I’ve got introduced to Vibram FiveFingers shoes (Vibram is one of the minimalist footware manufacture) during the early stage of my professional KMI Structural Integration (SI) training in Mesa, AZ in early 2010.
First day I stepped in the classroom I saw several pair of VFF in our day opening circle and I remember wondering about its comfort, movement and snug fit. As the course went on different colors and designs popped up and at some point our group of 25 people wore more VFF than any other footwear combined. When I’ve got back to Minnesota during the 1st break of the course the first thing I did was trying to get a pair for myself. No luck. The readers of birthdayshoes.com probably all remember the shortage of those days. It took some time until I finally hunted down a pair of black Classic from a local retailer and by now I own 4 pairs (black classic, black orange KSO, brown Trek, Bikila LS) and my wife has 2(black classic, green Bikila) of them as well.
As an early adopter myself, I was all about the five fingers shoes, and as my SI course was proceeding I studied and started to have a better feel to understanding our feet. I assume most of VFF owners are familiar with the official Vibram website’s health reasons and benefits of why to wear VFFs and you all have your personal experience wearing them. My interest is to explain and extend on those from the perspective of an SI practitioner to educate the active and motivated minimalist fans and show how I use the minimalist shoes and VFFs in particularly in my practice;
The design of the 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles and all the tendons, ligaments and layers that constitute our foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution.
To grasp the functions and real potential of the human foot let’s take a look at its architecture. An earlier stage of evolution the four-legged animals had the stable four single points of support, just like the four corners of a house. We have erected from this very stable structure to support and ground ourselves on two footprints, more like radio towers but with the supporting guy wires attaching to themselves. The points of contact are the ball of the big toe, the ball of the little toe and the heel. They shaped by a great deal of differentiation and separation of the bones and by the lowering of the heel during a long period of time.
Our triangle shaped foot is held together by four arches connecting those three points. We mostly pay attention to the medial longitudinal arch – the one that goes from the heel to the ball of the big toe – but the other three arches – the Lateral and the two Transverse arches – have similar importance in shock absorbing and propelling us forward. The balance between these arches and the myofascial links to the lower leg determine the pattern, the available functionality and the range of motion not only for the foot itself but for the rest of the body.
In my practice when a client stands front of me for the first time at the starting the 1st SI session for photo taking and for bodyreading, I always see imbalance in these arches and connected myofascial links that create the common features like high arch, fallen arch, pronation or supination, shortened heel, wide or narrow feet, hammer toes and differences between the two feet.
During the first 7 sessions of SI I address these conditions and my intent is to create a more stable and higher functional foundation through the feet, knees, hips and spine. After the 7th session is the time when their body is ready for something “out of the box” experience. I’m actively promoting the minimalis footware that isn’t totally new to them because they see it on my feet every time they are coming for their sessions. VFF is the only footwear I use for my work by the way. I show them the official Vibram booklet and our collection of VFFs. One client asked me if there is an arch support in the VFFs and I told him, it’s built-in INTO YOUR FEET. So this time after the 7th session, clients are already adapting to the significant changes in their body, down to its core, that SI provides, and their myofascial layers are freer and they are more capable to take on life’s tasks with more efficient movements, greater available energy to establish balanced fascial fitness. It takes about 12-18 months to solidify fascial fitness and strength, quite a bit longer than improving muscular strength.
Then the last 4 SI sessions are about to bring the clients and their renewed body integrated with their every day movements and directing them to a life style that supports their fascial fitness, regardless if they are high end athletes or office workers sitting front of their computer. Minimalist footware turns out to be one of those tools that perfectly fits the needs of my clients who are looking to improve themselves.
If you have confronted misfit or wearing issues with your shoes there is a good chance that you can benefit from SI. I sense the specific foot patterns of bloggers on site like birthdaysoes.com reporting in their posts about fit and comfort of their minimalist shoes. Moreover the wearing patterns on minimalist shoes are accurately show the greater connections the rest of the body. I remember reading a post from last year about fixing VFF’s sole due to uneven friction.
When you are ready to change the rest of your body to match your changing feet in your minimalist footware give a call to your local SI practitioner and enjoy your VFFs or other brands fully!
Resources:
Find local KMI Structural Integration practitioners here
Attila Pegan’s website
Really clear site, regards for this post.