http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erhbn3ElJVo
There are so many products out on the market now, that are what I like to call “Look like this without even trying” product. The biggest Fad that fits right into this category are the shape up shoes . Sketchers is not the only brand jumping on the band wagon, Reebok came out with their version called “Easy Tone”. Avon and even Walmart have a Curves and Danskin version of the shoe as well.
You have all seen these crazy looking shoes that are supposed to get you into tip top shape, without doing anything else but simply walking?
When did this sudden craze begin to take over?
I found a recent study done by web MD and what I found is that you definitely don’t want to be trading in your excercise routine anytime soon!
Article:
A new study, released by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), shows that toning shoes including Skechers Shape-Ups, MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology), and Reebok EasyTone don’t help you exercise more intensely, burn more calories, or improve your muscle strength and tone.
“Toning shoes appear to promise a quick-and-easy fitness solution, which we realize people are always looking for,” ACE chief science officer Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, says in a written release. “Unfortunately, these shoes do not deliver the fitness or muscle-toning benefits they claim.”
In the new study performed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 12 active women aged 19-24 completed a dozen five-minute intervals on a treadmill while wearing Skechers Shape-Ups, Masai Barefoot Technology, Reebok’s EasyTone Reeinspire shoes, or traditional New Balance running shoes as researchers monitored how hard they worked — technically called exercise response. A second group of 12 women aged 21-27 performed a similar battery of five-minute treadmill tests in the various shoes while researchers measured muscle usage in their calves, quads, hamstrings, buttocks, back, and abs.
The results? There was no significant difference in calories burned or muscle usage between the four types of shoes, the researchers reported.
Many people do feel that these shoes work because of soreness in different muscles. Don’t be fooled, Bryant says. The shoe’s unstable sole design does cause wearers to use slightly different muscles to maintain balance, resulting in temporary soreness that will subside as the body adjusts to the shoe, he says.
That said, “If these shoes are serving as a motivator for individuals to walk or get moving more often, that is a good thing, even if they don’t produce the dramatic toning and calorie-burning results people think they are getting,” Bryant says.
So is this really all we have to do as a society now? Have a superstar like Kim Kardashian promote the product with sexual inuendos, throw some bedazzled billboards up, and promote girls with great bodies walking in them on tv?
Guess so…. It seems like everywhere you turn you can spot these shoes from a mile away! They look ridiculous and if there was no hype NO ONE (and I repeat) NO ONE would be wearing them.
So the next time you go to put your shape up shoes on think twice, throw on some nikes and go to your local Fit Chic for an fitervention.