What Are Toning Shoes

There are many different niches in the footwear industry and one that has been getting more attention recently is the toning shoes sector

. Toning shoes are made with a rocker sole that makes the shoes unstable. This instability has two effects. One effect is that the muscles have to work harder and the other effect is that the posture is changes.

The first purpose of toning shoes and where the name comes from is to get more bang for the buck, in that due to the unstable nature of the design of them, more effort is needed to walk in them. This additional muscular effort is supposed to increase the intensity of the exercise and provide a better tone up workout. The research to date on this has shown that these types of shoes do make the muscles work harder. What is not so clear is if this actually relates to a toning up the muscles an if the increased intensity as any real practical outcomes. There have been two multi-million settlements with the FTC by two of the companies that market the toning shoes for the claims that they made in advertisements for the products. The FTC alleges that the magnitudes of the claims being made were not supported by the available evidence that there was to support the claims being made. Both companies chose to settle rather than fight the claims. The toning shoes are still a sizeable niche market in the footwear industry and do sell well. There are many testimonials available that the shoes do help toning up the lower body and provide an additional workout.

In addition to the toning up effect of these shoes there are many claims being made about them helping those with postural and low back problems. There are plenty of testimonials available to testify to the help that they certainly did give to some people with back and other postural problems. There are a number of lab based studies that have shown the biomechanical changes that the toning shoes make to the way that people walk and their gait patterns. What is lacking is the clinical outcome studies that show that if those biomechanical changes happen, then postural problems will improve. So the change in biomechanics improving postural problems is largely theoretical. Clinicians certainly anecdotally claim that there is no doubt that these shoe do help a number of people with postural problems, however, they also do not help others and in some cases can make the problems worse. What is lacking is definitive research evidence on those that they are more likely to help and those that they are more likely to hurt. The clinicians certainly would like the data to help them make decision as to who they will help the most.

Toning shoes will continue to be a smaller niche footwear market with the brands in that market being useful for changing the way that people walk, but more research is needs to better understand how they work and show who they will help rather than rely on the current trial and error.

by: Roushean Richards

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