DrShippee

Minimalism VS Barefoot VS Zero Drop

DrShippee — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:28:42 +0000

Welcome to the Dr. Shippee Shoe Handbook:

What is the real difference?

We all know tons of friends who love to run, right? Some are fast, some are slow, some like big fat shoes and others like next to nothing on their feet. Recently with the new craze being Minimalism or Barefoot running, I can see that there is a great deal of confusion…I hope I can clear it up with this article.

With the latest craze being, “less is best,” this has spurred a great deal of research and development, and this often times results in innovation far ahead of its time and fails to catch on.

Dr. George Sheehan, physician and running author once said, “running is an experiment of one,” this shows the need for runners to learn from their own experience as well as seeking credible advice.

Let’s compare the differences:

Barefoot Inspired Running Shoe Characteristics

Weight-<10 Oz

Materials-Synthetic mesh with few overlays

Heel Drop-0mm, from heel to toe

Wide Toe Box-allows toes to splay

Ramp Angle-0 degrees

Stack height-< 10mm

Minimalist Running Shoe Characteristics

Weight-< 10 Oz

Materials-synthetic mesh with few overlays

Heel Drop- 5mm

Foot Shaped Toe Box

Ramp Angle-10 degrees

Stack Height-< 25mm

This is how I can best describe the differences between the two, but now let me explain what a few of these few terms mean:

Barefoot Inspired Shoe- Mimics the shape of the foot and allows unhindered function of its natural motion.
Drop: The difference of the height of the shoe between the heel and the ball of foot.
Minimalist shoe-Shoe with all the bells and whistles removed to reduce weight and structure.
Ramp Angle- The angle the shoe pitches forward from heel to toe.
Toe Box-The front of the shoe where the toes reside.
Stack height-Height of the sole relative to the ground and shoe body
Zero Drop Shoe-Same stack height under both heel and toe.

Once again, Dr. George Sheehan, physician and running author once said, “running is an experiment of one,” this shows the need for runners to learn from their own experience as well as seeking credible advice.

As Always, Enjoy The Run,

Dr. Shippee

Barefoot/Minimalist shoes vs. “Normal” shoe running

DrShippee — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:04:38 +0000

Dr. Jared Shippee, DPM

Certified Newton Running Coach

In the last few years, there has been a great deal written about barefoot running and the trend leaning toward the minimalist shoe type for runners vs “Normal” running shoe. As a foot doctor I have an understanding and interest in running and biomechanics, which is the study of the body in motion. I feel for a health care professional to honestly help their patients understand exercise he or her needs to participate as well. I often get frustrated when a runner will come to me and tell me their primary care doctor who has never run a day in his life is telling him or her what shoes to purchase and how to run properly. I am not going to preach but I am going to give my PERSONAL opinion of what I think is proper and relate to you the reader my personal experience with running. There are many papers written and studies performed that weigh the pros and cons of barefoot/minimalist running vs. wearing normal running shoes. What I will relate is once again, “my recommendation based off my experience.”

The modern shoe industry is selling, “more is better.” Now, new research is showing that “less is best.” The main premise behind most of the research out there has delivered a range of sneakers and shoes big on cushioning and control and short on research. The idea was, “is if some cushioning is good, then isn’t more better?” (S. Kennedy) Maximum impact comes at heel strike so shoe makers thought, “Well let’s just add more to the heel, without thinking about its effects on feet, ankles, low back and knees.

Now researchers like, Daniel Lieberman, PhD, a professor of human evolution at Harvard is revealing less is best. His research showed, all these shoes with their big soled heels, may increase torque and impact forces at joints, causing injuries, starting at the feet, ankles, knees, hips and finally back.

Lets look at some examples, Abebe Bikila, the 1960 Olympic marathon gold medalist ran a time of 2:15:16….barefoot!, but then she returned to win the Tokyo marathon 4 years later in a time of 2:12:11, 7 seconds faster and WITH shoes.

Zola Budd the South African, barefoot world record breaker, said, “I no longer run barefoot. As I got older, I had injuries to my hamstring. I found wearing shoes gives me more support and protection from injury.

So you can see there are both sides of the story.
My story is a oh so sweet one that helped me win my health back.
Years ago, I was getting back into running. I decided to run the Moab half marathon. When mile 10 hit, my knees totally locked up and I was finished, I walked the rest of the way. Fortunately a photographer took a still photo and it revealed to me, things had to change. After the Moab run, I stopped running all together, gained 30 pounds of blubber and 4 inches on my waist, I felt like a total hypocrite. As a health care provider, I felt I could no longer encourage my patients to lose weight, because I myself was a marshmellow. This inspired a change, looking at my photograph running that race I noticed I was landing very hard on my heels and my feet to my hips were totally straight and rigid, exacerbating the impact and torque forces.

Then a friend turned me on to Newton Running shoes, which is a type of a minimalist running shoe, and my running career did a 180. I lost those 30 pounds of blubber and the 4 inches off my waist and have been running pain free for years now. My speed has increased and most importantly, I feel confident in helping others get healthy. I have had patient after patient come to me with running injuries and once I transition them into a Newton “type shoe” or minimalist, it changes everything for them.

I read a quote once from a pedorthist and I wish I could recall where I read it, it went something like, “Minimalist and barefoot running clearly has its place but good “traditional sneakers” and orthotics are also essential for protection for those with lower-limb pathology.” I feel this quote sums up how I feel. I have had patients with neuromas tell me minimalist shoes, even with extra cushioned inserts only exacerbated their nerve pain while those with plantar fasciitis and heel pain say, minimalist or barefoot running has changed their lives forever. Not all foot types are created like the other, some are predisposed to injury and trauma, so here is some of my personal advice: always listen to your aches and pains. Pain is a good signal something has to change. If you decide to change your running form or shoe type, ALWAYS ALWAYS start slow and go for short distances. Last but not least, stretch, stretch and stretch again.
Enjoy The Run,

Dr. Shippee, DPM

Importance Of Running Shoes

DrShippee — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:54:20 +0000

Panacea February Theme Release

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:02:36 +0000

Panacea, the February 2011 Theme Club release, encapsulates stylistc freedom with the inclusion of the Color Chooser, allowing for easy style customization with just a few clicks. An unconventional feature for such a design choice.

Feature Rich Foundation

Panacea is built with the Gantry Framework, offering a powerful base for the theme with such notable features as the 960 Grid System, amongst others.

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Key Features

Color Chooser
Background Rotator
Fusion Menu
Smartloading

Advanced Menu Options

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:01:18 +0000

Panacea is accompanied by two menu systems, the popular javascript enhanced dropdown menu Fusion, and the simple but versatile menu Splitmenu.

Fusion is a CSS dropdown menu that has been fundamentally enhanced by the powerful javascript library, Mootools. It has a more refined coding structure, as well as javascript animations and transitions for its dropdowns. The entire menu is crawlable.

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RocketLauncher Pack

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:52:24 +0000

What is RocketLauncher?

RocketLauncher is a customized WordPress install. It combines default WordPress with the theme, plugins, sample images and the demo content.

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Adobe® PNG Sources

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:51:22 +0000

Customize with Ease.

Accompanied with the theme are the Adobe® Fireworks PNG Sources that we use to build the theme, allowing for swift modification.

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RTL Support

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:50:36 +0000

For Arabic and Others.

RTL Support for both theme and Gantry elements. That includes automatically inversion of the Gantry grid positions, and RTL elements for the menu etc…

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Widgets Styling

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:36:49 +0000

Widget Variation.

An assortment of 13 widget class suffixes, varying in format, shade and colour to add individual variety to the widgets in the theme.

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Rotator One

DrShippee — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:12:16 +0000