They say you can?t truly understand someone until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Well I have seen a lot of shoes being worn that I wouldn?t walk a mile in, and you shouldn?t either. When you exercise, your feet are carrying you through. No matter what you do, whether it be running, walking, aerobics or other load bearing exercise, your feet are carrying you through those exercises. Shouldn?t you treat them well?
One important key to avoiding overuse injuries (and not just in your feet, but in the rest of your body) is to regularly replace your walking/running shoes. Most experts agree that you should change your shoes every 300 to 600 miles. This may sound like a lot, but if you run 25 miles a week (a very easy thing to do when you are in training for any race longer than a 5K, and even easy enough when training for that distance) you would need to replace your shoes every three to six months. Increase your level of training (think training for a marathon where you actually run 20 miles on some Saturdays alone) and you may need to replace your shoes as often as every few months (or own several pairs at once and rotate their use in order to prolong their usability).
It is harder to determine when to replace your shoes for other activities. You do not have a measurable distance to use, but appearance is always a good indicator (I don?t mean being dirty, dirt just shows that you are out there working hard in your shoes). Turn your shoes over and look for wearing of the treads on the bottom. They may not wear evenly (this is because we don?t all hit the ground in the same way when we stride) so look for areas of wear and look to see how much tread you have there. If it is fairly worn down in some places, you can be pretty sure it is time to replace them.
How can you avoid early wear in your athletic shoes? Don?t use them for other activities. Mowing the lawn, going to the mall, driving car pool?these can be done wearing old shoes or other fun shoes, leave your athletic shoes at home and save them for your fitness use. This will help you make the best use of your shoes without accelerating the wear and tear.
So get out there and be active, in shoes that will support those hard working feet!
