The average person takes 5,000 steps every day.
For women like Penny Pitts, that usually happens in four-inch high heels. Now she's looking for a break from the pain (and the gym), and she found it in a pair of athletic shoes.
“Oh wow, they're cushy,” Pitts said as she tried on a pair of sneakers with two "balance pods" on each sole. “It feels like I am walking on cloudy sand, if that makes any sense.”
Reebok says its Easy Tone sneakers tone calves and hamstrings 11 percent more than regular walking shoes. The company says the shoes tone glutes 28 percent more.
“The great thing with Easy Tones is, you can take the gym with you,” said Kelsey Kreig, a Reebok spokeswoman.
Pitts was impressed. “Nobody minds getting a little help," she said, "so if you could just wear a shoe and walk around — which is what I do all day — why not kill two birds with one stone?”
Reebok researchers worked to build a natural instability. A NASA engineer spent 18 months developing this technology.
“They tested them in every possible way," Krieg explained. "You get a constant cushion of air. It's great for your hips, your knees, your back.”
But Dr. Michael Rimlawi, a spine surgeon and co-founder of the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, said he's not so sure about the shoemaker's claims.
"There is an instability there, and that does concern me,” he said.
Dr. Rimlawi says that in the short term, the shoes will probably work. His concern is over what happens down the road.
“Long term, I do think this could give people more back problems, because you're stimulating different muscles," he said. "They are not working at the same time — one side works sometimes, the other side other times — and it could increase back problems.”
“I feel like I’m using my heels a little bit more, that my feet are a tad higher up,” said Pitts as she tried to describe walking with the Easy Tone shoes.
Pitts admits that wearing the shoes takes a little adjustment.
“They have to stimulate their muscles to counteract that imbalance," Dr. Rimlawi explained. "I do feel, short-term, they will gain a little bit of muscle. But the body has a quick way of adapting."
In other words, just like at the gym, the same exercise isn't as effective over time. But Pitts says if it works now, she's game (and she even hopes to be sore).
“I think that's the point. I want to feel like I did some work,” said Pitts.
Because for those 5,000 plus steps a day Pitts now expects results.
Reebok Easy Tone shoes cost $99, and the company recommends against running in them.
