Can Your Walking Shoes Help You Shape Up Faster?
Have you been intrigued by ads for walking shoes that claim they can help you tone your calves, firm your butt and belly, and ease back or foot pain?
There are many shoes on the market that reach out to men and women eager to get the best workout in the least amount of time. Ads suggest wearing these shoes for your normal, everyday walking can give you a workout. Brand names include Reebok’s EasyTone, Masai’s MBT, Skechers’ Shape Up and Foot Solution’s Chung Shi, and with the exception of Skechers, they cost around $200-$250. Chances are, they’ll wear out as fast as your normal exercise shoe, if you wear them as often, which means in 6-months, an active person will need a new pair.
The shoes all include some kind of design that forces you to work harder to roll forward onto your forefoot. Some have a negative heel that purports to help you attain better posture. Some are more unstable than others, requiring you to recruit more abdominal muscles to maintain stability.
All of the research is paid for by the parent companies and the studies are small and short. While the shoes do seem to recruit extra muscles, the studies don’t actually show that the shoes increase muscle size or if they continue to impact your muscles once you get used to them. (A study of bosu balls and balance boards showed that over time, the muscle activation impact was minimal on experienced users.)
As for blog endorsements, I consider that type of information highly unreliable. First, they can be staged and second, they’re often written when the user is experiencing their first rush of enthusiasm. Like diet fads, you’ll never hear if the glow wore off and the shoes ended up in the bottom of the closet in the long run!
From my own personal experience, that’s where my specialty shoes have ended up. The reasons?
1. They were unstable enough that I felt at risk walking in them. Who needs to risk injury getting a workout or going grocery shopping?
2. They can really hurt your feet. Manufacturers will warn you that you need to work up to these shoes slowly. If not, you’ll get sore, maybe even bruised or injured. Despite those warnings, I recently put on a pair to try to compensate for a lack of fitness activity when down with a virus for three weeks. I wore them for about two hours and was left with a lingering case of plantar fasciitis in both feet.
3. They were ugly and after a while, I simply chose more attractive shoes from my closet
On a positive note, if you’re active and walk regularly, these shoes can cause you to pay more attention to your stride and your workout, give you some mental and physical stimulation and add fun and focus to your workout. Maybe you’ll up your fitness level for a while.
If you’re in pain, it’s possible that a shoe like this could make all the difference, in which case, they’d be worth the $250 price tag many times over. But there’s no real way to know that they will help you without trying them. Talk with your doctor first.
But if you’re looking to firm up, just walking consistently in any comfortable shoe is fine. Vary your terrain, add hills, play with speed and intervals and save yourself about $200 bucks. If you’re not willing to exercise regularly, then chances are any shoe you buy won’t get much wear.
If you really want to strengthen and shape up your legs and tummy, put the extra $200 towards a gym membership! (That would almost pay for a year at my current gym.) Or, buy some inexpensive home exercise equipment like stretch bands or tubes and an exercise ball. Squats and lunges and crunches for a few minutes every other day will do far more to keep you fit and trim as you age than any specialty shoe, no matter how much you wear it.
