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Has anyone else come across these shoes that supposedly exercise the gluts while you walk around in them. My jaw must have nearly hit the ground last week when a lady proudly showed me her new pair telling me she paid the princely sum of £65 for them and there highly recommended by her physiotherapist who apparently suggested this is the best way to tone up your gluts while walking around the house. Just wondered if anyone else had come across them and what they thought?

 

MBT's

 

They're not just shoes....they're a way of life.....??? but you too can have buns of steel just from standing and walking........yeah right.......
But they are good if you've had an ankle fusion.
regards Phill

 

That's quite cheap for MBTs. Sketchers have now launched their "Shape Ups" range which are very similar and seem to be appearing in more shoe shops. I expect we will be seeing more and more of them as Sketchers have been heavily marketing recently.

 

They may well be fit flops? They are designed with soft and hard areas in the foot bed to encourage the 'balance effect' similar to MBT. However in my experience patients don't use them correctly, either resting on the soft front edge or rear edge, but hey, whatever works for the patients...........?

 

The best way to "tone up your gluts" is not by wearing expensive shoes that are going to probably cause some other lower extremity and/or foot pathology. Rather, it is best to regularly do exercises that are specific to the "gluts". Cycling and straight-leg hip extension exercises are an excellent way to strengthen the gluteus maximus muscle. If people want to "tone the gluts" then I suggest that they try losing some of that excess body fat by also going on a diet, since having decreased body fat percentage works wonders in making the posterior portions look more shapely.

I get very tired of how gullible some health professionals can be to the marketing claims made by some shoe companies. It comes very close to being ridiculous.

Words of advice: don't believe anything a shoe company tells you about their shoes, unless it has been confirmed by independent scientific study!!

 

Good for painful structural hallux limitus as well.

 

Good for painful structural hallux limitus as well.

 

Useful for first IPJ ulcers in clients with Diabetes.

 

http://www.physiotherapy.org.nz/index02/Publications/JournalPDF/33(3)Nov05_p95-100.pdf

 

Good article, Simon. Thanks for that.:drinks