Toning Shoes - Thumbs Up or Down?

This is it!  

The last day to enter to win one of two $50 Gift Cards to Title Nine.  

Tell your butcher, your baker, your candlestick maker! 

 Enter here.

Due to the pathetic begging of my money-hungry son, we are going to have a garage sale. This is a huge concession for me, since I’m a “toss it” type of gal. It’s not the sale that drives me crazy, but the growing pile of garbage in the garage that does me in every time.

I have committed to Brian, however, that yes, we will actually have a sale. And yes, he can keep any money he makes from any of his toys he decides to unload. He is convinced he's going to hit the jackpot in a few weeks.

 Luckily, just a few dollars means a jackpot in his little world.

As I was cleaning some items out of my overstuffed closet this weekend, I came across these:

Yep, the Trainer Momma has a pair of toning shoes.

After the sale, that sentence will read past tense:  The Trainer Momma HAD a pair of toning shoes.

What are toning shoes?  If you walk into any mall, sporting goods store, open up any women's magazine you'll see the ads with the stick thin model that has no rear endo wearing shoes with rounded soles.   The convincing marketing campaigns go onto claim:

Buy and wear these shoes and you will burn more calories.

Buy and wear these shoes and you will lose weight.

Buy these shoes and will tone your legs and behind.

Buy these shoes and banish the cottage cheese from your legs.

Buy these shoes and you will be worthy to strut your stuff down the catwalk.

A pretty tall order, yes?  Even more so when you consider that many of these shoes, which come in all different brands, often push and clear $100.

**  Before I go on, these shoes were given to me at a conference.  I airbrushed out the brand label since the purpose of this post is not to bash certain brands, but to just cut through the fitness jungle and tell you WHAT WORKS.  So, call me ungrateful.  I call it honesty.

I know it depends on who you ask, however if you are asking me, which many of you have, I am giving the toning shoe trend a thumbs down.  

I know many of you LOVE your toning shoes.  I just don't.  They didn't win over this skeptical fitness fanatic.  Let me explain.

I did a little experimenting with them by using them on several of my morning walks the past weeks when I take the kids to school in morning. My observations:

Sore?
At first, yes, I was a bit tender after taking a 30 minute walk in these shoes. Others I've talked to interpreted that soreness into:  WOW!  THESE THINGS REALLY WORK!  I'M SO SORE!  Actually, the truth is what  I’ve explained in prior posts.  When we do a new exercise, or in this case distributing my weight differently by wearing these shoes with a half of a ball on the bottom, we are bound to be sore the first few times. After a few walks, however, the soreness wore off.

Awesome glutes?
Did it shape up my glutes? Let's just say the obvious:  I've got some serious backside to work with.  A lot of material back there.  If there is anything I work ultra hard on it is getting those glutes to be ultra hard.  These shoes did not transform the buns into anything magical, unfortunately.  I'm going to stick with more step ups and lunges.   And eating less chocolate cake.

Burn more calories?
Nope. I burned the same amount of calories wearing the toning shoes as I do wearing my normal workout shoes -- around 120 calories for a 30 minute brisk walk pushing my 3-year-old in the stroller.

Weight loss?
Um, nope again. This goes back to the above calories burned.  Since I didn't burn any extra calories, I didn't take off any weight. Wouldn’t that be fantastic, though? Just double knotting a pair of these and then the pounds would just melt away?  I'll keep dreaming...  And eating less chocolate cake.

Comfortable?
Yes, they are very comfortable. Any shoes that has a sole that is nearly 2 inches thick is going to feel like butta. I even considered keeping them for this aspect alone.  But, the pull of the garage sale and making the extra buck is a bit too strong.

Safe?
When used for their recommended purpose, walking, these shoes are relatively safe. However, I have seen them misused over the the past year since they’ve become popular. Running in them is a big no. Lifting weights, no.  It’s like a twisted ankle just waiting to happen.

Fashionable?
OK, ladies, I know I'm no fashion blogger.  And you will spot me around town wearing not-so-hot outfits when in a pinch (my scrub bottoms and Bronx Community College t-shirt with flip flops has been my grubby fav for about 4 years running now). But, these?  These just are not scoring high on the cute-o-meter.  Spend your cash on some smoking boots or something.

So, let me be the one save you the $100+ dollars and say buy a real, awesome workout shoe instead. These are not worth the money, just another fad passing itself off to be the magic bullet to take the guilt away when you skip another day at the gym.  Or when you eat too much chocolate cake.

If you really are dying for some, you can come buy mine at my garage sale in a few weeks.

I'll give you a discount :)

Related Posts:

Shoes:  Put Them On Your List
See Me Run
Health Trends Drive Me Nuts
Fad Diets - The Gig Is Up

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