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January 03, 2006
It's a work-out that might make a podiatrist wince, but a new exercise routine is turning the gym into more of a catwalk. NY1 Health & Fitness Reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.
Usually, most foot doctors tell us to stay out of high-heels. But a new class at Crunch Fitness, a place known for bringing the theatrics into exercise, encourages you not only to pack your sneakers, but throw a pair of stilettos into the gym bag too.
"For so many of our clients in New York – everybody this summer wore flat shoes... then all the sudden autumn hit and everybody thought, 'Oh my, I am back in my high-heeled shoes and I have to adjust myself have to how I am going to be able to walk around the city," says Donna Cyrus of Crunch Fitness.
In their 45 minute work-out called Stiletto Strength (which they call the ultimate work-out for urban women on the go), they say the goal is to actually help women re-train their bodies to wear heels: focusing on strengthening feet, ankles, heels, and core muscles.
"Most people move forward, because heels bring you forward," says Cyrus. "What we want to do is address that posturing and pull up your abs and really tuck under so you can feel taller, you look better and you're protecting your lower spine and back."
The class was actually developed with the help of professional dancers and podiatrists. And for the bunion-fainted at heart, not to worry, the major chunk of the class called "leg-work" of daily strength training exercises can be done in your sneakers.
But in the final part of the class, everyone straps on their heels to show what they can do in what they call full-on "work-it girl" mode.
"I'm used to dancing in heels as a professional dancer, I've spent most of my life in heels, so it becomes natural to us," says participant and professional dancer Ann Cooley. "But for everyday people, nowadays it's becoming the norm to have these really high heels and the pointy toes. So I think this class is brilliant."
Not only do they say that perhaps this class will help with some strength training, but maybe, more importantly, it may help bring out your inner diva.
"We're also teaching a little bit of attitude so you're not just feeling long and lean, but you're feeling a little spunky when you're walking down the street and giving yourself a little oomph there," says Cyrus.
"I don't think that wearing heels is going away any time soon. As we turn the pages of Vogue and Marie Claire, every single month we get more fashion trends put upon us to wear stilettos and high boots," says professional dancer Kylin Brady. "So definitely, this is a class that's not only going to aid in not only wearing heels correctly, but looking sexy and sassy and fabulous as we walk down the streets."
Interesting reading Craig and Mark. As you know I have long thought heeled shoes may improve pelvic floors (muscle tone in the pelvic region) and assist in continence control.
I have always thought that if God had wanted us to walk in high heels he/she would have given us HOOVES in the first place.
Seriously training people to adapt to walking in an abnormal way is intelligent as it will help to develop muscle groups and posture so as to accommodate an ABNORMAL Gait.
Some people declare their god decrees women cover themselves from head to toe lest they lead men into temptation and corrupt their souls. Believe such claptrap if you will, but I much prefer to think that women can make up their own minds what they can wear. Who are we to be judgmental? I suspect if you conduct a simple survey you might find that a majority of women would prefer to wear high heels when an appropriate occasion presents. As for affecting their gait, possibly, but not in moderation.
We tend to relate walking to the gait cycle as describe by Inman, Ralston and Todd. This was an event on completely flat surfaces. This is a very simplified model and bares little resemblence to the multivariance of actual human locomotion. The foot model as described by Root Weed and Orien is contained with that very narrow defintion, so we might deduce we still know very little about bipedalism. Also the introduction of shoes is comparitively recent (9 thousand years old) and the vast majority of humans being still go unshod. It may be cautionary to restict our parameters of normalcy to flat surface walking, only. In the absence of a heeled shoe the natural foot will elevate the heel in oder to negociate the variences of terrain. This makes each cycle unique.
Maintaining middle joint range motion by wedging foot segments (functional foot orthoses) may have given anecdotal evidence to support the use of the simplified walking models as a therapeutic aids, but these fail to describe the complete event. Hence by restricitng ourselves to a narrow defination of normalcy we may be missing valuable insights into the wonders of nature.
In my opinion this is quite an innovative idea, but i think that as podiatrist we must always keep in mind the ideal type of footwear, which certainly it is not a high heeled pair of shoe. I think that this is a good work out for improving core muscles, but is it appropriate to wear high heeld shoes daily? Various patients complain of calluses, and HAV and other conditions (keeping in mind also systemic conditions such as diabetes where ulcers can be present)which can be caused due to excessive pressure brought about by unappropriate footwear. So in my opinion instead of teaching people how to walk properly in heeled shoes, education on appropriate footwear is of a higher importance.
The Pedal pumping is latest craze for car and foot enthusiasts. See a well turned ankle and heels deal with the rigours of acceleration. The phenomenon of high heeled girls in cars is a cleverly disguised way to view naughty videos in the work space where risqué material may be banned. In the interests of education I attach the following which are perfectly respectable.
Im the more female girl in my family. My sister tends to wear trackies and trainers whereas I would make more of an effort and wear pumps to be casual and I wear heels when I go out...but yes there are pros and cons of each. My sister is 13 and has bad back problems so she is having physio and she is encouraged to wear heels every so often to help improve her posture. I hav had no back problems and hav wore heels most weekends and suitable heels for school everyday for the past 2/3 years. I think that if shoes are the correct fit, comfy and are suitable for their purpose then they can be just as good as a flat shoe. Sometimes flat shoes cause fallen arches...no matter what way we look at it we will find faults with each solution.
High heeled workouts
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