ATTN: Achilles sufferers-------- cut your shoes

Yeah I know, it works.

Most runners will have to go through it as a last resort though, it's hard to cut up a perfectly good pair of rnning shoes

it just makes the shoe more flexible, gradually letting the tendon fully lengthen over time. in stiff shoes, your tendon doesnt have to do any work, so it gets tight over time and when you jump in a pair of spikes that makes your tendon lengthen when its not ready, you end up with tendon issues.

So wait a minute, is this cut is supposed to be vertical or horizontal?

It should go downward.. I cut mine in kind of a V shape.. it really helps, you might want to cut a little more of the really hard stuff out from the sides too.. You'll know what I'm talking about once you get there.. It really works! Please try it

Try an older pair of shoes first if you don't want to screw it up, but really it's very simple

ive always cut mine across, not down.

I'm not sure, I saw it in an earlier post saying ot cut down.. but it's like .5 - .75 of an inch across.. I think it makes a little more sense to cut it down with your achilles, but I bet both would work..

I always had increased pain while running with a lift in my shoe

as someone said, it's just increasing flexibility. a better option than cutting up your freakin shoe would be to get a bigger shoe and/or a lighter/more flexible shoe and/or don't lace your shoes all the way up to give your foot more flexibility.

We first started doing that in the 1970's. It does work.

i like this

horizontal cut in the toe (leather part) is good too- keeps your toes happy on long runs when your feet swell.

I tried this out on an old pair of shoes and ran pretty much without pain. How is this for a long term fix? Do you guys continue to cut your shoes even after the soreness goes away in order to counter recurrent problems?

can you please post a picture (imageshack.com is a good source)