American Council on Exercise Tests Toning Shoes
Across the board, none of the toning shoes showed statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during any of the treadmill trials. There is simply no evidence to support the claims that these shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone (Table 1).
“We tested RPE, which is basically how hard one is working, and oxygen consumption, how much oxygen you take in versus being at rest, and caloric expenditure and we found no significant difference between any of the shoes,” says researcher Stephanie Tepper, M.S. “So the toning shoes definitely don’t do more than the regular running shoe.”
As for the muscle-activity testing, the results were strikingly similar. There was no significant difference in EMG levels in any of the muscles tested between the four types of shoes (Figures 1–6).
As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is…
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ultimatefat on 17 Aug 2010 at 9:04 pm #
American Council on Exercise Tests Toning Shoes – http://blog.ultimatefatburner.com/2010/0...
Makster on 18 Aug 2010 at 9:15 am #
You’re right, no surprise. I saw a young lady wearing a pair of Skechers the other day. I asked her how they worked. She said she had only had them 2 days but she had noticed aching in her calfs. She did’nt know if she was going to keep wearing them or not.
She spent a lot of money for nothing if she dose’nt.
Elissa on 18 Aug 2010 at 4:15 pm #
The problem with these gimmicks is pretty easy to spot: the muscles will adapt to the stimulus pretty quickly. In the end, if the shoes get people walking more, it’s a net positive. But that doesn’t mean the shoes themselves have any magical properties.