Questionable Claims About "Toning Shoes"

Jamie Sheller

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Several brands and styles of "toning shoes" are currently on the market. They are made by companies such as Reebok and Skechers, and are generally marketed toward women, with slogans like, "nice booty. nice sole" and "get in shape without setting foot in a gym." These shoes are essentially designed to create instability with pods or curves in the bottom. The shoe makers claim that the instability helps tighten and shape lower body muscles by making the legs, glutes, and calves work harder. However, many foot specialists have doubts about the claims for these shoes, saying that they are clunky, heavy and unstable. Further, the claims that the shoes make going to the gm obsolete are "far fetched." Though the design of the shoes may result in increased muscle activity, that does not mean that there is a benefit, according to a past president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine.

Though rehabilitative shoes have been designed with curved soles to help people with foot and ankle problems, they are not meant to address physical fitness and strength. Those kinds of shoes are meant to improve problems by transferring the workload away from the joints and bones, not to replace exercise for fitness. One orthopedic researcher says that while the "toning shoes" may have some benefit, they cannot replace a diet and exercise routine. According to the American Council on Exercise, there hasn't been much independent research on the claims made by the makers of "toning shoes."