superfeet in my boots?

Sebastian, you mentioned your pack is on the heavy side, so those shoes may not be overkill for you, especially if you’re new to hiking. If I’m carrying a heavy load of either lots of camera gear or technical climbing gear, I usually opt for light hiking boots rather than trail runners, especially if it’s off-trail.

The key is to become accustomed to whatever shoes you choose to wear. Maybe staring off with the stock insoles (or at least thinner insoles) is prudent if your feet are OK with it. Your footwear preferences and needs will likely change over time as you gain experience and as you lighten your pack weight. Trail runners with a light pack feels like heaven compared to traditional backpacking and is much easier on your feet and the rest of your body too.

12 – 15 miles per day is significant if you’re new to hiking IMHO. You’ll probably notice progress with your feet after every trip you take, but it can take years to fully develop muscle memory, strength, balance and hiking efficiency. That’s part of what makes hiking so rewarding – seeing yourself improve in skills and conditioning with each trip and each year.

Thank you Lester. I agree with everything you said. For example, I still have a few instances of my ankle bending to the side which means I need to learn better how to step and the “intention” of my steps if that makes sense. So I think boot was a good choice for me to start with.

“And again, I’m not at all even advocating for a minimalist approach.  just that if you look back at runners before we started making all these orthotics and fancy running shoes – and you look at runners today – there is literally no difference in rate and type of injury.”

Something I found interesting when I tried different types of shoes for running.  When running (jogging) I like a fairly minimal shoe.  I also discovered that it really didn’t matter what kind of shoe, just as long as it wasn’t tied too tight.  And it didn’t matter what kind of surface I was running on.  I just needed something to protect the bottom of my foot.

For walking and especially hiking I am FAR more particular.  Hiking with a pack I far prefer light boots.  And I tie them very tight.  Quite the opposite of what I use for running.

I think on of the main differences is that when running I land flat on my foot.  No heal strike first.  When I walk I take a disproportionately large stride when compared to my height.  My heal strikes fairly hard.  I am also hiking for far longer than I am running.  Comfortable is more important as time goes on.

I believe this was discussed in previous posts, but I still find this article quite interesting:

Choosing the Right Running Shoes

While it seemed important not to buy into the marketing hype (“our product will FIX your issue”), it seems that at the end of the day; their data indicated that the perceived “comfort” of an insert did seem to have a causal relationship with preventing injury. Now clearly the feet (and legs, knees, and hips, etc.) in all their test subjects were not coming from the same background of experience before the testing, but the findings are still interesting, none the less.

(My feet still ache when I think about cramming them into rock climbing shoes, or wrestling shoes, or hockey skates, soccer cleats, ice climbing boots, etc. I can only imagine all those activities screwed up my feet in many different ways.)

So all this talk about SuperFeet=”superfluous crutch” gets me thinking:

Are my trekking poles then also a “crutch” as well?

I personally don’t “need” to use them, but my body enjoys hiking with them, and I have found they physically help in many different ways, well beyond the physiological. Since they certainly aid in the redistribution of my pack’s weight, as well as helping control my center of gravity, is using trekking poles keeping my body from doing the work it should? And if so, would I truly forgo trekking poles?

Just a thought.

“is using trekking poles keeping my body from doing the work it should?”

It would seem so.  It aids in keeping your torso aligned lessening the need for your core muscles to do that work.

Trekking poles, shoe inserts – these topics bring up the classic debate between the allopathic approach (treat the symptoms so you feel better fast) versus the holistic approach (treat the cause so you feel better for good). Both approaches have merit and value. I like the idea of treating the symptoms, hopefully temporarily, while addressing the underlying cause at the same time.

After becoming lazy with training and conditioning workouts over the last few years, signs of knee and hip pain, weakened stability, and minor joint injuries have been starting to show. Other than basic daily stretches and rudimentary core exercises, I’ve dropped the weight lifting and muscle toning/balancing exercises that I used to do when I had a gym membership. Switching from light hikers to trail runners last year is probably a big factor affecting the joints too.

The following exercise is a great example of stuff I used to do for conditioning that I have not done for years. While this exercise if for speed skating, I’ve found it very helpful in the past for hiking and rock climbing and I intend to add it back into my routine for JMT training:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=speed+skating+exercises+flat+ball&&view=detail&mid=543F78986400CEEF0C30543F78986400CEEF0C30&FORM=VRDGAR

Jennifer,  What do you think about using heel wedges in instead of insoles?

My hope is that with enough trekking pole use, we will eventually evolve into landstriders.

(Nerd level 12 achieved)

Walk every day for an hour or two when not doing long day hikes or backpacking. This is the solution — getting and keeping your feet into shape. Assuming you don’t have some sort of unusual physical condition.

I have only bought one pair of aftermarket insoles in my entire life; a pair of insulated (Thinsulate) insoles for backpacking in snow while wearing a one-size larger than normal breathable trail runners.

I’ve been doing this a long time without negative consequences and except for a couple of years, without trekking poles either. It’s just walking, don’t over think it!

Jennifer and Roger are a little too certain about this subject, where everything seems to vary with the individual, and with foot shape and age.

Was happy with Limmers for years, then the feet got old, there was a spinal injury, and one of the feet atrophied to a lower volume. Hard to fit one pair of footwear to two different feet. And everything fits too big. So, as with a number of other posters, green superfeet stabilized the feet a lot, even more than prescription orthotics, and flat insoles of varying thickness, coupled with some spenco foam shaped and velcroed underneath the tongues, also helped. Am doing better now than ever before, and keep experimenting and trying on different brands of footwear.

Three is some concern that maybe the standardized superfeet might not correct for deviations that the prescription orthotics would address. But so far, the greenies are providing a better fit, and most important, more stability on jagged ground.
But it has been trial and error all the way. Generalizations – not.