FiveFingers,, FYI
 

I was a skeptic from the start. I have 1st hand knowledge that as you age you lose the padding in your soles.

I can feel every bump in the road, beach, sidewalk, & grass. :D

I saw the title of the thread and thought that you had discovered a Kung Fu grip for us FOGs. :D

Pat

I thought it was about that old vietnam book.

Having had fallen arches and knowing the pain and it's cause then going to a podiatrist to get rock hard plastic arch supports to correct it. The podiatrist asked me if I used these five finger shoes and warned me not to because of the injuries he was seeing. Funny enough it wasn't the hardness of the soles that bothered me it was the bedding my foot sat on that didn't support my foot shape. With those rock hard inserts by back pain dissappeared and so did my knee pain.
Everytime I saw someone wearing them I would ask how they felt and funny enough after reading the out of thin air vibram sales pitch about strengthening muscles that is the exact same thing those wearing them told me.

That's the same thing I thought of

Lawsuits like this get settled for reasons having nothing to do with the merits.

The Five Fingers helped me stop heel striking and made my back pain after runs go away. Just have to slow down a bit on rocky ground or you bruise the ball of your foot easily. I found New Balance Minimus to have the same effect also.

and here I thought I was the only person to have read that book ...

Although it is likely that the article doesn't outline the full legal claim against Vibram, the issue could as easily be caused by people transitioning into them too quickly out of over supporting footwear.

Although I think 5 fingers are creepy as hell, and make me shudder every time I see them, I still argue for the merits of minimalist footwear.

In my uneducated opinion law suits mean little to nothing.

S

Anybody remember the Earth Shoe? :D

Pat

It seems the only shoes I can run in now are the 5-fingers due to being forced off my heals and thus no more heel striking. With as much knee damage as I have, I can run for 20 minutes on the habit trail without little no knee pain.

I will admit that when I first started wearing them and discovered I could jog again, I got all excited and went to far too soon and nearly wound up with planar fasciitis. Having been unable to run for several years, it took me roughly a year to get used to them before I could run on the habit trail.

My only problem now is my right foot feels like I have Mortin's neuroma in the ball of my right foot. I've had it checked out and was told to wear bigger, not as tight footgear. If my foot strike is too hard, my fight foot has no problem telling me about it.

As we discussed in an old thread, if you haven't read Born To Run by Christopher Mcdougal, I would encourage you to do so. Heel striking is bad, and is the cause of many hip and knee replacements. I haven't worn the Vibrams, but all of my trail shoes have a very small heel drop, which has done away with my hip and knee pain.

When we are 20, our bodies will forgive some of our foolishness. Getting older reveals many of the sins of our youth.

Gradual progression
 

Roguish Lawyers post speaks volumes about this lawsuit. Heres my story.

I confidently say that minimalist footwear has helped me recover from several injuries that had given me problems throughout the years and that hadn't fully healed. Ankle, knee, lower back were the areas of concern that I constantly struggled with. Icyhot, braces, Ice, compression, epidural injections (back), etc

After speaking with a physical therapist (not a salesman at you name the sporting goods store) she gave me a plan of gradual progression in using minimalist footwear. Literally for the first 2 weeks my runs in vibram's were only 1 mile. Little by little I was able to do more and more, and like others have stated heel striking is BAD.

Fast forward about 18 mons, and I run up to 5 miles in vibrams/minimalist footwear with the previously mentioned problems completely rectified. Additionally, I was able to return to lifting again and am able to lift atleast bodyweight in the average lifts (Squat, clean, deadlift, Bench).

I suspect that these people's issues come from otherwise out of shape or injured people going full bore after putting on minimalist(vibram) shoes and causing further complications. There are a lot of things that soldiers do that are horrible for our bodies; wearing combat boots, carrying heavy rucksacks, jumping out of airplanes and many more.

I highly recommend the below series of videos for anyone that has feet, ankle, problems. Kelly Starrett from Mobility WOD knows what he's talking about. The other guy... well, you decide. At the end of the videos they offer simple programs to rehab/rebuild your feet. Additionally, Starrett has hundreds of videos that can help you increase your mobility and overall physical fitness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha6ZxfG6Tz8

CH

I'm using the Barkalounger running system. No heel strikes, no arch pain, no joint pain. Highly recommended. :lifter

The new trend is maximally cushioned shoes. I haven't tried them.

http://running.competitor.com/2013/0...ed-shoes_79859


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I couldn't get the minimalist shoes to work for me. I still lift in some minimalist New Balance shoes, but I can't run in them.

As sort of a compromise, I wear Altra running shoes. All Atra shoes are zero drop (meaning there's no rise in the heel; better for your Achilles tendon), but still have cushioning similar to a traditional running shoe. (They also make the maximally cushioned shoe in one of the attached pictures, but the ones I wear have the regular amount of cushioning as seen in the other picture.)

Altras also have very wide toe boxes on their shoes to let your feet and toes spread out naturally. You can see the wide toe box in the third picture. This has spoiled me since I can wear Altra's most days. I now detest the times I have to wear dress shoes, which pinch my toes.

Worth looking into if you want some characteristics of the minimalist shoe (zero drop, wide toe box) but still have cushioning.