Soft Heals

I have a very hard heel strike. And foot problems since a child. I have hammer toe and in the past pain in the ball of the foot. I could not do Belly Dance for very long without foot pain. Now I have very little cushioning in my soles due aging (I wear two pairs of socks, plus cushion sole inserts).

The walking posture -- push-off with the back foot bent will probably not work for me.

Has any one tried the Z Coil shoes?

http://www.zcoil.com/shop/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=B...

Interesting looking shoe, but I think the heel is too high for whole woman purposes. I found this thread very interesting among many others about our heels and footwear:

https://www.wholewoman.com/forum/node/3385

Type shoes in the search box, because there are some other discussions that I find very interesting. One about toe socks too. Great stuff. Our feet are also a very important aspect of whole woman and self care. I love the point and flex exercises that Christine has us doing. More great stuff for all over body alignment and getting everything to work together.

I realised about a year ago that my foot pain and inflexibility was not just inevitable from old age, and have been working seriously on them every day, starting with Christine's exercises. Castor oil packs on the soles for an hour at a time are wonderful, especially in a quiet house with a good book. And Lems shoes
(http://www.lemsshoes.com/women) give me the best minimalist protection for those times when I can't go barefoot. I used to feel that I needed the thickest cushioning and most supportive shoe models for my feet, but have discovered that less is more in terms of healing them and learning to walk softly and naturally.

Cool Looking shoes, Skagway. I see they have toe separators on this site too. I found the sketchers go walk shoes to be rather comfy for getting around town in, but wouldn't want to go for a long walk in them. But, I do like the look of those lems.

The Lems have a toe box wide enough to wear the toe separators inside them. I guess 5 or 6 miles is the longest walk I've taken with them, just because that's about as far as I'd walk in one go these days. The rougher the ground, the softer you learn to step, because of the thinness and flexibility of the soles. Like moccasins, I'd guess.

Thanks Everyone for all the information! Lots to think about.

I'm still figuring out how I can do sort of a slow "trot" or hustle, so that I can do agility with my dog. I did one fun match in September .... since my DX in April .... (I was leaning on my limited knowledge; so was brave to try; and we did only 2 runs -- they are under 40 seconds each) ... I tried to walk through the course, until she got ahead of me in the weave poles. So, I was at an almost trot for about 5 seconds or so. Bless her, that as I have aged, she has slowed to match my aging speed. Now, I'm even slower. I did okay, but the ground is soft and uneven and you have to twist and turn on course. I was trying WW posture, but still unskilled, for sure. Checking afterward, no evident harm was done to the lady in the nethers.

The Z Coils looked intriguing since I would just put them on before we needed to be at the start line; then off. And that they might take up the impact of the areas with uneven ground/rocks. In the past, I have run in some L L Beam snow shoes. But they have no side support.

I live in a country sitting. So to speak .... 70% or so of our land turns to mud/scarce grass in the Winter/Spring. I'm in and out a lot, getting wood, recycling, taking the garbage to the storage area,, pottying/walking/exercise the dogs, letting the chickens out to free range and then shutting them in at night, etc.. And forever picking up stuff that's fallen to the ground (leaves, limbs, twigs, apples, plums, chestnut hulls, dog hair, and on and on). Hence, I wear Muck Boots that are slip on/off for the mud (I take them off in the kitchen). When we go walking/hiking, I wear, to-the-ankle lace up men's waterproof work boots. (I have a hard time figuring out how not to crunch up my mid line when I put them on and lace them up). But, for me, they have a good thick sole that helps buffer any impact.

It would not be safe to go barefoot or in socks, or minimal shoes during anytime of the year at our place. Twigs, tiny splinters, rocks, brier leaves, chestnut hulls with spines. tiny thistles, bird poo and worse. Even in our house, tiny wood chips lurk here and there from us using wood heat. The paths that we have are gravel and teenie, tiny rocks get tracked in by our dogs and the hubby. I wear fleece boots indoors because barefoot is painful.

Per the Dr., I don't have any collagen left on the bottoms of my feet.

I will continue reading on the previous shoe posts. And re-read the above posts. Thank you, again.

Christine has this blossom series in the whole woman store, and one of them addresses walking and running. It would be a good one to learn or fine tune some basics of walking and running in posture.
Something more to think about.