Medieval "Turn Shoes": How we used to walk.

In the 1500's in Western Europe, shoes were different. People wore “turn shoes”, leather shoes that were made inside out then reversed for wear. This was likely the beginning of the use of molds to make shoes, carpenters up until the twentieth century would carve a wooden foot model of various sizes to model the process and standardize it.

These "Turn Shoes" were replaced by shoes with a frame construction as shoes changed to adapt to different environments, as streets changed.

The Turn shoes were basically a slip on or lace up thick leather sock. Thus, they were zero drop, soft, and provided much "feel" for the ground. Proprioception was obviously well appreciated.

We have spoken about the difference between heel strike and heel contact in walking. One can safely heel strike if barefoot on soft grass, but one cannot on the hard concrete or asphalt that we have covered much of our world with. Thus, if one were to wear "turn shoes" in our modern era, one would be forced to adapt to a heel contact or "heel kiss" on the ground, meaning, a more predominant forefoot loading style as described in this video.

What he describes, is largely not a choice, it was because they were in soft thin leather sock all day long, and even on wood or hard dirt packed floors and cart paths all day long, the heels would want some reprieve from heel "strike".

Another way around this, to reduce heel strike, is to do it more naturally, by shortening the step and stride lengths a little, by keeping the body mass over the foot strike. "Chi Running" and "Chi walking" are based off of this principle. By moving the body mass forward with the foot, one has to naturally reduce heel strike. If one lags the body mass behind the foot however, the foot moves out in front, and heel strike begins to naturally (or shall we say, unnaturally) out in front, more heavily. This is not exactly desirable, for many reason.  Yet, since most of our shoes have some form of heel lift (a heel to forefoot drop), particular dress shoes (yes, even men's dress shoes, see photo), and even many modern day running shoes, the heel is essentially made more prominent (the heel rise essentially makes the brain think our heel (calcaneus) that much longer. This makes it easier, yet undesirable, to heel "strike" first. Oh what we have done for fashion !

He gets a few things wrong in the video, in terms of "ease" of walking, but largely it is decently done. One has to be careful if they perch the foot out in front like he does in the slower demonstration, in a plantarflexed ankle and foot, one can easily begin to lock up the knees. We often see this in teenagers in flip-flops.

-Shawn and Ivo, the gait guys

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Look at that forward lean and glute development !

There now, maybe we tricked you into finally reading one of our bigfoot / Gigantopithecus blog posts. These blog posts were highly informative yet sadly under viewed compared to our regular posts. We suspect only the true gait geeks found those worth of their time but maybe they were misleadingly superficial to the quick browsing viewer. And that is ok, to each his/her own. But if you want to learn about your own species and problems we have as humans it is always helpful to look at our distant species “relatives” to see where we came from.

In this video you will see this Silver Back walking on 2 limbs, this is quite a rare event to see. In this clip you can see a gorgeous forward lean and the subsequent midfoot strike that occurs when the foot fall occurs with the body mass directly over the foot.  If you look closely you will also see that this gorilla is carrying a log in his left hand, which is one of the theories postulated as to why we evolved to bipedal ambulation, to carry objects over a distance. You should note the increased arm swing in the contralateral hand which is always seen when one arm swing is impaired from carrying things or from injury. This same pendulum alteration occurs in the lower limb when there is an injury and thus a weight bearing alteration, such as ambulating on a sprained ankle.  If you still do not believe us, strap a 5 pound ankle weight to one ankle and note the immediate change in step and stride in both limbs.  In subtle injuries or merely in the presence of pain, the gait cycle is altered a subtle level, and this is where gait compensations often begin.

in the normal walking gait cycle, rear foot strike is normal. But we at The Gait Guys tend to have our clients focus more on heel “contact” as opposed to a true “strike”. The difference is one of how aggressively the foot’s heel interacts with the ground at initial contact. We all have a family member or neighbor that can be heard upstairs sounding like they are pounding nails into the floor when it is really just their normal heel strike.  The best way to help someone to reduce this pounding habit is to increase their forward torso lean and to educate them on heel contact on impact.  The lean must come from the ankles, not from the waist. It is like walking into a heavy wind, you must lean your whole body (we use a queue of “raise your chest a little and lead from the chest” and this often helps stop a collapse into the core and flexion from the waist). And when one does this, the foot cannot progress so far out in front of the body and generate that aggressive heel strike. One is close to midfoot strike at this point when the correction is made properly.  This is similar to Pose running technique but it is just simply good form running technique to hit a nice soft midfoot impact each time.  

We talked more about heel strike in Gigantopithecus last week in this blog post. And, we also mentioned the perpetual knee flexion to dampen the head oscillations.  

Shawn and Ivo, The Gait Guys, and aspiring primatologists apparently.

The Ecco Biom

The Human Foot: It makes up to 175 calculations per second …….Yes, the foot is just about one of the most amazing pieces of engineering out there.  And when it works well, it is amazing. And when it goes sour……man it goes sour !

Watch this video for the new Ecco Biom.  This guy Torbjorn Sindballe is an amazing athlete. Through the sagittal plane his biomechanics look pristine. However, through the frontal plane, well that is another matter. We will discuss that in a moment.

Of first order, lets look at the video segment at 13 seconds.  In what at first looks like a cool video clip, at 13 seconds we see a foot flash before our eyes showing a heel strike barefooted (it appears to be running to us).  If it is in fact running, that is just not realistic. It is fine for walking gait but not for running, the impact is too great, the necessary control is excessive, and the deceleration forces just too much. 

* and to prove another point as to why heel strike while running is incorrect, think about this and then we will prove it at exactly 18 seconds into the video. The heel (calcaneus) is rounded. And it sits on top of a soft fat pad. If your sagittal mechanics are not perfect, the heel can wobble or rock suddenly and quickly from side to side. This is why you see running shoes with a deep seated heel counter and dual density foam in the arch to provide control and to help direct this foot forward onto the more stable bipod forefoot.  A single point is unstable, and thus heel strike at a running velocity is asking for trouble. Now, go and watch the video again at 18-19 seconds…..see that sudden jarring of the heel ! If you are going into an accentuated inversion or eversion event,  that impact event could carry you there in a hurry and that might not be good and/or it will necessitate a sudden ligamentous or muscular correction from the frontal stabilizers (which could lead to repetitive strain).  So when you run, in our opinion (and that of many of the experts and current research) perfect form is one of forefoot /mid-forefoot strike, then kiss the heel down to the ground if you wish and then lever off with glute and calf power. That is proper mechanics and shoes with thick generous heels can impede this normal event as Lieberman’s Harvard studies have shown.

Now, back to Torbjorn. Well, his sagittal mechanics are admittedly gorgeous !  But his frontal plane foot pronation mechanics leave a little something to be desired (don’t get us wrong, “if it ain’t broken, maybe you don’t fix it” when it comes to a super athlete like Torbjorn, and additionally as we know very well, what appears to be wrong is not always the case when you examine a person) but we do not like what we see. Particularly, at 36 seconds into the video you see rather aggressive left foot rear and mid foot pronation.  That might not be good over 26 miles and 100+ training weeks. The right foot needs a little work too if you ask us.  He should not be in that shoe if you ask us. But hey, who the heck are we anyways right ?……..

Shawn and Ivo……we are…….The Gait Guys……..(that’s who !)

(* Torbjorn, if you are reading……we could help you with that left foot if it becomes a problem. Lets hope not ! Keep up the really great performances, setting the standard !  Keep them looking at the backs of your shoes……and……just so you know…..we like some of the features of the shoe, we will be getting a pair and do a review unless you want to comp us a pair and begin some dialogue.)