How Natural Are Vibram FiveFingers Running Shoes?

Last week, thanks to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), we learned that the marketing hype about toning shoes was actually marketing hype about toning shoes.  Now the council has taken a look at the Vibram FiveFingers running shoe, which is said to make feet healthier by allowing them to move more naturally and freely. It could be hype, but many runners who have gone over to the lightly padded, glove-like shoes believe that they encourage a more natural gait, with a lesser impact on feet. The ACE study , which measured the impact of runners with and without FiveFingers shoes, gave 16 healthy recreational women joggers ages 19 to 25 two weeks to get used to Vibram FiveFingers shoes. The runners were then brought to the lab for 3-D motion analysis and measurement of ground-reaction forces as they ran under three separate conditions: (1) while wearing the Vibrams; (2) while wearing a pair of neutral running shoes (New Balance 625); and (3) while barefoot.  The bottom line: FiveFingers shoes did lead to a lesser impact on the foot, but only if the runners changed their running style from the usual heel strike first to landing first on their forefeet. They also found that, despite encouragement to change running styles, only half of the runners did change to a forefoot strike. All of the runners in traditional running shoes maintained the heel strike first running style, which comes with a greater impact on the foot. ACE exercise physiologist Pete McCall advises runners who switch to FiveFingers to start walking in the shoes before running, and when you do run, focus on running with short strides while landing lightly on your forefoot. For more advice from McCall, watch the video below.