New Balance Minimus Trail Shoes

My hiking friend Susie showed up with some cool new shoes she said her feet loved called New Balance Minimus Trail runners (Also available in road versions, but I'm addressing the trail model only). I went out the very next day to purchase my own pair. Her husband Jim bought some the next day too. Our feet LOVED them on the first step! The shoes cost around $100. They run slightly narrow. Men's come in the charcoal black and neon yellow above plus an orange version. Women's offer a black and baby blue trim model.

The New Balance Minimus "Trail" fits my criteria for foot-friendly shoes. It's a very flexible shoe with minimal heel lift. Less heel lift is important for the "barefoot" mechanics because it allows your foot to function like it does not have a shoe--more "natural" gait pattern. While I love the Nike Free shoes, some of the purist runners are critical of the Free's high heel lift which puts the foot and ankle slightly out of neutral--I get their point, but the Nike Free still works GREAT to eliminate foot pain with my clients, so I will continue recommending them. Alas, now there is another new option with the New Balance Minimus Trail shoes!

The Minimus Trail feels almost just like the Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) but you won't have to worry about wearing the funky "toe shoes" with the Minimus because the toe box is closed. With the Minimus, many people can get away with wearing them in a work environment where the VFFs might be a bit much for certain corporate cultures at this point. Another advantage of the NB Minimus is that you can wear socks. While wearing socks is possible with the VFFs, you have to buy the special "toe socks" and these are a real pain to put on and get into the VFFs. If you don't wear socks with VFFs, you can get some pretty stinky feet. Problem solved with the New Balance Minimus because while they might not be 100% as foot friendly as going barefoot or wearing VFFs, they are pretty darn close, and when you consider the other advantages of a more socially acceptable appearance, ability to wear regular socks, and ease of putting on and taking off, the New Balance Minimus Trail Runners one of my new favorites and top recommendations for "foot-friendly" shoes. They are also very light. 

While called "trail running" shoes, I'm just wearing my Minimus shoes for casual use. I might try to run in them eventually, but I think these are GREAT shoes for everyday use. If you are having foot pain from wearing shoes that are not good neurologically for your feet and brain, take the New Balance Minimus Trail Shoes for a test drive. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Listen to your feet--they will tell you right away!

What's interesting about this particular shoe is that even with all my other "foot fitness" exercises, footwear, etc., for some reason these shoes seem to have reset my "foot posture."  I have become much more aware of my foot/ankle position even when wearing other shoes.  I think part of the reason was the nice "Foot Tripod" video post by Mike Robertson right before I got my Minimus shoes, but most of the postural reset is because of the shoe design I think...I have four good friends now that have all loved the Minimus from the very first step.  One of my good trainer friends Nikki has had some running issues with her knee.  She got a pair of the Minimus and hit the trail with NO knee pain.  She put on some different boots when she got home and the knee pain returned.  She was amazed as well, and this is a woman very knowledgeable about fitness training and corrective exercises, so I hope this share will help some of you reading that might be having foot issues of your own.

For more info on the NB Minimus and finding "Foot-Friendly" shoes, see below:

• New Balance Minimus Website 
• How to Find Healthy Shoes
• Nike Free Shoe Review by RJ 
• Vibram Five Fingers
• Foot Tripod Video by Mike Robertson

In Foot Fitness! Coach RJ

Nike Free Shoes Buying Guide

I've had some interesting dialogue the last few years about shoes and especially the Nike "Free" shoes in particular.  You can see all kinds of people wearing them now-especially many of my clients and family members.  We've had some amazing results with these shoes for improving not only the "fitness" of the feet but also the safety regarding how these shoes and others like them help to improve gait, function, and ease or even eliminate foot pain!  With some, they eliminated pain above the feet as well like in knees, hips, and back.

The "problem" with Nike Free shoes has been the general confusion about what they are and where to buy them.  They really started taking off last year-now they are found at many retail stores like Sport Chalet and others, so finding the "running" models are easy.  However, Nike has not made the educational information very user friendly or easy to access.

We discovered that the Nike Free sole design was being used on "non" running shoes-some are like office boots while others are actually being made for military and law enforcement.  No matter which Nike "Free" model you choose, it's still going to offer the same "foot-friendly" design which is more flexible than conventional shoes.  Reviews are typically very good to excellent even for the special forces "military" boots.

I must admit-this has been one of the most confusing handouts I have ever researched!!!  No wonder people had so many questions.  I did not realize the situation until I dug into it the last few days.

Special thanks to Randy Bennett for helping me locate some of the non-running models!

Here's the link to my new "Nike Free Shoes" handout that just went live today.

http://www.ronjones.org/Handouts/NikeFreeShoes.pdf   

Rock your feet!

Enjoy-better safety while walking from enhanced foot fitness,
Coach RJ

Shoe Trends-More on Foot Fitness!

I've been getting more and more inquiries about feet lately. It seems like everywhere I turn, there is something going on with feet these days. My continuing education deals more and more with the fitness of the foot...more they never taught me in school I had to learn on the job in the real world!

As the interest in foot fitness grows, so do product options. Let me summarize my "stance" with feet and shoes based on what I "currently" know (and I'm learning more and more by the day).

• I tend to believe "less is more." I want to think about how the foot moves without any modern technology. Just the old-school foot doing what it is designed to do in its most natural state. How does a bare foot move without shoes? Without a shoe, the foot reacts very differently. It will grip, stabilize, and attempt to claw the ground to stabilize the rest of the body. The foot will get strong doing all this because it's a lot of work! With shoes, the foot has artificial support, and the muscles and tendons tend to get weaker. With running shoes, the more developed the shoe, the less work the foot has to do which means the body works too hard above the foot in ways it does not want to work. Put huge air bags under the foot? The foot is not happy because it really wants "stability" and not soft squishy instability. It's hard to "claw air" or root yourself into the ground if you have soft shoes. Many of our movement problems today can be traced back to our feet--the first things to hit the ground with forward locomotion--our bases of support from which everything else is stacked.
• A few years ago, Nike and other shoes companies started picking up on the trend to go back to barefoot running. The research is out. With more technology in running shoes, injuries got WORSE--not better...and yes, these shoes cost more too! Enter the Nike Free and some other options. Enter the Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) I've been talking about lately. Also enter other shoes with very different designs claiming to work more muscles like the MBT, etc.
• MBT and Toning Shoes: These shoes are gaining in popularity. They claim to make a person work harder in the calves, hamstrings, glutes, etc. I'm sure they do because the shoe is curved in many of them--or somehow less stable due to design which requires one to work much harder to stand upright and move forward; however, the MBT shoe is curved in the opposite direction of the "natural curve" found in the arch of the foot. I go back to less is more and what the foot looks like naked. Less shoe--more foot fitness. Less shoe--more natural biomechanics. Some of the new toning shoes have very thick soles that radically alter how you walk if barefoot. More emphasis is put upon the "heel-to-toe" stride which is the opposite of how you would walk while barefoot. The trend I've been following with "Chi Running," barefoot walking/running, and shoes like the Nike Free or Vibram Five Fingers is more of the mid-foot strike--not the heal-to-toe strike. The support system (arch) is in the middle of the foot--this is where we should be striking--not exclusively on the heel itself. As shoes got better, we put more load on the heel because we had more padding, but this changed our gait and biomechanics away from a "natural" stride and foot strike; hence, more "running" injuries and more foot/ankle problems.
• I guess we have to go to root cause of movement/gait problems which seems to be pointed more and more at the actual feet. We have lots of problems today with fundamental biomechanics starting with foot/ankle then up to knee, hip, and back. Many of these problems can be traced back to the feet being too weak which then can make the ankles get too stiff as a compensation for lack of foot stability--and the compensations can travel all the way up into the neck and shoulders. Some of the new toning shoes talk a lot about fitness gains "above" the foot, but I have not heard as much about the actual fitness in the foot itself. Go back to root cause. Think FOOT fitness first--then worry about the calves, hamstrings, and glutes later. The feet--they hit the ground first and stabilize everything up the chain of movement. When your feet work well, the rest of your movements up the chain will also be better. If your feet have problems, so will the upper body.
  

For now, this is my direction with foot fitness and shoes. Using "less" shoe or at least shoes with harder soles seem to be making my feet stronger and happier. If the new toning shoes work for you--great! I had a few people tell me personally that the MBTs helped both diabetic feet and plantar fasciitis foot conditions--I have no reason to doubt them. I'm glad they got relief. Keep thinking about the naked foot though and what can be done WITHOUT any shoes or any technology to make you move better.

Here are a couple of related links if interested in above:

• VFFs & Foot Fitness
• Born To Run Book (great research on feet, running injuries, & running shoes!)
• You Walk Wrong (fascinating overview by New York Magazine on evolution of human feet, shoes, & injuries)

Keep it simple. Keep it cost effective...and keep your feet happy and fit.
In Foot Fitness!
Coach RJ