Being a Kettlebell instructor I have explained to a lot of my clients what effects their shoes have on specific lifts and kettlebell movements. I would also briefly explain the effect on posture and hand out soft suggestions to what they should wear or instruct them barefoot if need be. It wasn’t until meeting the Z-health team, who specialize in neurological based training, that I had seen enough and started to actively educate my clients and people about their shoes. Everything and I mean everything about the body changes when shoes and mobility is taken into consideration. You may be thinking, “Well I need that support”. I’m guessing the guy wearing a referee shirt at footlocker that told you that isn’t a doctor and if you need support there are groups for that. I was among the many who truly believed support was needed. Where did we get this information and how accurate is it?
Let me first start by saying I don’t have anything to sell you. I am a Personal Trainer and I use and teach principles that change the way people move, feel, and perform. So let’s get back to that fancy shoe of yours. We can’t help it can we? We turn on the T.V. or our computer and we see the new shinny toy that promises to make us an incredibly better human being. Logically, how can we argue? You put new tires on the car it runs better right? Well, not in this case. In fact the body has never been running worse. I typically use a computer to describe what is going on with the shoe you are wearing. You don’t have to be Bill Gates to know that there are two components to your computer: your hardware and your software. If your monitor is cracked well looks like your not watching YouTube when you should be studying, you know who you are. If you software doesn’t work well forget about going on Facebook during work hours. Bummer.
The hardware of you body is your myofacia. Myo what? The words Myo -meaning muscle and facia -meaning connective tissue. In Thomas W. Myers book, “Anatomy Trains” he describes 12 myofacia meridians that run though the body which dictate how we move. Stay with me. I will briefly discus two. So look at your running shoe / cross trainer or if your in your office just look at the picture I posted. Notice the toes are in extension (pointing up towards the face) and the heel is above the ground. Now if your bare foot is that the way you stand? Not if you’re normal. Because of this design a few things are happening to the body. First your Anterior Superficial Line (front line) is being shortened as well as your Posterior Superficial Line (back line). Both of these lines run from your feet to your head. Pretty cool right! What this means is when these lines get short they get tight and when they get tight they are weak. This leads to a ton of postural deviations and reprogramming of the way we move through our natural gait cycle (the way you walk and run). Got pain?! You can ice your shins as much as you want but that’s not going to change the problem ask my marathoners. The second big thing is the heel to toe striking that the design promotes. Now there are a million arguments for this on both styles. Look, I don’t want any trouble. I’m not hear to argue but, what I do know is the anatomy of the foot. In the foot you have more than 30 joints and most of them are located in the ball of the foot (near the toes). That being said joints serve two purposes impact and mobility so you can be the judge. Also, the best runners in the world run this way so if you want to emulate the best then the typical shoe will stand directly in your way.
Next is the software and by software I mean the Central Nervous System. OK, so maybe you weren’t paying attention during this part of class, in your defense some teachers can induce comas. Your CNS is responsible for everything that happens in your body. Really? Yes! This is critical when it comes to a complex movement such as your gait. Pain, force production, body awareness are all controlled by the CNS. Now let’s talk about body awareness or proprioception. Here he goes again with those big words. If you have ever been pulled over by an officer of the law and asked to close your eyes and touch your nose you were displaying proprioception. I hope you passed next time blame your shoes. I will discuss Proprioception in more detail in another blog but, this is important because the better your body awareness is the better overall function you will have. Proprioception is sharpened my moving the body’s joints in their full intended range of motion. When done properly it clears the body brain connection and overall function is increased. Most all shoes on the market provide a generous buffer of material protecting your from the ground but at the same time these shoes immobilize your foot. This puts a blindfold on your brain blurring your body awareness leading to pain, poor balance, and a central nervous system which fires poorly. The take home message on this is immobile joints create weak muscles. This is real bad when it comes to moving around.
Step outside and look in on what is happening here. We are being sold support everywhere. But needing support would infer that we were born with faulty equipment. Are you really buying that? So if this is all true why isn’t this all over the place? Is there any money in it? Perhaps they haven’t found a way to market healthy habits like mobility and simple designs for shoes that don’t cause pain. I hope this finds you out there that are trying to perform better because you will have tremendous progress when accepting this information. There are shoes that I and other Z practicing trainers recommend. I will cover that in another blog but basically you want them to be flexible on the bottom and they should be able to collapse when bending them.
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