Date - July 3, 2009
Time of injury (11:00 to 15:00)
DOB Jan 10, 33 yrs old
Cameron
Wash, DC
# years practicing Parkour / Freerunning: 6 weeks
Hours of training per week. 3-5
Other exercise / fitness experience: ultimate frisbee, runner, hiking, cycling
Location where injury occurred: outdoor jam
Conditions of location (wet, dark, icy, etc): perfect day weather-wise
What you were doing / trying to do when injury occurred? See notes
Where any other people involved? Not in the injury
Injury 1 - Part of body - swollen right ankle, no pain or discomfort, rating of severity 1.
Injury 2 - Part of body - jammed/bruised big toe, rating of severity 3.
Did you see a doctor for diagnosis? No
Did you get X-rays or MRI's? No
Picture of the injury No
Could you / how could you have avoided the injury? Yes, I could have taken more time to acclimate to Parkour training in my new shoes
Date / type / severity of your last injury? it's been awhile (i.e. I don't know)
Notes on the experience?
I got a pair of Vibram Five Fingers KSO two weeks ago and took them out for a fairly intense (for me) jam session. It was a four hour jam on July 3 involving a lot of wall runs, vaulting, rail balancing, and precision jumps. This was the first time I had trained a lot in these shoes and overall I LOVED them. If you have read any of the reviews though you probably know that they offer zero support to your feet so if your feet aren't used to going barefoot it will take some time to break them in (your feet that is).
I have loved walking barefoot most of my life though so have relatively strong feet, but my body is still getting used to Parkour (6 weeks of training). Due to not being acclimated to a lengthy jam session and using a new pair of shoes with no support my right foot and ankle were slightly swollen on the inside. There was no pain or discomfort (probably why I didn't notice it until the next day) but it was clearly an indication that I exceeded my current capabilities in this shoe. However, it is still slightly swollen five days later (less so than before), so I wouldn't call it trivial.
The second injury resulted from a precision jump to a rail that I fell short on. I second guessed just as I jumped so instead of landing the rail I came down into the 2 inch high concrete lip the rail was on. Because of the fact that your toes are individually wrapped in the Five Fingers this meant that the big toe on my right foot took almost all the initial impact. Needless to say, ouch. If this had been a standard shoe I imagine the toe box would have spread the shock around to the rest of the shoe and across most or all of the toes. However, it didn't and most of the toe was covered in a dark bruise for several days. The upside was that because I was wearing five fingers the toe kept getting moved around the rest of the day and so never stiffened up. So in the end the toe was a little sore and looked bad, but it healed up quickly.
I post these two things for information to those who are new to five fingers or thinking about getting them. The fiver fingers themselves were not at all to blame for either injury (that's all on me for pushing a little too hard) and I would still highly recommend them. But understand that they are very different and should be used with care at the beginning.
To end on a positive note, I think they also prevented me from trying a couple things that I wasn't ready for because the idea of landing from several movements we were trying just seemed too iffy without a thick cushion under my foot. So there is a lot of truth to the idea that these won't let you exceed your natural capabilities without feeling it...
