We all know there has been a growth in popularity of Vibram five fingers , combined with a rejection of over supportive shoes and the orthotics prescribed by many podiatrists. The idea is that over supporting the foot weakens all the muscles and connective tissues in the foot and leads to alignment problems and commonly sore knees. However if you go to many road running shops with sore knees you will be sold a more cushioned and supportive shoe. If you go to a podiatrist with sore knees you may well end up with shoe orthotics to correct the fact that your feet
slump when not supported. Bare Vibram shoes is proposed as a long term solution to these problems. Bare foot running will stimulate all these weakened muscles and tissues to regrow and sort out your aligned problems and soreness. It's not something you do every run just to be added in and gradually built up a bit.
There is much debate on the subject and of course one solution will not work for everybody. My podiatrist pointed out that if your alignment is genetically flawed to begin with then no amount of five finges shoes will correct that. My experience is that I got some orthotics last year which really helped the sore knees which had developed from doing more super long fell races and BG training. But my knees are not as good as there were 2 years ago and so I am hoping that some vibram fivefingers, stretching and use of orthotics (whether permanently or temporarily) will all combine to sort me out. I am not promoting either school of thought particularly at the moment just trying a number of solutions to improve my knees.Recently there has been a growth in popularity of barefoot running, combined with a rejection of over supportive shoes and the orthotics prescribed by many podiatrists. The idea is that over supporting the foot weakens all the muscles and connective tissues in the foot and leads to alignment problems and commonly sore knees. However if you go to many road five fingers shops with sore knees you will be sold a more cushioned and supportive shoe. If you go to a podiatrist with sore knees you may well end up with shoe orthotics to correct the fact that your feet slump when not supported. Bare foot running is proposed as a long term solution to these problems. Bare foot running will stimulate all these weakened muscles and tissues to regrow and sort out your aligned problems and soreness. It's not something you do every run just to be added in and gradually built up a bit.