Why Minimalist Shoes Are One of the Best Treatments for Weak Feet

Spending more time walking in minimalist shoes, which are barefoot-inspired footwear, is the best way to build an enduring foot, aside from actually going barefoot. Moreover, runners would benefit substantially from the strength benefits of minimalist shoes, since strong feet strengthens stability, and when your stability is strong, your chances of injury decreases, and at the same time, stronger feet adapts quicker to harder training, too.

Why Minimalist Shoes Are One of the Best Treatments for Weak Feet — Improving foot health starts with the right footwear, and minimalist shoes are best for the job because they make the feet operate independently. The fully flexible, wide, barefoot-feel of a minimalist shoe re-engages the foot’s muscles and soft tissues at a very high level than traditional running shoes, which are often too narrow and inflexible to engage the foot at even a basic level, thereby causing foot functional strength to fade.

A study by Miller at el. in the Journal of Sport and Health Science showed runners feet are better able to improve in strength in minimalist shoes on a daily basis.

Their study mentioned a clarifying message that humans walked and ran barefoot and in minimalist footwear throughout much of our evolution. In contrast, feet are weaker, sorer and more injury prone today despite the thick cushioning and stability elements that make up most modern athletic footwear.

How Cushioned Running Shoes Weaken Feet — The inflexible, narrow design of traditional running shoes changes your foot shape and reduces the functional movement and strength of the arch and toes. In fact, the narrow toe-box prevents the toes from expanding, bending and flexing the way they should. These shoes also prevent the arch’s natural ability to work as an energy-saving spring, resulting in progressive degeneration of the arch.

This suggest our feet haven’t evolved a strategy to work properly in footwear loaded with technology advancements, and that our feet much prefer a stripped down, more simplistic design of a shoe, such as a minimalist shoe, because the unrestrictive fit makes the entire foot function more independently which simulates directly a constant stream of muscle tone to promote more soft tissue growth and stronger muscle development. This is why minimalist shoes is the next best sustainable solution for foot pain and weakness, next to going barefoot.

The researchers also underscored that cushioned footwear with arch-support reduces workload from the feet and hinders the normal function of the arch, making the foot, especially the arch, less resilient to stress, more pain and injury-prone and ultimately cannot induce any significant functional recovery of the foot.

Conversely, reversing functional loss and muscle weakness in the feet are verifiable major advantages of minimalist shoes.

In their study, the researchers examined changes in foot strength in runners who transitioned from conventional cushy running shoes to minimalist running shoes over a 12-week period.
The researchers measured foot strength by quantifying changes in intrinsic foot musculature volume.
These runners were compared to a control group of runners –runners who habitually wear and wore conventional running shoes.

Their results showed runners in minimalist shoes produced exceptional improvements in foot strength, specifically in the toes and the metatarsal heads as well as gains in foot muscle volume vs the control group.

Based on their unsurprising data, the researchers concluded runners who wear conventional running shoes will attain stronger feet and arches if they wear minimalist running shoes. Plain and simple.

The researchers also emphasized that continuous use of minimalist footwear will positively change the anatomy of the feet.

The Take Home Message

These findings add a stronger scientific voice to the running community that footwear matters immensely for foot health. Minimalist shoes always produce the most significant improvements in overall foot health vs cushioned standard running shoes which are always too stiff and completely unergonomic and is to blame for reducing the functional strength of the muscles and soft tissues of the foot.

In that regard, here’s a list of the top minimalist shoes for any activity!