I’ve been told before I bought the newton motion V is that it makes you have a forefoot /mid foot strike and it prevents heel strike. Is this true? They say it’s because of the lugs and it’s my first time using newton shoes. I find it quite uncomfortable because it feels weird when you walk because of the lugs. Is that normal? Thanks. new here
The Newtons don’t make you do anything, but rather make it easy for you to tell when you’re not using a mid-foot strike. That’s why it feels weird to walk in them. Think of it as helping you stay better informed where you’re striking as you run, but you still have to make the effort to modify your gait and control foot placement.
Your experience is normal, but that doesn’t mean anything as to whether you’ll like the shoes in the long term or not.
I’ve been told before I bought the newton motion V is that it makes you have a forefoot /mid foot strike and it prevents heel strike. Is this true? They say it’s because of the lugs and it’s my first time using newton shoes. I find it quite uncomfortable because it feels weird when you walk because of the lugs. Is that normal? Thanks. new here
fundamentally, Newtons are low offset (differential between heel height and forefoot height) shoes. Low offset shoes tend to be more comfortable for people who have a midfoot strike and (theoretically) make it easier to run in such a fashion. But they don’t actually “encourage” this sort of running nor does it “prevent” heel striking.
Newton makes great shoes. The biggest issue that Newton had/has is that - as with Vibram and the five-fingers - they made promises about what the shoes would do that were simply not grounded in reality. They are great shoes. But they will not change how you run.
I think this varies by individual.
I gave minimal padding running shoes a try some years ago. I bought into the fad in an attempt to combat shin splints and side stitches. I didn’t even know what heel strike meant at the time. The first few months were awful in my experiment. I was running slow and my feet was hurting, but I didn’t get any side stitches so I kept it up. Fast forward one year, and I was back to my old running speed distance / with no discomfort. Later, I realized I instinctively increased my cadence and subconsciously switched from heel strike to mid-foot strike. I believe my body learned that heel striking hurts and stopped doing it.
On the other hand, I also know people who tried minimal padding running shoes and ruined their knees… So YMMV.
P.S. I didn’t use vibram or any other expensive shoes. I just used cheapo ($10) kung fu shoes. Also, they are not a great for trail running (duh!)
Newton makes great shoes. The biggest issue that Newton had/has is that - as with Vibram and the five-fingers - they made promises about what the shoes would do that were simply not grounded in reality. They are great shoes. But they will not change how you run.
trent nailed it. they are great shoes and will help you do more of a mid/forefoot strike, and it depends on you as well. i went from New Balance 1500 to Newton and listed my 13.1 pr by four minutes. i can’t say it was just the shoes, but my newtons helped.
I’ve been running in newtons since 2011. I have recently started to run in other brand shoes as well (new balance and saucony). I have found with the other brand shoes, I catch myself starting to heel strike when I am tired. With the newtons I have very rarely found myself heel striking. If I do heel strike with the newton’s, it feels awkward as hell (just like walking in them) which tells me immediately. The newton’s do not make you have a mid foot strike but they do promote it. Newton’s are very similar to k-tape where its not the product that automatically fixes something, but it tells your brain and muscles something so you can correct it yourself.
I am starting to cycle my newton’s out. They are getting harder and harder to get at a good price.
Not sure the “science” behind it but running in Newtons have saved my heal/foot pain and allowed me to put on miles that i could not do in many other brands.
I’ve got 1200km on my pair of gravity 5’s and they are still going. Great shoes. This has probably been asked before, but why do they still charge so much for them compared to others? Seems like if the company is struggling that they should try to broaden their market beyond just triathletes.
I understand what you are saying.
I refuse to even try them at the huge money-grab they are pulling. I suppose they know their market.
Bit of a tangent and only my observation, but is this whole thing about fore/mid foot strike a bit of a distraction?
I always thought that a fore/mid foot strike is the result of correcting something more important, and probably shouldn’t be the focus itself. It makes sense to me that when the foot hits the ground in the correct position horizontally (ie, close to beneath the centre of mass) you will naturally find yourself landing on the fore/mid foot. In similar terms, when the footfall is too far ahead of your centre of mass, you will probably heel strike.
Wonder how many people have ended up injuring themselves trying to do the one thing without doing the other.
Be interested to know your thoughts Trent, and others.
It’s not my expertise, so I’ll defer to others for a better response to your post. I’ll just offer that there are smart, educated people that have differing opinions on the importance of good running form and what good running form means.
I do think that technique and drills are often completely ignored by training athletes and most would greatly benefit if some percentage of their run training was focused on technique.
As a relative newbie to the sport I was getting ITB issues as I upped my mileage but as soon as I swapped to Newtons they disappeared immediately. I loved running in them and to me and the way I run the roll off the lugs on the shoe I seem to be able to run at a higher pace at a slightly lower heart rate. Over time however I guess once again due to the way I run in them the protruded lugs taking more impact on my metatarsals in the end felt like a hammer on my right foot and I had to find another shoe. Now I am a Hoka convert and like shape of the sole and the roll they seem to give across the whole shoe.
Forget Newtons - just buy cheap water shoes on Amazon for forefoot/midstriking. Yes, it’ll take quite awhile to acclimate and do it VERY gradually (!!) but for sure, you will def be forefoot striking. I’ve had a long history of big time heel striking (which never caused me any injuries or problems) but I’ve lately been switching over to more of a barefoot type run style due to my belief that shoes are overengineered, and that we’re not using the marvel of engineering that’s the human foot with all its muscles and nerves and bones to its capacity by wearing overcushioned and overprotective shoes.
It’s taking me quite awhile to adapt, but for sure, it’s coming along, and for sure, I am DEFINITELY forefoot/mid striking now, which is a big change from before. I don’t think it’s necessarily a technique issue as well - to do it correctly you really have to build up a lot of strength and resilience in your lower achilles and foot, as this style of running definitely changes the force loading off from the hip/knees to much lower in your leg/foot. There’s no way you can do it just by thinking about it right off the bat - you really have to spend weeks/months building up that lower leg/foot to the new stride.
So far it’s been a lot fun though, and the nice thing about going ‘au natural’ is that all the natural limiters to barefoot running (skin buildup, achilles soreness, foot soreness, etc.) seem to really prevent you from overdoing it in running. While this is frustrating up front, it really is a self-built in method of preventing injury over the long-term, and the more I’m seeing it and being patient about it, the more I like it. (I have overtrained in running big-time in the past, and I blame a LOT of that on the motion control shoes that allow you to continue to hammer out mile and mile to stick to the training plan when your body is well past the productive point of gains.)