People have asked me about shoes with rocker bottoms. They are supposed to make your leg muscles stronger and more shapely but wait–how can that be?
By letting the shoe do the motion rather than the joints in your feet, you are not using your foot and leg muscles fully.
You DO want strong legs. They will help with balance and they will help keep you young.
You can easily strengthen the fronts of your lower legs simply by lifting your toes or your feet toward the front of your knee. You can do this when your sitting or in bed.
You can also lift your toes when you’re walking. Some folks do this naturally and some of us kind of skim along without lifting toes. Making an effort to lift your toes when you walk helps strengthen your shin muscles and could also prevent a nasty trip!
Your calf muscles should be long and soft rather than short and tight. They tend to need stretching and lifting your toes (as described in the previous paragraph) will stretch your calves at the same time.
So, what’s the answer to rocker shoes? Just say, “No thanks. I’ll use my own muscles.”
2 replies on “Do Rocker Shoes Make Your Legs Strong”
Dear Kathryn,
Well said!
Rocker bottom shoes, in spite of the marketing hype, weaken the muscles extending from your legs into your feet. The reason for this is exactly what you enumerated in your blog post.
Rocker bottom shoes, by their very nature (which is a rolling motion from the heel to the toe) eliminates the need to use your leg muscles (as you would normally do if you were walking in non-rocker bottom shoes).
with warm regards,
Professor/Dr Brian A Rothbart
http://www.CuringChronicPain.com
Thank you for your comment, Dr. Rothbart.
Some things just seem like common sense to those of us in the physical medicine world. But clever marketers sure can cause some people to believe in a product. Good to hear from you again.
Kathryn