Vibram Five Fingers

Over the past year, I ran in numerous neighborhoods and parks and enjoyed my own improvements and triumphs over the time. A few months ago, my studies of running techniques brought my attention to some interesting facts: the human foot does not need a trendy, padded sole in order to run properly. Actually, the running shoe (a relatively recent invention), encourages people to run improperly by hitting with their heel first. The impact of this running style distributes force in correctly and hurts the knew and shin. The foot is built in a such a way that the ball and arch of the foot absorb the impact before spreading the remainder of the force to the leg. While padded shoes do absorb impact, the actual force placed on the knee is higher than when running barefoot.

My friend Alexiss wrote about this subject and found great reference illustrating this:

I'm sure you are asking "We know that running barefoot is actually better for the legs, what do we do about it? Have you seen the ground outside? There is all kinds of stuff out there that can hurt our delicate little feet. What do we do?" Well, that is where the Vibram Five Fingers shoes come in:




These shoes let you feel the ground just like you were running on bare feet, but protect your feet from sharp objects and surfaces of varying temperatures. I've been running in them for a little while now and you really can feel the different types of ground beneath you. I will occasionally go off track and run on different surfaces to feel them out. And now, running on concrete sidewalks just doesn't work for me so I find myself searching for new paths that are a little gentler. Also, now that I feel every impact I naturally started running one the balls of my feet which has taken some time to get used to. The shoes also force your toes to spread apart into a more natural formation, up until now my pinky toe has been squished next to my "ring" and these shoes finally forcing to carry its (my) own weight. My full report on running with these shoes will appear later this week, but I highly recommend them!