Foot Care Relief

Toning shoes are a recent development in fitness footwear - and they are proving to be extremely popular. Which is hardly surprising really – after all, who wouldn’t want to be able to tone their legs and trim their butt just by pulling on a different pair of shoes? There’s a wide selection of different brands on the market. Most of them work on the principle of introducing a small element of instability when walking in them.

It sounds like a crazy idea – but the theory is that the wearer’s muscles will naturally respond to the instability by trying to regain balance, and thereby doing doing work. The additional work carried out by the muscles in the lower body has the effect of trimming your butt and toning your legs more efficiently than normal walking. You get a lower body workout with no need to make a trip to the gym - and with no expensive monthly membership fees.

Masai Barefoot Technology (MBT) shoes were the first to appear. They were not, strictly speaking, originally intended to be toning shoes. They were aimed at people who wanted to improve posture, reduce stress on joints and reduce lower back pain. They have a specially designed sole which produces a gentle rolling motion when your foot lands on the ground. This is intended to replicate the sensation of walking on soft sand in your bare feet. The sole is fairly thick and chunky and will not be to everyone’s taste. They certainly aren’t cheap - but if they helped to ease your back pain or toned up your lower body, you may well think that it was money well spent.

Skechers Shape Ups shoes also make use of a thick, curved sole – which incorporates a special kinetic foam insert – to replicate the feeling of walking barefoot on soft ground. These are also pretty chunky in appearance, but they look much more like conventional fitness footwear than the MBT range.

Fit Flops sandals, clogs and shoes were originally developed in the United Kingdom and are now available worldwide. Although they look nothing like conventional fitness footwear they deliver exactly the same benefits as other toning shoes – again by using a special sole which is thicker than a standard flip flop and which promotes a small degree of instability whilst walking. They are quite a bit cheaper than the other toning shoes on the market and - equally important - there’s a huge range of different styles and colors available. They started life as a range of sandals but, acting on feedback from customers, the range was expanded to include clogs, slippers and boots.

Reebok recently launched its own range of toning shoes – Reebok Easy Tones. This is slightly different from the other toning shoes insofar as it uses air pods built into the sole of the shoe to create instability rather than a specially shaped sole.

All of the manufacturers mentioned above have independent clinical test results which support their assertions that their shoes help to tone up your lower body just by walking around. There are also plenty of glowing testimonials from very satisfied users. Needless to say there are sceptics as well.

It sounds perfect doesn’t it - put on a different pair of shoes before you leave the house and get a lower body workout by walking around as normal. Maybe it’s too good to be true? Maybe it isn’t actually that important. Some of these shoes are about the same price as normal training shoes – some are actually a little bit cheaper. The next time you fancy a new pair of shoes why not try a pair of these toning shoes. If the chief improvement derived from toning shoes is to encourage the wearer to walk further, then that’s a worthwhile benefit in itself.

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