The footwear du jour.(Aside: You should know that I otherwise exclusively wear minimalist footwear if I'm not barefooted. Away from work they're Vibram Fivefingers. At work I wear one of my two pairs of Terra Plana VivoBarefoot shoes.)
My reasoning was that I figured the stiffer shoes would essentially "cast" my feet, allowing me to walk around without so much flexion and movement. Hopefully that rest will help my foot return to normal sooner. After all, isn't that essentially what doctors are going for when the prescribe a brace for an injured joint?
I've noticed some interesting things today while wearing shoes more typical of the general populace. These are things I've experienced before, but since I haven't worn normal shoes in about 3 1/2 months I've forgotten a lot of this. Having greater sensation in minimalist shoes, the following observations are also made more apparent:
I was right. They're like casts.
Man, my feet sure aren't moving much. It's really amazing what a difference minimalist shoes and going barefooted make. I'm so used to my feet flexing and moving about that I forgot how restrictive regular shoes can be.
Boots are heavy!
I don't know how much these American Eagle Outfitters boots weigh, but I can tell you that it's a whole lot more than my minimalist shoes. Each step while wearing these takes a little more effort on the part of my legs.
I feel like I'm walking above the floor.
This is a weird sensation. I'd gotten so used to feeling the floor beneath my feet and minimalist shoes that having a much thicker heel really amplifies the distance between the floor and our feet. That said, a similar sensation is that...
I can tell I'm taller with these on.
It's really quite interesting, but even about 1 1/2" of extra height is noticeable. Door knobs, various buttons and other things around me are a little bit lower than normal. I bet this is nothing new for many women who wear heels after wearing flats for a while.
I can feel my feet slanting forward.
Just the little decline from the back to the front of these boots is apparent. I feel my feet pointing downward slightly and my ankle is at a different angle than I'm used to. While it's certainly nothing like what women would experience wearing heels, it's a bit strange not to have my feet parallel with the floor.
I feel so bad for everybody else.
This kind of sucks. After going exclusively barefooted or minimalist footwear for more than three months now, I have rediscovered the hell that most people put their feet through every day of their lives. I wouldn't want to do this everyday and hopefully this is the only day I'll do this. This reminds why I need to keep pressing on with the good news of going barefooted.
Please, do yourself a favor and take your shoes off if you don't need them on. Flex your feet for a little while and let them be what they are supposed to be: unrestricted and happy.
I feel many of the same things going back to "normal" shoes. While they aren't typically mentioned as minimalist footwear, I usually wear Crocs when I must wear shoes. I pretty much only wear them to walk from my car to my desk and back at work. They come off at work (with a doctor's note), and I go barefoot everywhere else. With Crocs I still get some feeling from the floor, and some flexing, as the soles are very soft. And they're extremely easy to kick off and put back on without having to bend over or anything. I do however notice some foot pain (I have some mild arthritis in my feet) when wearing these, occasionally, which vanishes immediately if I take them off.
ReplyDeleteBut when i wear other shoes, even flats, I can still notice the sense of elevation above the floor, the angle of my foot, all those things you mentioned. Plus, the difference in traction is astonishing. My Crocs have a -lot- more traction than my bare feet, enough that I sometimes trip on the floor when they stick to it so hard if I scuff my foot across it by mistake. Other shoes have a -lot- less, to the point that it feels a bit unstable to me.
Interesting.
-James
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