For openers, they have nothing to do with Mick Jagger.<\/p>\n
Sarah White posted briefly about this product not long ago, but brisk product sales and ongoing media coverage<\/a> suggest that consumers might benefit from more extensive information about rocker shoes. For the unfamiliar, these are walking shoes that are augmented to keep the wearer somewhat unstable and off balance, by means of soles that The specific alleged benefits<\/a> invariably include increased lower-body muscle tone, but otherwise vary by brand of shoe from fairly modest to bordering on miraculous. The FitFlop and the Reebok EasyTone brands, for example, promise to develop and firm up the leg, calf, thigh, hamstring and gluteus (buttock) muscles, with FitFlops adding the lure of “a workout while you walk.” The MBT, a Swiss import, goes a bit further, claiming to ease arthritis and reduce back pain.<\/p>\n <\/span> These shoes are nothing new, and have been produced for years as therapeutic footwear, designed for specific clinical uses such as physical therapy, rehab from injury, relief from arthritis or other painful foot problems, or to improve posture. Only more recently have they been marketed as a kind of orthopedic wonder shoe.<\/p>\n Does all this muscle toning really take place? Study results conflict, and those showing positive results have all been financed by the shoemakers and were conducted in controlled research settings, sometimes with as few as five people walking just 500 steps. And they’re all short-term, leaving unaddressed the question of whether any muscle toning is permanent or fades when the wearer gets accustomed to the shoes. Also unaddressed is the question of whether a shoe that over exercises some muscles under exercises others in the process.<\/p>\n If you have to stand for long hours each day, rocker shoes may help to reduce certain muscle aches and stiffness. Otherwise, experts seem highly unimpressed with the whole concept, and estimate its effect on muscle tone to be negligible, and on body weight, even less. Furthermore, the awkward instability of the shoe means you can’t engage in any serious athletic activity while wearing it, which seems to defeat much of the whole “muscle activating” purpose.<\/p>\n On the upside, the mere fact that we are deliberately wearing a shoe designed to activate our muscles may motivate us to pick up the pace and extend the distance when walking. As one exercise physiologist told USA Today<\/a>, “If you are spending $100 or more on a pair of walking shoes, maybe you’re going to go out and walk more.” Or you could save yourself some money, skip the wonder shoes, and just start walking.<\/p>\n (By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)<\/p>\n From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News<\/a> (REF3076322B7)<\/p>\n
\nare either heavily cushioned or padded or curved or molded so as to require the walker to work otherwise relaxed muscles to maintain his or her pace and balance. Some wearers compare the effect to walking on soft sand.<\/p>\nClaims About Rocker Shoes<\/h3>\n
\nThey are mere pikers; however, according to Skechers PR, their Shape-Ups can improve your posture, tone up your abs, help you lose weight, reduce your cellulite, strengthen your back and improve your circulation. Some of the hyperbole accompanying rocker shoes might be amusing, if so many people were not evidently swallowing it and buying these items at a furious clip; Reebok calls the EasyTone its most successful new product in at least five years.<\/p>\nRocker Shoes Background<\/h3>\n
Are Rocker Shoes for You?<\/h3>\n