Earth Shoes- Rocket
Type: General athletic shoes; probably most appropriate for walking
Cost: $80-$109
Bottom line: The negative heel in these athletic shoes seems to force good form and posture, lessening knee pain and back aches. They may be my best discovery since my air popper for popcorn.
Being a long-term exerciser has had many benefits for me, but there have been a few downsides, as you can read about here. I still consider my greatest loss in this regard to be my ability to run. I was absolutely crushed when I was advised not to run again, but there was something about the torque from running that no other high-impact exercise has emulated (thankfully). That said, my knees are still sensitive and prone to injury. Over the past few months, I’ve been doing many more squats and lunges than I used to, and this his been increasingly irritating my knees. I thought that the only thing I could really do was wait it out and avoid those exercises until the pain lessened.
On a seemingly unrelated note, last month I decided to purchase new “business casual” type shoes, and after doing some research and reading a good deal of hype about fitness shoes with negative heels (Skechers Shape Ups, Adidas EasyTone and the entire MBT line, to name a few), I decided I’d try a shoe like it just to see how it felt. I finally settled on an Earth shoe after trying one on at my local natural food store. It was a little wide and chunky looking, but it felt extremely comfortable- much more so than the Skechers (too heavy), the Adidas (less padding) and the MBTs (too heavy) that I had tried. I don’t normally have knee or back pain, so I didn’t notice any big difference while wearing them every day. Well, this morning, my knees were really hurting, so I put on a pair of running shoes and found myself hobbling painfully to my car. Convinced it wouldn’t make a difference, I put on my Earth shoes just to see how they felt. Wow!! I was astonished to find that the pain vanished immediately and I could walk completely comfortably.
Ding! The lightbulb went on. Wasting no time, I went out and bought these Rocket sneakers this afternoon. On the downside, they are bigger and chunkier than I would like, they are slightly loose in the heel, and they look rather feminine (give me black sneakers any day). But I didn’t think twice about buying them once I tried them on, because walking in them feels like walking on springy moss, and my knees didn’t hurt. Best of all, when I did Get Ripped 1000 today (the video where squats and lunges go to die), I was blown away. My knees still felt somewhat sore, but I was able to do squats and lunges off of my step (with weights!) with very little difficulty. As an added bonus, because the negative heel creates slight instability, I found I had to work my leg muscles a little harder to perform the moves- but not in a way that was hard on my knees.
If only I had heard of these shoes before! I have always made it a point to buy high-quality running shoes. In fact, the first thing I did when I started developing knee pain from running was buy myself a good new pair of Asics, to no avail. Now, I question my entire life sneaker philosophy, which has centered on putting my foot at a slight downward angle to boost it into a forward motion onto the ball of the foot and toes. In contrast, these shoes keep your toes 3.7 degrees higher than your heel. That may not sound like much, but what it ends up doing is forcing you to stabilize your leg on your heel and roll forward off your toes when you walk. When you do lunges or squats, the negative heel forces you into proper form, in which your weight sits back on your heels and is supported by your glutes and hamstrings (like you’re sitting down).
So far, I’m absolutely in love with these. I’ll be updating this review with long-term thoughts, but for right now, I’m not sure I want to take the shoes off!
Overall: Based on my experience and the myriad of positive reviews I’ve read online, these shoes may be worth a shot for those of us with long-term runner’s knee issues and/or back pain. Don’t be put off by the marketing proclaiming that these shoes will help you burn calories and tone your legs (yawn), because they are actually a quality product. Wearing them feels like you’re not wearing shoes at all.