If we travel back in time two years, the me you would see then is much different than the me you see today post-baby. While I was no professional athlete, I could definitely hold my own—I did long triathlons, road run, bike tours and even participated in the St. Vincent’s Swim across the sound three years in a row! On to the present day—I haven’t been in a pool for other than frolicking pleasure in almost a year, couldn’t run even if a tiger were chasing me and am planning on getting on a bike today simply to bring out the little guy for an afternoon activity. Other than the Popeye-like strength that my left arm has from carrying around 20+ lbs of baby on a daily basis, the fitness is essentially gone from my life. While I wouldn’t trade my little guy for all of the abs in the world, it would be nice not to be winded on walks. With this great goal in mind, I am setting out to find simple exercises that can be done each week to tone and to keep heart healthy as we start to get into the fall and lose the summer’s motivation to stay active!
My first endeavor—Sketcher’s Shape Ups. For those of you not in the know, Shape Ups are pseudo-trendy shoes made popular for their claims of toning up your legs and thighs, improving posture and strengthening your abs with just a 20-minute walk per day. These bad boys have been out for years; however, I was skeptical about the effectiveness of the shoes. However, they have recently come out with some styles that don’t have the huge soles and therefore look more mainstream. At $109 for the pair of shoes, I had high expectations. My review—Eh…not great. The shoes are comfortable and definitely make you roll your feet more. They warn that on the first 20 minute walk that you will be sore that night. I started my first walk out as about a 25 minute walk about mid-day and besides getting out of breath as I walked up the big hill near my house, I didn’t have any pain afterwards. I continued to walk at least every other day for the past two weeks, sometimes every day, for at least 25 minutes. What I can tell you is that because I was hoping to see results and really determine if there would be a result from these shoes, I definitely was walking more in the past two weeks and on my walk this morning I wasn’t out of breath when I reached the top of the hill. I can’t tell you that this was a result of the shoes or if it was a result of just walking more, however, I lean towards just walking more as I haven’t had any soreness or pain that is indicated in the packaging that will tell you that it’s working. My purchase was the XF Women’s Extended Fitness—they look like a normal shoe with just a slope on the back so not noticeably the Shape Ups.
Bottom line—great shoe, not a workout miracle. What I will say is that when this concept first came out, they only had the super high platform that could make a difference in getting the maximum benefit from the shoe. Also, the laces were a little tight on the top of my foot, which I attribute to the fact that I have high arches. On the plus side, I am walking more, which ultimately gave me the result that the shoes claim—that I was getting in shape! I also have heard from nurse friends that the shoes forcing you to roll your foot makes your back hurt less at the end of the day if you are on your feet all day (think teachers, nurses, etc). I would buy them if you are looking for a reason to get out and walk and have your own little experience or if you want to try something different for alleviating all day back pain. Enjoy!
Contributed by Alison Smith mom of 14-month old son. If you have a product that you think is all hype and no hot or all hype and really hot, submit your articles to alison@modma.com to have your article featured on ModMa.com!
