Sandals a fitness flop

By GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
If you wear flip-flops all the time, keep this in mind: The shoes may throw off your stride and cause pain in your lower legs and feet.

That's the finding of a study released last week at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis.

Researchers at Auburn University in Alabama recruited 39 college-age men and women and measured how the participants walked on a special platform wearing thong flip-flops.

On another day, the same participants walked across the platform wearing their own athletic shoes. The platform measured stride length and the vertical force at which the walkers' feet hit the ground.

The findings

When participants wore flip-flops, they took shorter strides and their heels hit the ground with less vertical force than when they wore their sneakers.

"What we saw is that when people walk in flip-flops, they alter their gait, which may explain why we see some lower leg and foot problems in people who wear these shoes a lot," says study author Justin Shroyer, a graduate student in Auburn's department of kinesiology.

On the wrong foot

Shroyer says he sees college students wearing flip-flops all day long on campus, but the shoes aren't designed for that kind of use. "Walking shoes are for walking places."

People wear the wrong footwear all the time, he says. "If you are going rock climbing, you don't wear tennis shoes."

For those with pain in their legs or feet, Shroyer recommends limiting the use of flip-flops.

People should replace their flip-flops every three to four months, just like they should replace athletic shoes regularly, he says.