More power to the senior citizens and baby boomers among us who still get out and run or jog, either through the neighborhood or at the local fitness center. Still, even those among us who are not marathon men or marathon women can benefit from wearing athletic footwear, specifically running shoes.
All of us need to take care of our feet, whether we sign up for a 10-kilometer run, or we walk 100 yards from the parking lot into the shopping mall. Athletic footwear and running shoes have many orthopedic qualities that not only promote comfort, but foot health in general.
Podiatrists say they recommend athletic footwear and running shoes to the age 50-plus crowd, but sometimes we resist, specifically those among us who no longer go out running or no longer take part in competitive sports. The problem is that we would be embarrassed to be seen in what we consider to be younger people's fashions. We don't pierce our noses with rings, and our pants don't sag down to the bottoms of our behinds. Thus, why would we be seen in footwear endorsed by the latest 20-something big-time sports star?
At the same time, we don't want to wear orthopedic shoes either, because too often orthopedic shoes look like "old people's shoes." And so, we don't want to wear "old people's shoes" but we don't want to wear "young people's shoes," either. We're overruling a whole lot of different types of footwear. What's a podiatrist to do?
Some manufacturers strive to compromise by selling us walking shoes rather than running shoes. If we do our research, we indeed can find high-quality and high-fitness walking shoes. But we must keep watch, because sometimes a walking shoe won't compare to a running shoe in terms of support and cushioning. If we can overcome our modesty and try a pair of running shoes or athletic footwear, we may discover that our feet feel a whole lot better at the end of the day, even if we didn't do any sort of special exercise.
SOURCES:
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Eldercare/4-09-02Sneakers.htm
http://icaa.cc/footcare/agingfoot.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_shoe
