Reebok claim that their Reebok Easytone Reetone trainers “Train muscles your trainers never knew you had.” And furthermore claim that the shoe “works your hamstrings and calves up to 11 percent harder. And tones your butt up to 28 percent more than regular sneakers just by walking.”
How fantastic!! But is it true, can a Reebok Easytone really have this effect? To test these claims, Americas Authority on Fitness asked a team of exercise scientists from the Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, to study each of the shoes.
The team leader, John Porcari, Ph.D, reports “It makes sense. People say, ‘I can feel them working my muscles more because I’m unstable.’”
The shoes work on the theory that the unstable sole design forces the wearer’s body to constantly struggle to find equilibrium or balance point. This makes sense to consumers who have embraced the new shoe design.
The team set to work to study the effectiveness of the Reebok Easytone by testing a group to compare results from wearing a traditional running shoe, and wearing the new toning shoe. The group was made up of active females between the ages of 19 and 24.
Tests were then conducted by completing exercise trials and measuring muscle activation, heart rate, and caloric expenditure. A second group of females were then tested using the same procedures only this time the women were aged between 21 and 27 years.
The results were quite damning for the toning shoes. ‘Across the board, none of the toning shoes showed statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during any of the treadmill trials. There is simply no evidence to support the claims that these shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone.’
The results also showed that “the toning shoes definitely don’t do more than the regular running shoe.”
The results further showed that there was no difference in muscle activity when wearing the different types of shoe.
“Don’t buy these shoes because of the claims that you’re going to tone your butt more or burn more calories. That’s absolutely wrong,” says Porcari.
So, how have previous researches shown that these shoes do work? Well, firstly, when you wear these shoes for walking you muscles feel sore because of the unnatural way you are using them to stabilise yourself, therefore making the assumption that the shoes are having a the desired effect. And secondly, because the launch of these shoes has encouraged more people to go out and buy them and start walking; which of course tones all the muscles the shoes claim to. But it is the walking that does this not the shoes.
What do you think? Have you bought these shoes and think they really do make a different, or do you agree with the test findings?
On a personal note, I have started walking for one hour every day which includes 30 minutes up a hill. In ten weeks my legs have become really firm. Indeed, I have ‘toned the gluteal muscles and legs with each step.’ But without the help from toning shoes.
To see a range of the Reebok Easytone trainers, view the range available at Cloggs [site: www.cloggs.co.uk]
Read the full report here
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