Racquel Mounce Jamie Mcbeth-Smith English 1010 December 4, 2013

The Effects of the Minimalist Movement Ive been an avid minimalist for about a year and a half now. My obsession first started when I read Natural Running: The Simple Path to Stronger, Healthier Running by Danny Abshire. Shortly after reading the book, my fianc and I moved to Las Vegas for a job. Shortly after arriving and getting acclimated to the city I decided that I wanted to find out if the theories about minimalist shoes where true. We went out to buy a pair, to my surprise, once I found the ones with a little support yet still having a zero drop sole it was like I could feel my body aligning, although this feeling may have been falsified by how exited I was by trying something new that I had recently known nothing about. Most people think the boom of minimalists started around 2009 when the book Born to Run by Chris MacDougall. The movement has been picking up steam since then. So is it a bad thing that the biomechanics of people who wear minimalist shoes are not the norm?

Abshire, Danny. Natural Running: The Simple Path to Stronger, Healthier Running. Boulder: VeloPress, 2010. Print.

Danny Abshire examining the fact that he has always enjoyed running since childhood. He begins by explaining how his passion for the biomechanics of the feet and how that relays through the rest of the body while running. While working as a professional ski boot fitter he explains, the job was about helping the customer find comfort while still having a firm control on performance over their skills. He continues on to say, I was like a puzzle to be figured out. This was the first inkling into what would grow into a life long passion of learning how the body preforms at certain circumstances. After this introduction to himself as an athlete, Abshire takes the audience through the analogy of a child running on the soft grass afterwards pointing out the problems that todays shoes have on the human gait (biomechanics of a step) and how certain height of heels effect the way we take off and land during the process. He also explains about good form while running and the theory of by landing on the ball of your foot when running, instead of landing o the heel of the foot, and how it makes the motion easier on the bodys joints and allows for a more enjoyable and economic running experience.

Danny Abshire has been passionate about running his whole life, this is how he establishes this credibility by appealing to the familiar emotions of the audience. He then explains that after he found his passion in helping people run better he founded Newton Running, designing shoes for Olympic athletes and beginning runners by working with the university of Colorado. This relates to the rest of the paper in that helps to define most of the information talked about in the articles and studies. It is a great read for any one trying to get into the sport. By adding in the analogy of the child running through the grass bare footed Abshire appeals to logos and pathos, this allows him the unique opportunity to present the facts in a very easy to understand way. This book sparked my interest the first time I read it and I believe that it will be the base that I will build the rest of my point off its foundation.

Nirenberg, Michael. Surprise! 16% of Podiatrists Recommend Barefoot Running. Americas Podiatrist. Publication date: October 27, 2013, access date: November 5, 2013. http://www.americaspodiatrist.com/2013/10/surprise-16-of-podiatrists-recommendbarefoot-running/.

Nirenbergs article offers information about his personal views on the subject of being training habits. He explains, One in six podiatrist recommends training bare foot or wearing minimalist shoes. He suggests that every on can go bare foot no matter what foot type you have. He only exception was having a health issue that impairs sensation in the feet or lower extremities. Nirenberg explains the to had the same opinion as the other 84% of podiatrist of the field; he to had problems with his feet before trying out the minimalist fad. Now that certain style of show is all he wares around the office and at home. Nirenberg is the fonder of the Americas Podiatrist website. He has been featured on PBS, History Channel, and published in the Wall Street Journal. He has also has a paper published in the Journal of the American Podiatry Medical Association as a medical student. Nirenberg uses mostly pathos by sharing his own struggle with foot pain and the solution of how he has fixed the problem, allowing the emotional connection to his audience. On the other hand I would like to know where his sources came from. This does not weaken his argument too much due to the fact that he is a doctor himself, but if the audience knows that the information fame from a credible source they would be more inclined to listen to what he has to say. This made me wonder why the other 84 % of podiatrist do not publish their opinions on why they dont recommend this treatment for their own clients, and if they

do publish why is the information not accessible? Still its pretty cool that a food doctor has dedicated to the ideas that he himself wears the treatment.

"The Great Shoe Flap: Is Barefoot 'Better?" Running & Fitnews 28.1 (2010): 3-9. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

The author presents persuasive evidence that running bare foot may not be as good as some authors today would like us to believe. Their main point is yes, wearing shoes can sometimes help but it can also be an enabler by weakening the muscles in our feet. Although now significant studies have been done on minimalist shoes. Shoe companies are funding the studies that are now being done. So does that make them dependable? They would have us believe that they are much better than regular shoes. To draw our own conclusion we may have to wait to see the finished research on both parties. The author calls on many sources including Chris MacDougall author of Born to Run, Daniel Lieberman paleontologist at Harvard University and Dan Pearl a podiatrist in which this paper is reacting to the one he had written. By quoting these important

sources this allows the author to eatables credibility early in the paper and maintain it by calling on these sources threw out the paper. This piece could relate to the marketing section of my research due to the fact that t eh author makes some of the same points. On the other hand the author takes is a step farther by attempting to discourage the audience from buying the product due to the fact that there has not been enough research done.

Trombini-Souza, Francis, et al. Effectiveness Of A Long-Term Use Of A Minimalist Footwear Versus Habitual Shoe On Pain, Function And Mechanical Loads In Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 13.1 (2012): 121-128. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.

This is a case study based on the theory that inexpensive minimalist shoes could be a long-term treatment for osteoarthritis in elderly women. Osteoarthritis makes it difficult to do everyday tasks such as going down stairs and even walking, due to the way that it effect the persons joints. The theory behind the study is to see id these shoes could really replace current treatments such as the knee brace and prescriptions.

The author(s) draw their credibility by representing the Department of Physical Therapy, Speech, and occupational Therapy at the university of Sao in Brazil. The writer explains that by testing their theory to further prove or disprove their theory that minimalist could be used as a long-term treatment to improve the lives of older people.

Zmuda, Natalie. Marketers Sprint To Join Lightweight-Running Craze. Advertising Age 82.31 (2011): 10. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.

In Marketers Sprint To Join Lightweight-Running Craze, Natalie Zmuda proposes that shoe companies are jumping on the bare foot craze. Its easy to see why due to the fact that the minimalist shoe has no padding or support but costs the same as any other shoe. Its obvious to see that the barefoot movement has gained a lot of popularity lately; the market for it cannot help but get bigger. In 2012 the minimalist shoe market had made 1.8 million dollars, however the year before that 1.1 million dollars was made. Once youve made the transition to minimalist or light weight product its difficult to go back , Explains the manager for New Balances minimalist line Kathrine Petrecca. Zmuda Establishes her credibility by appealing to the readers humor by using analogies regarding traction for grabbing ahold of the audiences attention in the very 7

first sentence. By quoting Kathrine Petrecca as saying, Once youve made the transition (to a minimalist or light weight shoe) its hard to go back. further establishing her credibility. She supports her claims well in the beginning by using statistics to show how much the money has increased in the market over the past two years. This view gives the research an opposing view by directing our attention to the fact that we may be manipulated and taken advantage of by vicious marketers. Although nobody likes to be taken advantage of the public still likes to have cutting edge gear that helps us live healthier lives.

The fact is that the issue of biomechanics is going to be debated until there is some hard evidence that show whether or not the minimalist shoe movement is really damaging or preventing damage the joints of those who use the shoes. In any case I will stick to my opinion that minimalist shoes do not do joint damage until there is some evidence that says otherwise.