One of the many reasons conventional running shoes are bad for your feet is they’re too narrow and inflexible, especially in the front of the shoe whereby routine use of these shoes, especially at a younger age, causes an abnormally narrow foot-shape, and even worse, a bunion!
Its not just a narrow toe-box that causes bunion development, its also the elevated cushioned heel that mis-shapes the joints and bones in the forefoot, especially in the base of the big toe.
A 2011 study in Harvard Womens Health Watch found that a narrow shoe that also has a large heel-toe offset forces the body-weight forward, exerting unusually high pressure on the base of the big toe. The excessive weight in the forefoot squeezes the toes into the front of the shoe when walking or running. In consequence, a bunion develops when most of the body-weight is repeatedly forced onto the forefoot while the narrow and inflexible toe-box of the shoe cannot accommodate the protrusion at the base of the big toe.
The good news is the best treatment for a bunion is to ditch your narrow footwear and wear minimalist shoes. Overloads to the forefoot are prevented in minimalist shoes because these shoes are flat, flexible and wide which allows the forefoot to expand and the toes to spread, bend, flex and extend.
Furthermore, minimalist shoes flexibility gives the feet more power to physically engage and interact independently which strengthens the micro and macro-structures in the feet.
Lastly, one of the most appreciated assets of minimalist shoes is the more you wear them, or even better, the more time you spend barefoot, increasingly reshapes your foot into a wider, more capable foot, while preventing bunion enlargement!
In that regard, here are my reviews on all the best minimalist shoes that will help reverse the damage caused by conventional footwear!
References
Loli PJ. What to do about bunions. Harvard Womens Health Watch, 2011, pp.4-7
If you’d like, you can support Run Forefoot and help keep it going by making a donation in any amount of your choosing:
Or, you can also support Run Forefoot by shopping at the following top minimalist shoes brands, and be sure to bookmark the links:
Be Lenka: https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-7600968-14330828
FeelGrounds: https://www.feelgrounds.com/?p=RunForefoot
Xero Shoes: https://xeroshoes.com/go/Run_Forefoot
Iguaneye: https://www.iguaneye.com/?ref=8tfXVc92
Soft Star Shoes: https://shrsl.com/3mp1b
Wilding Shoes: https://bit.ly/3lIygQP
Earth Runners: https://earthrunners.com/?rfsn=6763579.f7f9c9
Vivobarefoot: https://shrsl.com/3kvih
Zappos: https://goo.gl/J1CeAd