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Vibram 5-Fingers..


eliXXir

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Paying it forward..

About a year ago I heard about the Vibram 5-fingers shoes as a possible remedy to some of the knee and back issues I've been having. So, I tried the recommended weekend without shoes to see if my knee felt better and it did..completely better. That was the litmus test before I bought my 1st pair to give them a try -- not cheap, but worth it if walking more naturally solves a worsening issue.

A year later I have my second pair (one for running, one for wearing with Injinji socks in winter or on wet fields/trails.) I am now running about 15 km (sounds more impressive than ~3 mi 3x) a week and thinking I might train my way up to a 10k just to have done it.

Thanks for the tip, Carlos, I should go buy some stock, huh?

Now I just need to find more shoes that work as business casual with the same effect. These are the only thing I've found that I will wear to work on most days, but certainly not on boardroom days..I'm stuck in the traditional business shoe then.

Meanwhile, driving shoes seem to be a decent casual 2nd choice. Like these.

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I got my first pair in January of '11. I too had given up on running due to knee pain (2 ACL's...'90 and '92 in high school). I've done some 5k's and sprint triathlons and I only wear my Vibrams. They're the only shoe I wear to the gym now actually...weights, cardio, boot camp...I wear them for everything. First pair lasted about 1 year...bought a new pair this past January.

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I don't buy cheap shoes because the quality shoes actually last a lot longer and pay for themselves. If I put normal shoes on my knee will start to bother me within a day. Blows my mind that we force everyone at every age to do something that could be destructive to their natural gait. At a minimum, I try to find shoes with the least heel-lift and the most room for my toes to contribute to walking.

I still find that my calves are not up to very long distances. My cardio will support a longer run than my lower calves - I've probably run 150+ miles in them and still hit the wall around 3.5-4 miles. If I push through it, I will end up not being able to run again for 3-4 days while they recover. I'm going to try some compression socks and see if the added circulation makes a difference.

The main thing is that I can now run for at least 30-40 minutes and without the 5-fingers forcing me to run on the balls of my feet, I was becoming very limited in what cardio I could do and even just walking was becoming an issue. Having never been a cross-country or endurance sport person, this is a very new experience for me and I find that running outside is something I have become very attached to. I would now run every morning if I could.

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I hear you on the calves...I've never had my calves be as sore as I did when I first started adapting to the 5 fingers. If you want to improve the definition in your calves, I highly recommend them. You have to start from scratch and build slowly and expect some soreness.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love them for casual use, but I actually gave myself a stress fracture running in them, and have had tendonitis since. I've heard a lot of negative feedback to these shoes now, they're being compared to other things that are temporarily good, but long term bad - like the numbers beds. Be careful in them- I ran for months and then suddenly bad. Now, I use them primarily to kayak and SUP board.

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