Living Fitness

There is much debate over the benefits of “Toning” or “Rocker” style soled shoes. The shoes are made with an unstable or curved sole which force the wearer to walk as if using a wobble or balance board. The shoes were originally created for diabetics or people with foot problems but now are being marketed as muscle toning weight loss miracles.

A recent study on the shoes concluded that there is absolutely no benefit to using them to promote muscle toning. However, the study is being questioned by the shoe makers as it’s target study group was merely 12 women. The women were all active women who used the shoes for five minutes at a time on treadmills. The shoe makers believe this study does not do enough to measure the shoes’ effectiveness for muscle strengthening with such a limited study group and short exercise comparison.

But the shoe makers all agree that shoes can’t promise weight loss despite the facts that many marketing campaigns strongly hint that they do burn more calories than an average pair of sneakers. The question still remains: Do these toning/rocker shoes provide any benefits?

Podiatrists for one recommend the shoes for patients who suffer from heel pain because they take the pressure off the heel while providing ankle support for the patients when walking.

Physiotherapists say the shoes are good for practicing balance exercises. Clients with ankle injuries who have arch support issues can use the shoes to help strengthen their balance as the shoes work like wobble boards which are used by physiotherapists to rehabilitate ankle sprains.

The shoes force the wearer to use different muscles particularly the hamstrings and glute muscles while walking so new users are warned to wear them a little bit at a time until they get used to it. Don’t go for a long walk on your first go you may be surprised as to which muscles were actually firing during the walk.

So you won’t lose weight faster as a result of just wearing and walking in toning shoes, but if they motivate you to walk or exercise more often and they force you to use a few muscles in a different way than you may be used to then maybe these shoes really do provide added benefits that their shoemakers promise.

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Running watches GPS systems, have risen dramatically in popularity over the last five to ten years. The addition of GPS functionality, has expanded the level of sophistication, athletes can get from their sports watches dramatically. For years watches for runners have offered a basic running stopwatch, with a few advanced features like lap split counting and interval timers. With the rise of GPS technologies, running watches can now offer runners the ability to measure their speed, pace, distance and elevation profile over the course of their training sessions.

There are several advantages that measuring speed, pace and distance offers an athlete who trains to compete. With the ability to measure pace, an athlete can keep a closer eye on the pace they are running at within a race. Many of the latest GPS running watches feature pace alerts that can notify a runner if their pace is too slow (or too fast). Knowing that their pace has dropped off, a runner can try harder to get their pace on track again.

Another feature that sports watches can now offer runners is automatic recording of intervals based on the distance travelled (as measured by the GPS). Many of the leading GPS watch manufacturers feature advanced interval training modes, whereby runners will alternative between two intensity levels. Alternating intensities is one of the most effective training methods and is one of the more common forms of performance training performed by athletes. GPS watches also feature the ability to automatically pause the running stop watch, when a runner has stopped. So if you are out on a run and are forced to stop for traffic lights, the running stopwatch on your watch will automatically stop, without you needing to press a button.

A third feature that running watches GPS systems can offer athletes is the ability to log the courses they have run. Modern watches feature large memory capacities, which allows them to store a lot of training information on the watch. Most come with software and the ability to transfer data from the watch to a PC or Mac computer. When the data has been transferred to computer, the user can then analyse their details with the software. Many watch companies also provide online communities which often offer even more analytics tools as well as the ability to share their data with like-minded athletes. Sports watches have certainly come a long way over the decades and with so many watches now offering GPS, a whole new layer of possibilities are available to runners of all levels who seek to up their performances.