Topic: Soccer Cleets close to Barefoot?

[Jeremy Osborn]

Okay, im in LabTech, and me and friend were talking about foot arches and such because the teacher said he had an orthotic and it became a discussion between us, and she said that it feels really close to barefoot, and that she runs better. Are they good at all? Like from a Shoe vs Barefoot perspective

[Chris Salvato]

Orthotics are not a replacement for barefoot - in fact, they alleviate pain but make the overall problem worse -- kind of like the effect of getting glasses on your eye sight.

I fail to see how this relates to cleets at all - which are nothing like barefoot.

[Jeremy Osborn]

No, the orthotic was how we got started to even talking about it in the first place. My friend said that she runs a lot better in soccer cleets, and claims that they are close to being barefoot, and i disagree completely, just wondering what you guys thought of on the matter, because she swears that they are like going barefoot.


So on a barefoot vs shoe matter, are soccer cleets any good compared to going barefoot?

[Chris Salvato]

...relates to cleets at all - which are nothing like barefoot.

Cleats are nothing like barefoot.

[Turbotrob]

Cleats are nothing like barefoot.

I second that. I do everything barefoot and I have very strong feet that can take pretty much anything now. But that's more from life than pk

[Jeremy Osborn]

Oops! Didnt quite catch that..  thats embarrassing..

[Steven Low]

Anything that is not very thin like vibrams is not close to barefoot at all.

[Dan Frank]

Anything that is not very thin like vibrams is not close to barefoot at all.

Anything that doesn't allow you full use of all your toes is not close to barefoot. My Feiyues are thin to the point that they almost have holes in the soles, but it's a VERY different experience from training barefoot.

[Steven Low]

Anything that doesn't allow you full use of all your toes is not close to barefoot. My Feiyues are thin to the point that they almost have holes in the soles, but it's a VERY different experience from training barefoot.

Also true

[Anne]

Orthotics are not a replacement for barefoot - in fact, they alleviate pain but make the overall problem worse -- kind of like the effect of getting glasses on your eye sight.

Could you elaborate on this, please?

[Chris Salvato]

Well, I kind of spoke out of turn, Anne.  I should have said:

" -- kind of like the effect of getting classes can have on some eye sight conditions"

Orthotics make the pain go away but alter the body's biomechanics.  Your foot is resting on an orthotic that is not natural and it causes your body to adapt.  When you remove the orthotic after a long period of time the orthotic actually made the situation worse, though the pain is much better when you are wearing the orthotic.  This is similar to some muscular eye sight problems where a muscular weakness causes blurred vision.  Glasses help the blurred vision but make the muscles weaker causing people to need to get different glasses all the time as their muscles adapt to the glasses.

[Shae Perkins]

Are you saying we can do eyeball exercises?

I agree with what everyone else says. Nothing is really like going barefoot aside going barefoot. Even vibrams are pretty lame in my opinion. You may be able to feel alot... but it's still not barefoot! A nice transition though:)

[Dan Frank]

I agree with what everyone else says. Nothing is really like going barefoot aside going barefoot. Even vibrams are pretty lame in my opinion. You may be able to feel alot... but it's still not barefoot! A nice transition though:)

Vibrams are good because they're the only shoes that can protect your feet from the wide variety of stuff that you shouldn't ever step on, while retaining most of the flexibility and function of your real feet.

[Chris Salvato]

Are you saying we can do eyeball exercises?

Actually, you can.  There are physical therapy programs for the eye that ophthalmologists can prescribe.

[KC Parsons]

yeah, you have muscles that attach to the lens in in your eye and stretch or shorten it depending on the distance of what you're looking at, so oftentimes people have blurry vision because of issues in those muscles, pulling the lens out of focus (and being blurry).

as far as actually realistically fixing this, i'm not entirely sure. like chris says, ask an ophthalmologist. 

[Chris Salvato]

not really KC - the muscles we are talking about in eye therapy are the ones that control eye movement -- muscles that lie behind the eye and attach to the eyeball itself.

[mospunk]

Although totally off-topic from the original post, the simplest exercise for eye-strengthening that was recommended to me by my ophthalmologist is the pencil test.  Hold a pencil out as far as you can and focus on the eraser.  Then move it closer to you until it's right between your eyes.  It will help strengthen the muscles that cause your eye to focus.  I'm sure there are others, but that's the simplest one I was informed of when I asked about it, because I've started losing the ability to focus as quickly as I used to (that's what old age will do to you).

 

[KC Parsons]

not really KC - the muscles we are talking about in eye therapy are the ones that control eye movement -- muscles that lie behind the eye and attach to the eyeball itself.

damn. sorry about the misinformation guys..

[Shawn Meilicke]

Although totally off-topic from the original post, the simplest exercise for eye-strengthening that was recommended to me by my ophthalmologist is the pencil test.  Hold a pencil out as far as you can and focus on the eraser.  Then move it closer to you until it's right between your eyes.  It will help strengthen the muscles that cause your eye to focus.  I'm sure there are others, but that's the simplest one I was informed of when I asked about it, because I've started losing the ability to focus as quickly as I used to (that's what old age will do to you).

 

hmm, sounds easy enough, lol....

i think i shall do this every once in awhile now