old boys running faster than American elites.

Shoes obviously have a very protective nature and once your feet are very strong, you should be able to go back and forth from shoes to no shoes or minimalist shoes without any more problems than shod runners. Both can be healthy.

Why don't you strap some pillows to your feet. Now that's cushioning![/quote]

love it

Woody Goodfeeling wrote:

Why don't you strap some pillows to your feet. Now that's cushioning!

Do you actually think that you're making some sort of valid point here? That's like me saying "Why don't you use acid to dissolve the flesh off your feet? Now that's minimalism!"

legally blonde wrote:

And if you think there are no elite athletes running barefoot, I challenge anyone to visit a high school in Kenyan there there are 18 year old boys running faster than American elites.

Visit Iten in Kenya, and observe that all the runners there are wearing RUNNING SHOES. They'll run barefoot if they have to, but given the option they seem quite glad to wear evil, leg destroying trainers.

Look at videos from the recent Letsrun.com trip to Kenya and EVERYONE has shoes on, even the school children.

Minimalist shoes are bad if you don't know how to run in them. It takes more than just having "sensory feedback", it takes responding appropriately to this feedback (pain) and adjusting your stride the right way. And it's more than just not heel striking.

It's like working on a golf swing. You get "feedback" if you hit the ball wrong, but the body does not automatically adjust itself. Some people can "self coach" themselves to improve their golf swing and some people will just not "get it" and need formal instruction. Same deal with running barefoot or in "foot gloves".

Some people are just not "coordinated" and will just not pick up the technique. We all know them-the same people that can't throw a proper punch, can't dance, can't throw a ball properly, can't hit a golf ball, can't lay up a basketball, etc. Guess what, this describes a lot of people that end up taking up distance running.

your assessment of minimalist running leaves something to be desired. I know the Kenyan kids wear shoes, but they grown up barefoot and probably don't wear shoes 100 percent of the time even during training.

Big thick shoes don't protect you from anything other than glass in your foot. They don't mimic normal foot strike. There are injuries either way - shoes or not, guess you can choose...but don't pretend all that "science" that goes into running shoes has anything to do with foot health and efficient running form.

classof89 you make good points but a couple of things you said bug me. First, you seem to think sensory feedback is equivalent to pain. It's as if feeling is punishment or purely negative reinforcement. Sensory information is more complex than that. Sometimes it feels good, even great! Sometimes it's not a matter of good or bad at all, just information that your body processes.

Do you need to feel everything all the time? No! But it helps to have at least experienced significant feedback at some point in the learning process for developing any skill. Perhaps you've heard the analogy of learning to sing without hearing yourself. It might be possible to become a great singer that way, but unlikely.

Second, I don't like your assumption that just because Kenyans do or don't do something, we should do or not do it. We in fact are not Kenyan school children. At least I'm not. Trying to be just like them is not necessarily advantageous for us. We're people in mostly sedentary first world culture trying to figure out what works best for us. Not just a few years until we burn out, but for maintaining running as a life-long activity.

I run 90 miles - speed work included - in Merrell barefoots, but I began running in the mid-70's when all shoes were considered "minimalist", and have never run in anything else. If you run forefoot, you don't need heal cushioning, and minimalist shoes are the only option if you want a zero drop, which allows your foot full movement. Most shoes are over-engineered. If you can't imagine, maybe you need to do more work strengthening your feet and legs to start?

I would never run barefoot, as I am competitive and am a northern runner who likes the protection of a shoe.

And the guy you "passed" is realizing he needs to strengthen his feet and legs and that is why he is running in them. Since you don't know anything about him, it seems juvenile to criticize him, but you are probably a kid who doesn't know any better.

Study your sport and look back to the old timers for some advice on foot wear. Gordon Pirie is one who has some solid advice on shoes.

Before the early 1970's didn't all runners use "minimalist" running shoes? Every time I see Derek's Clayton's running shoes it blows my mind!

http://www.iaaf.org/mm/photo/competitions/competition/05/07/74/50774_full-prt.jpg

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2009/06/03/1225720/601771-derek-clayton-marathon-fukuoka.jpg

Yes , exactly , only super elites and a very few at that got away with it , we found out less injuries , better recovery with shoes that had more mid-sole , we have been down this path before , shoes evolved past racing flat training shoes.

yes some shoes are way over built , but for the most part , most runners need more between them and the ground.

Injuries don't have anything to do with shoes. The higher incidence of Injury could be due to the fact that american's are much heavier now than they were even in the 70's and 80's. Why do you think they added all of the cushion to shoes! Because more mass = more impact. Also you have those same heavy people thinking they should Wog (walk/jog) a marathon off of 20 miles a week! You barely saw fit people in the 70's running marathons, let alone your people the size of an average NFL lineman. No one ever blames form or just the fact that people are big and impatient, they don't want to blame themselves, just their equipment. Do you ever see an injured elite athlete blame their shoes for getting them injured.