VFF injuries

When will people get it? Transitioning to minimalist shoes is a painstaking process. I don't see why a competitive runner who's been training in standard shoes for years would want to experiment and go through one injury after another before adjusting. You have to be willing to run very low mileage, take days off if necessary, whatever...not worth the opportunity cost.

just another minimalism non-success story...now just wait until the barefoot zealots come in here to tell you that your "form was all wrong" and you didn't "ease into it slowly enough." But if you were posting about getting exactly the same injury in a pair of ASICS 2160s, guess where they'd be pointing the finger?

the thing is my last pair of shoes wasa a pair of 2160's. i ran in those and shoes very similar to those for a solid year + before my vibrams and went through a serious hip injury and constant soreness after jumping into high mileage high school training. Ever since wearing the virbrams, my legs have felt fresher than ever. From what i'm reading, most VFF users' injuries are in the foot and around the ankle. Mine is further up on my leg which leads me to believe that my injury is truly different from the "classic VFF injury". I would actually say that it could've been from over-striding, because i had a really long stride in regular shoes so i can't imagine it dramatically changing in vibrams.

"serious hip injury and constant soreness after jumping into high mileage high school training"

You may be training a little smarter now but you're probably still training like an idiot. Shoes won't fix that.

fdhgjhb wrote:

"serious hip injury and constant soreness after jumping into high mileage high school training"

You may be training a little smarter now but you're probably still training like an idiot. Shoes won't fix that.

That's correct. You get injured in VFF, it's because of the shoes. You get injured in "normal" shoes, it'e because of your training. And don't tell me otherwise!

My 2 cents as a barefoot runner. I have never tried VFFs (and won't) so I can't give you advice there. I have had various pains come and go but never in the shin.

From what I've seen, a lot of these kinds of injuries come from people going to minimalist without running barefoot at all. You might think it's the same but it's not. As people will be quick to point out, I have no scientific evidence to back me up but... I'm pretty sure feeling the surface of the ground is part of how your body functions, otherwise our feet wouldn't be such sensitive organs. Any impact forces that affect your body have to go through your feet first. If you block that then you're missing out on some input that could help you reduce their effects. You don't have to feel the ground all the time on every run, but it helps to have done some barefoot running, especially if you're going to remove all the padding that was saving you from yourself before.

Minimalism is not barefoot. They're different. I run differently barefoot than I do in even VFFs.

I injured my Achilles by going minimal. I even had a fairly slow transition. The problem is I started it after my body had developed. I spent 20+ years mostly in trainers. Barefoot running may be natural, but I'm not natural. I spent the 20+ most impressionable years of my development doing something other than barefoot. So going barefoot now is quite a stress and very little is going to change that.

If you're fresh and limber, you can get away with wearing minimal shoes or even going barefoot for a while (a workout or race). But unless you went minimal from birth, then I don't think you're going to be able to do it daily and avoid injury. Forefoot strikers might be the exception, because they land close to the same regardless of the cushion. If you're used to midfoot/heel striking in shoes, then forefoot striking barefoot does not come easily. And if you're heel striking in VFFs then you're doing it wrong anyway.

There are basically three kinds of people who wear VFFs.

-People who spent a lot of time barefoot, minimal, or forefoot in their younger years and can do it now fine.

-People who don't run enough in them to ever get injured anyway.

-The typical runner who hears stories from these two previous groups, wears them, and is subject to high injury risk.

Couldn't have said it any better. This is dead on accurate.

"The typical runner who hears stories from these two previous groups, wears them, and is subject to high injury risk."

These people really annoy me. I do about half of my running barefoot on grass. I do this because I've been running barefoot since I was a little kid. People see me doing this uninjured and somehow come to the conclusion that running barefoot is my magical secret. No, my secret is that a)I stick with what works and throw out what doesn't and b)I don't plan my training like an idiot. I like running barefoot because it feels good to run on grass with nothing on my feet. I have no clue how these overweight VFF wearers are getting any enjoyment out of slapping their feet on the pavement.