[pct-l] Ankles

[treerings at gmail.com]

I read Born to Run recently. Great read. Relates to this topic and to long
distance hiking and running in general. One of the basic premises is that
we've overdone it with wrapping our feet up in leather and plastic material
that inhibits the performance of our feet. Our feet are complex structures
that are evolved to do what they do. Elevating the heel, stiffening the
sole, wrapping the ankle--all gets in the way of the foot's natural highly
complex coordinated movement and all tend to weaken our feet because they're
not working as they are evolved to. Interesting ideas.

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Alphabetsoup <alphabetsoupmmm at gmail.com>wrote:

> I started off hiking in high top boots then I decided to do the pct and had
> to think about better footwear. I went with ahnu low tops, they seemed to
> be
> more comfortable on my ankles. It took  my feet a few months to adjust to
> them, but now my ankles are stronger than ever. My ankles don't roll as
> much
> as they did before and my tendons have since adjusted to the low top boots
> as well. I did also notice that I tend to pay more attention to the trail
> and obstacles in front of me to make sure I don't injure my feet. with the
> high top boots, I didn't pay as much attention, having a false sense of
> ankle protection so-to-speak, resulting in sore tendons and week ankles.
>
> I won't be going back to high top boots anytime soon, in fact I'm in the
> market for trail runners for most of the trail...
>
> ~Paul A.
>
> On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 10:49 AM, Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <
> diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:
>
> > I've been steadily working my way down from high-top to low-top to
> > more and more minimalist footwear. I have noticed with each step down
> > that my ankles get a real workout. My most recent attempt was to hike
> > on a trail wearing some homemade sandals with fairly thin soles. I
> > would have thought that my homemade shoes were minimal enough, but I
> > guess the sandals were just that much more minimal. They worked out
> > well and feeling the workout in my ankles makes me pretty happy. Even
> > if I never go backpacking in them, I think it's good to gain strength
> > in the feet and ankles. I never could figure out how boots could
> > protect your ankles from sprains anyway because nobody ever tightens
> > them enough to make a cast or brace out of them. Their ankles are
> > always clearly visible moving around as much as anybody's and in
> > fact, whenever I watch people walk in boots, they tend to step
> > without care at all, clumsily crashing into rocks and things, taking
> > no care to avoid things that could injure them and tipping the ankle
> > more often than people in shoes. But whatever floats your boat.
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>
>
> --
> *Alphabetsoup*
> *~Soon to be PCT Thru-Hiker April 2011~*
> * www.postholer.com/alphabetsoup*
> *
> *
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