Comment by kstrauser
3 days ago
My wife's a podiatrist. I can conjure what I've heard her tell a thousand people over the years: invest in arch supports. Shoot for the ones that run about $50 and are rigid. Don't start with the $500 custom ones, and skip the $10 soft ones you see at the pharmacy. Go to REI or a running shop or a sporting goods store and get those instead.
My knees freaking killed me when I was running. I started using the supports my wife bought for me and it instantly improved, and far beyond any placebo effect. Before: my knees ached after I ran 100% of the time. Now: they never ache anymore.
AND YOU DON'T NEED TO RUN to start with.
And if you are overweight and sedentary DON'T RUN TO GET INTO SHAPE.
Walking, hiking, swimming, biking, and weight training. Mix all of it so you get cross training effects and distribute stress across many domains.
Running is, by the standards of the statistical hole America is in terms of obesity, an "advanced" activity. We're talking about something that involves a stress increase of 2.5x to 4.x over walking.
Now consider that an obese person with an extra 50 lbs of fat is on their body. Running will be an extra 200 lbs of stress on your feet, and none of that fat tissue is absorbing impact or stabilizing that impact. And on top of it, the fat will disrupt the neuro-biomechanical flow of your neuromuscular system, making you less coordinated and therefore also harder to absorb the impact.
As I said elsewhere: use GLP-1 to get the fat down and simultaneously employ a gentle ROUTINE activity program that morphs into more and more exercise and exercise variety.
"And if you are overweight and sedentary DON'T RUN TO GET INTO SHAPE."
This. Many people aren't in good enough shape to run. And if they do run their form is often terrible.
There was a website years ago at WasWayFat.com about a guy that lost a ton of weight just stepping on an aerobic stair in his home.
Wayback machine has it: https://web.archive.org/web/20170710225625/http://www.wasway...
My feet seemed to get better after I started running. First time without pain in some time. Even walking made them hurt before. It’s taken a few months to build up though.
BMI of 29 starting so not obese but overweight and running has me down at 27 now.
Peter Attia in his book "Outlive" recommends exclusively zone 2 training for sedentary beginners: half an hour, 3x a week, of light to moderate exercise (e.g. on a stationary bike), for half a year or so before more strenuous exercise is added.
It can be really hard to get cardio without running. I still agree despite that.
It is, it is so low-cost (running shoes) and available (walk out the door).
And doing it is close to the maximum calories you will burn per unit of effort and time.
If you are overweight enough that running carries a significant risk of joint issues then just walking at speed is likely to be enough cardio for you.
Rucking will get you your cardio
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Counterpoint: I am personally skeptical about the long term value of arch supports. The reason is that while they can undoubtably help with short term pain, they also inhibit strength development and introduce an unnecessary dependency (kind of like a software library). I am not disagreeing with your experience or discouraging people from using supports to deal with injuries. I am just questioning making yourself reliant upon them.
About 20 years ago, I was riding my bike everywhere and hardly walking. I went on a trip to NYC and was walking 10+ miles a day. I developed severe shooting pains in my feet. Getting some supports helped dramatically and so I started wearing them whenever I wore shoes.
I did this for about 15 years and completely swore by arch supporting shoes. Then, one day I was playing basketball and landed on someone's foot going for a layup. My foot basically folded in half in the opposite direction of the arch. This was a major injury and I could not walk at all for a week and it took multiple years before I stopped feeling pain regularly in that foot.
After the injury, I completely stopped wearing arch supports. I had a theory that my feet had been weakened by using them and that this weakness was the underlying reason for the severity of my injury. For the last few years, I have averaged about eight miles of walking a day and mostly wear zero drop minimal shoes. I have developed the ability to run on concrete with them, though I do not particularly enjoy this (primarily because my running efficiency is poor).
If I were running a marathon, I would certainly wear shoes with padding, but I don't find much padding or support necessary or even desirable for brisk walking for hours at a time. And for almost 15 years, I never left the house without bulky supports.
I believe you are correct and I believe that what you are expressing can be generalized - and distilled - as the following:
Bracing a body part weakens that body part in the long run.
Anybody who has ever had a cast on their arm knows this firsthand.
Yep. I walk barefoot everywhere I can and if not, then I wear sandals. I was having terrible pain in my feet when I was wearing “shoes with support”, which went away once I started wearing sandals and going barefoot everywhere. If I run I run with glove shoes or whatever they’re called nowadays.
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I used to wear custom orthotics for a lot of growing up and into my early 20's. I definitely feel like it was something that I really could have gotten away without having if I instead had better shoes, and strengthened the muscles more. Unfortunately even the physiotherapist I had when I was young advised orthotics and didn't seek to treat the strength issue. Of course I was kid and myself and my parents were just doing what the experts told us.
A lot of my problem also related to back pain when growing up, and I realized also in my 20's how much going to the gym helped with the back pain. As my back got stronger via strength training, I no longer suffered from back pain. Additionally I invested more in things like a good office chair at home and ensured I had a good one at work.
Overall I no longer have back problems and no longer require any inserts in my shoes.
How the hell do you find time for eight miles of walking a day? I mean, that's just shy of a third of a marathon! I can only assume you're independently wealthy, retired, or have no kids.
(Beleaguered parent of a toddler here struggling to find ANY workout time, or the energy for it! It's killing me, literally and figuratively)
I see you! Don’t worry, you’ll have time again. Micro workouts (like literally, a single set of something during a break at work) help some, but mainly I try to console myself with all the lifting of kids and playtime involving physical activity. You’ll have time to yourself again soon, though, as they get bigger!
Better yet, get stability/motion control shoes. Don't skimp on running shoes and be prepared to try a few different types for extended periods of time before you settle on one.
I found that there is only one type of shoe on the market that prevents me from getting injured (Asics Gel-Kayano). Everything else - low drop, high drop, HOKA, Brooks, Nike, even Asics' own GT-2000s - is a quick route to knee injury for me. And I don't need arch supports when using the Kayanos, even though I am a very clear overpronator.
Motion control were found to cause higher injury rates than either neutral/stability in this study https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/45/9/715
Matches my own experience, first season of cross country in HS I had neutral shoes and they were perfect, went back for new shoes next season and they put me in motion control shoes which gave me instant knee pain.
Absolutely. And what works best is incredibly personal. My wife tends to run in Nikes because others don’t fit and move just right for her. Meanwhile, I’ve never found a pair of Nikes I could stand, but Brooks Adrenaline give me superpowers.
Don’t ever get what someone else likes instead of what you prefer. Your feet aren’t theirs.
What the brand of arch support are you using?
Sole Supports work for me, but it’s different for everyone.