12/15/2020    Keith L. Gurnick, DPM

Twistable Running Shoes Help Build Strong Muscles: NY Podiatrist (Dieter J Fellner, DPM)

I am continuing to see patients with acute bone
and joint symptoms in their feet and ankles and
other soft tissue injuries as a direct result of
overuse stress that I believe is exacerbated by
wearing structurally insufficient athletic
exercise shoes. It is true that during the COVID-
19 pandemic many of these patients have increased
their exercise activities, and some have even
gained some weight.

Many are walking more often and also walking
further distances than before, or running for
longer periods of time and on varying surfaces,
or exercising more regularly because they have
more free time. But one thing in common is that
so many of these patients I am seeing had
switched shoe styles to the very flexible, soft
cushioned shoes which to me appear structurally
weak, and provide less foot stability and I
believe has contributed to the injuries.

These overuse injuries includes metatarsal stress
fractures, peroneal and posterior tibial
tendinitis and plantar fasciitis in walkers and
runners, and included both men and women. Most of
these patients had switched to soft twist-able
shoes because of advertising about how
comfortable, soft and shock absorbing the shoes
are. The advertising is fooling the public into
thinking these are good exercise shoes, but sadly
in fact they are not and better shoes are readily
available.

The good news is that these patients respond well
to rest or activity modification, taping, NSAIDs,
orthotics, and physical therapy. However an
important part of the treatment is getting the
patient to switch to proper structurally
supportive stable exercise shoes. This means
shoes that bend where they are supposed to bend,
are stiff where they are supposed to be stiff and
are shoes that you cannot twist easily like a wet
sponge or curl up and put into your debris tray
where the belong. When it comes to sports and
exercise, proper shoes are very important to
injury prevention. Like many of my fellow "old
school" podiatrists, I have many examples of good
shoes and bad shoes available in my office to
help educate each patients on what to look for
and how to select a proper shoe individualized
for them.

Keith L. Gurnick, DPM, Los Angeles, CA

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