Today I did my first run in my new shoes. LEMS (www.lemsshoes.com). These shoes are designed as: zero drop, natural shape, lightweight shoes. They are designed to provide your toes (thats right toes) room to splay. If you have not heard the term splay before it means to "thrust or spread" or to "widening or outward tapering of something" [your foot].
Looking back at all the doctors/specialist/etc. I have been to over the years (since 2009); not a single one of them really looked at my foot and its real shape. My personal search has been exhaustive over the years and only limited by my ability to search and those terms I am familiar with to search for. About 3-4 years ago, I did stumble on the term "toe box" and I started buying shoes that marketed a "wide toe box". These shoes were dramatically different than your standard shoe which tapers on both sides and "points" your toes.
A few of the shoes I have tried over the years:
Patagonia Folios / Rover
Hoka One-One
Merrell Trail Glove
Vibriam Five Finger
Lets talk about toes. Feet are your support structure they are the points that touch the ground for your body. I heard this great analogy once that compares the structure of your feet to an arch bridge (truss bridge). These bridges are seen everywhere and at all locations, they are connected at a minimum of two points. In nearly all cases (geographical exceptions do occur) they are connected to the earth by two points (minimum, as some have multiple arches). These points are are nearly always located at the same elevation (not higher or lower than the other).
If you take a look at the shoe industry, it has recently gotten on the bandwagon of minimalist shoes and typically this "minimalist" shoe is a zero drop (read arch connected at the same elevation off of the ground). Now take a look at the average shoe you own. If you are a woman ignore the high heels for a moment. I would bet that unless you are a minimalist runner or a ballerina you probably average 1/2" drop from your heel to your toes. Take a look at a baby, before you go consumerist on me, they don't have shoes coming out of their mommy (read they have zero drop). Why do you force your body to physically change from how you were genetically designed?
Now look at a plan view of you foot (that is top down view, btw). The widest part of your foot? probably just behind the toes. Your foot goes from the small heel, widening out toward the ball of your feet, and tapering back as you move towards the toes. Compare this to a baby, narrowest at the heels and widest at the end of the toes. WHY? Shoes? Life?
If you are interested in this topic the shoe industry is pretty interesting how it developed and moved forward over the years.
Back to my first run with the LEMS shoes. I have been wearing correct toes, while not running for about a month now; and have found that they provide a non-drug/chemical/herb/mineral relief to a problem I have had for years. And as an engineer, especially because I have a commercial nuclear background I have this desire to understand what is called a Root Cause Analysis. Basically, this means to identify what the real problem or cause of a problem or event is. Deep Dive is a term i passionately hate because it is used by people all the time who do not really understand what the problem is, could be, and really just want to have a super expensive meeting to talk about a lot of nothing. A root cause is critically important to actually solving or addressing an issue. The body is extremely complex so a root cause analysis is not exactly the easiest thing to accomplish; I have attempted to do one before unsuccessfully.
During my run with the LEMS, Correct Toes, and toe socks; I found that in general I felt discomfort in different locations than normal. At the metatarsals and phalanges connection point on the outside of my foot. Now if you have had plantar fascistic you know that the typical pain location is at the heel or in the arch. So here is to discomfort in different locations!!
After the run I did a hot water soak, some minor stretching and put my correct toes back on.
