Toning Shoes - Do They Work?

MBT shoes can justifiably claim to have been the first "toning" shoes - albeit they weren't originally aimed at the fitness and toning market. They were invented by Swiss engineer Karl Muller who was walking barefoot across a rice field in Korea when he noticed that his back pain was much better than usual.

He carried out some research and discovered that the Masai tribesmen of Africa were famed for their good posture and had a much lower incidence rate of back pain than normal. He therefore developed Masai Barefoot Technology Shoes to mimic the action of walking barefoot across soft sand.

This is achieved using a curved, chunky sole which encourages a gentle rolling motion when the leading foot makes contact with the ground whilst walking. There is less jarring and, because of the curved sole, the foot is always in motion. The main benefits of reduced back pain and less strain on joints seems to have been obtained and the additional work carried out was a bit of a bonus - at least if you want to tone your lower body that is.

Skechers Shape Ups use a very similar curved sole to MBTs - again with the intent of reproducing the mechanics of walking barefoot on soft ground. The sole also includes a specially shaped kinetic foam insert and Skechers claim that you can "get in shape without setting foot in the gym" by wearing these shoes.

The video below shows all of the numerous benefits claimed for Shape Ups. It's an impressive list.

Fitflops started life in the UK as a range of exercise sandals. They use a special sole which is subdivided into three distinct areas, each of which uses different densities of material. This is the key to Fitflops "microwobbleboard" technology which creates instability and delivers the lower body workout by creating extra work.

Fitflops are proving to be very popular for a number of reasons. They are, in comparison with other toning shoes, relatively inexpensive. Perhaps more importantly, they look nothing like exercise shoes. They come in a wide range of colors and styles and are pretty funky. Although they started life as a range of sandals, boots, clogs and slippers were added to the range in response to customer demand.

A great deal of the appeal of toning shoes is the promise of a workout without visiting the gym. The fact that you tone your lower body just by walking around normally is very appealing for many and, it seems likely that people who intend to get their toning done by wearing different shoes and going about their daily business will not necessarily see any want to get kitted up as if they're about to run a half marathon.

Reebok Easy Tone shoes are the most recent entrant to the toning shoes market. They are a little different from most of the other shoes in the market insofar as they use special air pods built in to the sole of the shoe to create instability rather than a chunky, curved sole. Apparently the soles and the pods were designed with input from an ex-NASA scientist. Wow!

The idea is that the air pods work a little like a balance ball and introduce a small amount of instability which makes your msucles work a little harder. Reeboks look like what they are - high tech fitness footwear.

It goes without saying that all of the manufacturers of toning shoes have had independent clinical trials conducted and that these have shown that toning shoes - and in particular their brand of toning shoes - do work. However, life is never that simple and many of these studies are queried by health and fitness experts - due to small samples sizes and some debatable results. It would probably be fair to say that results are inconclusive.

All of the manufacturers websites are full of glowing testimonials from delighted users. To be fair, positive reviews can be found in a number of different locations. User response is, for the most part, favourable.

It seems likely that debate as to the efficacy, or lack of, of toning shoes will continue for some time. At the end of the day, if all this type of shoes does is to encourage people to walk a little further than they would otherwise normally do, then that's a significant positive benefit in itself.