The New Balance Minimus: The Best Minimalist Training Shoe on the Market

Written on June 30, 2011 at 11:38 pm, by Eric Cressey

I get asked all the time what sneaker I recommend for strength and conditioning.  While no shoe is perfect for everyone and all tasks, I’ve certainly grown to love the more “minimalist” options on the market today that simulate barefoot training.  In addition to strengthening the smaller muscles of the feet, barefoot training “accidentally” improves ankle mobility in athletes who have been stuck in restrictive shoes their entire lives.

That said, not all minimalist footwear options are created equal – and I can speak from experience, as I have tried out just about every version on the market today.

My use of old-school Converse All-Stars (“Chuck Taylors”) could probably be considered my original “foray”into minimalist footwear, as I gravitated toward them because they were flat-soled and allowed me to better drive through my heels while squatting and deadlifting in powerlifting.  Unfortunately, they weren’t very comfortable, weren’t particularly aesthetically appealing, and I couldn’t really do much single-leg work or sprinting in them the way that I wanted to because they just felt restricting at the ankles (admittedly, I had the high-top version).  Plus, I always felt like people automatically lived in my parents’ basement and played Dungeons and Dragons because I wore them.

From there, I went to the Nike Free back in 2006 – and was pretty impressed. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm tailed off quickly, as I beat these sneakers into the ground almost overnight.  The panels on the bottoms would fall off all the time when we pushed the sled (we find 3-4 new “pieces” of Free on the floor at CP every day).

And, the sneaker design actually seemed to “de-evolve,” as the upper and sides seemed to get stiffer while the heel lift increased (pictured below is the 7.0, and while the lower digit versions are a bit less stiff, there still seemed to be a general shift toward “normalcy” in terms of heel lift).

Looking for an alternative, I tried on a Reebok Travel Trainer (yes, only one) on in a store – and quickly returned it to the box before lacing up the other sneaker.  It felt so low in the back that I literally thought I’d come out of the shoe altogether if I tried to run – and this was a sentiment echoed by my wife, who owns a pair and has worn them a whopping one time for a training session…a mistake she’ll never make again, as they are buried in some closet with her 13,000 other pairs of shoes.  Using an excavating helmet and my Dora the Explorer flashlight, I managed to find them:

Then, earlier this year, an employee of Vibram Five Fingers kindly gave me a pair of their shoes to try out.  I really liked it for walking around the facility and training my bilateral lower-body lifts, but was not a fan of it for single-leg training, as it beat up my big toe on the trailing leg in lunges.  I’m also a heavy supinator, so it wasn’t a good fit for me with sprinting.

However, I do love the material on the bottom, as it is one solid piece that couldn’t fall apart like the Frees do.  I also liked the pliability of the upper section; it had just the right amount of give.  That said, like most folks I’ve met who wear the Vibram Five Fingers, I could have done without the “Five Fingers” part, from an aesthetic standpoint. It’s the absolute closest you can get to true barefoot training.

Luckily for me, though, the clouds opened up and I finally found a pair of minimalist sneakers that I love “all-around” when I got hooked up with a pair of the New Balance Minimus.  The new “training” shoe, which is pictured below, actually debuted in July of 2011, with more colors and styles added to the product line in the months that followed.  These bad boys are the real deal: durable bottoms, the same upper “feel” of the Five Fingers (they actually collaborated with Vibram on the trail version, which feels similar to the Five Fingers, minus the toes), and just enough protecting at the big toe to keep me from getting banged up on lunges.  There is also sufficient padding in the back to ensure that you don’t slip out like one does with the Travel Trainer.  Tony and I each have a pair, as does the First Lady of Cressey Performance (for the record, Tony’s are the pink ones):

I’ve used it for everything from sprinting, to jumping, to lifting and felt great.  I feel like an absolute rock star because I don’t have to change footwear halfway through a session in my strength and conditioning program, and while that may be a sad commentary on my life, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a damn good training show that I’ll be rocking for the foreseeable future.  It’s also quickly become the single most popular training shoe on the floor at Cressey Performance on a given day, as many of the athletes have followed our lead and been thrilled with their purchases.

You can check out the different styles of Minimus at NewBalance.com.  I also liked this great interview on the research and development that went into creating the Minimus; it’s worth a read if you’re a geek like me.

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Stuff You Should Read: 2/7/11

Written on February 7, 2011 at 10:37 am, by Eric Cressey

I just got back from a fun weekend in Orlando, but am a bit behind as I return to the office, so today’s post will be a quick list of recommended reading for the day.  Check these out:

The Importance of Ankle Mobility – We hear this mentioned all the time, but I go in to a bit more detail in this post and relate it in the context of my realm of expertise: training baseball players.

The Fragility of Whey Protein – Great blog post from Brian St. Pierre, for those of you who are looking for a bit of nutrition to kick off your week.

What I Learned in 2009 – I’m in the process of wrapping up this year’s “What I Learned in 2010″ article, so I thought it’d be a good time to rekindle last year’s version.

More to come tonight….

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Stuff You Should Read: 1/23/2011

Written on January 23, 2011 at 2:22 pm, by Eric Cressey

It’s been a while since I gave you a list of recommended reading, but that changes today!

Rotten Resolutions – I usually bring this article to light right at the beginning of January each year, but forgot in light of the busy last few weeks.  Check it out.  It might make you see your strength and conditioning program goals in a new light.

Ankle Dorsiflexion Immobility Impairs Lateral Step Down Test – This is a good post from Mike Reinold about how ankle restrictions can alter testing further up the kinetic chain and make you see “the big picture.”

The Proactive Patient – I still think that this is one of the better articles I’ve ever written at T-Nation.  What do you think?

Unstable Ankles: It Ain’t Just the Sneakers

Written on October 27, 2010 at 6:24 am, by Eric Cressey

I got the following questions from a Show and Go customer this morning and thought I’d turn it into a quick Q&A:

Do high-top basketball shoes provide any significant stability and safety advantages over low-tops that would make me NOT want to buy low-tops? When I played hoops in high school my ankles rolled over at least once every few months, so it feels obvious that there’s a lot more to the stability equation than the height of the ankle on the shoe.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I sent him to these two articles:

Nike Shox and High Heels
The Importance of Ankle Mobility

Then, I gave him the following advice: “I would never put one of my athletes in high-tops. The introduction of the high top and the addition of big heel lifts in sneakers is, in my eyes, the cause of the epidemic of anterior knee pain and the emergence of high ankle sprains. And, you’re right that there is more to the stability equation than the height of the shoe: the muscles and tendons of the lower leg (particularly the peroneals) actually have to do some work to prevent ankle sprains. Put yourself in a concrete block of a shoe and tape your ankles and you are just asking all those muscles to shut down.”

For more information on truly functional stability training for the lower leg and core, check out my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.

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Strength and Conditioning Programs: 7 Steps to Programming for Young Athletes

Written on October 19, 2010 at 5:16 am, by Eric Cressey

Today’s guest blog comes from Brian Grasso.

Template Design is a style of programming that has yet to truly catch on industry-wide, but is remarkably effective, especially when working with younger, sport-based populations.

Although I enjoy articles that are weighty in scientific specifics and complete in the depiction of the theories they are purporting, I also tend to benefit as much, often more, from less wordy commentaries that are pithy in nature.

So today, brevity wins.

In the current state of our industry (and I admit, this may be a terribly unpopular statement), we tend to over-scrutinize from a formal assessment perspective – the expense being common sense and practicality.

An explanation may be in order…

If a 13-year old presents, through formal assessment, with a “poor” forward lunge pattern, what does that really tell us?

Does he lack Glute strength or activation?

Are her hip flexors too tight to create a positive forward translation?

Is it a foot issue (that I dare say less than 1% of Fitness Professionals are truly qualified to ascertain)?

Is it a structural abnormality?

Now, the corrective exercise folk among us have all just raised their hands thirsty to share the knowledge of how to “fix” this barely teen – but let me ask another couple of questions first.

Does the kid just not know how to do a lunge?  Could the “poor” result be “fixed” with three minutes of proper coaching and cueing?

At 13, has peak height velocity (PHV) begun, rendering this young athlete’s mobility and coordination nearly non-existent?

Moreover, I’d be willing to bet that 90% or better of the 13 year olds who walk into your facility would “fail” this standard assessment:

• They’re growing and lack mobility

• They growing and lack coordination

• They sit all day and have inappropriate hip functionality as a result

• They’ve been introduced to improper “training” and lack posterior strength

A formal assessment can certainly show us gains, improvements and corrections when performed at regular intervals – and because of that, I am all for them.

But here’s what I’ve learned to be true about coaching young athletes in the trenches:

• You see them less than you’d like to and the “homework” you give them in the way of corrective exercise likely isn’t getting done – at very least not the way you’d want it done.
• Your time with them per session is finite, but there’s a whole-lot-o-stuff that needs to be addressed.
• Group and team training is almost always the way it goes – any sort of individualized attention must be created through a systematic approach to coaching and programming.
• Yes, we all preach to our young athletes the virtue of lessening the load and concentrating on form – but, in the high school weight room when you’re not around, but their peers are, guess who is loading the bar?

This is not a declaration to abandon assessments altogether, nor is it a manifesto encouraging you to throw your hands up in the air and announce the situation hopeless.

It’s a simple decree suggesting that your programming practice could aid a great deal in curbing this problem – and doing so not by what you discover “formally” through assessment, but what you know to be true about young athletes:

1. They sit all day long, which means:

a. They are kyphotic and lack thoracic mobility (and therefore proper scapular function)

b. They have tight, weak hips that also lack function

2. They don’t have proper strength and conditioning care outside of you, which means:
a.  ROM is compromised in all major joints
b.  Form and function of lift technique is entirely unfamiliar

Over the years, I have grown fond of referring to these issues as the “Likely Bunch” and have created a training template intended to meet of the aforementioned needs as a matter of principle rather than what an assessment tells me.

Rather than programming for the day, week or month, my standard Training Template for a high school athlete looks as follows:

1.       Tissue Quality – 10 minutes

2.       ROM/Torso/Activation – 10 minutes

3.       Movement Preparatory – 10 minutes

4.       Movement – 10 minutes

5.       Strength/Power Technique – 10 minutes

6.       Strength Execution – 10 minutes

7.       Warm-Down/Active Flexibility – 10 minutes

The “10-minute” time frame represents a maximum (with five minutes being the minimum).  This creates a 7-Step Programming Template that takes anywhere from 45 – 70 minutes to complete.

I have 30–50 exercises listed in my personal database for each category and select on a given day what each athlete will work on.

An example day may look like this:

1.       Foam Roll (Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads, ITB)

2.       Ankle Mobility, Hip Circuit, Side Planks, Supine Bridges

3.       Various Multi-Directional Movement Patterns (including skipping, hopping and deceleration)

4.       Lateral Deceleration into Transitions

5.       Front Squat Technique

6.       Hybrid Complex – Hang Clean, Front Squat, Push-Press, Overhead Lunge

7.       Static-Active Hamstrings/Quads

Within this template, I’m guaranteeing my young athletes get what they need from a developmental and preparatory standpoint each and every time they walk in my door.

Create a Training Template for yourself and see how much easier programming becomes.

Brian Grasso has trained more than 15,000 young athletes worldwide over the past decade. He is the Founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association – the only youth-based certification organization in the entire industry. For more information, visit www.IYCA.org.

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Stuff You Should Read: 8/31/10

Written on August 31, 2010 at 3:53 am, by Eric Cressey

Here are a few article “reincarnations” that I think you’ll enjoy:

Bogus Workouts and the Official Blog Of… – This is more of a rant than anything educational, but it’s an entertaining look at the obnoxious solicitations I get on a daily basis.

Frozen Ankles, Ugly Squatting – Here’s a piece about people who have ankles that are (structurally) like crowbars – and how they should modify their training.

Strength Training Four Days in a Row – Every have to do it?  Here’s how to optimize it.

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Flat Feet and Hypermobile: Okay for Barefoot Training?

Written on August 23, 2010 at 4:14 am, by Eric Cressey

Q: I read with great interest your recent review of Muscle Imbalances Revealed, and in particular, your comments on Mike Robertson’s presentation that touched on factors related to excessive pronation.  I have this excessive foot pronation, plus a spondylolisthesis, a history of ankle sprains, double-jointed elbows and knees, and hips that move around like John Travolta’s in Saturday Night Fever. Basically I should have given up my career and gone into the Cirque de Soleil.

What I want to know is that specifically with my feet if wearing a supportive shoe with orthotics is such a bad thing. Everyone is on this barefoot kick, but it just doesn’t work for me. If I go barefoot my hips move out of correct position and my ankles and calves ache. In fact, when I was a child, my dad had to massage my calves and arches at night because I’d be in tears from the pain of being flat-footed. Once I got my first orthotics at age 7, I was so much more comfortable. I feel that orthotics and a nice flat shoe for me helps me use my feet correctly and allows me to stay away from internal rotation of the tibia and femur, and reduces pelvic tilt, etc.

Or, I could be mistaken? What do you think, and have you heard anyone else talk about this? Other hypermobile people and I have talked about this and we all seem to feel the same: barefoot is not the way to go for us.

A: Extensive barefoot stuff is definitely not for everyone, and if you were having issues that significant at such a young age, you’re probably just someone with a structurally different foot type.  There are definitely scenarios where orthotics are indicated, and the fact that you’ve gotten so much symptomatic relief from them tells me that they’re a good thing in your case.

That said, you might still benefit from just a bit of barefoot training – like deadlifting barefoot and doing some bowler squats and the like.  Basically, just use it for situations where foot positioning doesn’t change.  Then, you don’t have to mess around with how it affects the gait cycle.  I think you’ll get some of the benefits of strengthening the small muscles of the feet and improving proprioception (in light of your history of ankle sprains) without all the unfavorable compensations further up.  And in folks who don’t have your hypermobility, improving dorsiflexion ROM would be an added benefit.

I wouldn’t say that it’s specific to hypermobile individuals, though.  A lot of them probably have issues with barefoot training because they lack the strength and underlying stability required at the lower leg and hip to take the ground reaction force stress off the feet.  Remember that mobility and stability are always working at odds with one another; if you’ve got too much of one, you have to train the other one to pick up the slack.  My hunch is that most of these people don’t have structural pronation; they have excessive functional pronation because the anti-pronators – specifically the hip external rotators – aren’t strong enough to decelerate that pronation.  Check out the valgus (poor) positioning on the left here:

Of course, in the general population, we see it for this reason, as well as the fact that most people walk around in terrible cinder blocks footwear that completely “tunes out” the joints and muscles of the feet.

A lot of the folks that try barefoot training and wind up in pain get that way because they’re idiots and jump right in full-tilt.  You can’t go from wearing cross-trainers to wearing thin pieces of cloth/rubber overnight.  And, as Nick Tumminello wisely pointed out recently, while our ancestors were barefoot all the time, they weren’t barefoot on CONCRETE for loads of mileage.  And, they weren’t as overweight as today’s society is, with such low relative strength. As always, people get hurt because they are stupid and not because a specific training modality is bad.

Typically, in a broad sense, I recommend that people do their 1-leg (pistol) squats, all deadlifting variations, and box squats without sneakers.

As long as they aren’t really overweight – or presenting with a history of foot problems – we’ll also have them do their warm-ups without sneakers.

Everything else (including more quad dominant squatting variations) are done with footwear. I’m a big fan of the New Balance Minimus; you can read my full review at the following link: The New Balance Minimus: The Best Minimalist Training Shoe on the Market.

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The Importance of Ankle Mobility

Written on December 20, 2009 at 3:38 pm, by Eric Cressey

One of the most common issues we see in both athletes and our general population clients is a lack of ankle mobility – and more specifically, dorsiflexion range-of-motion.

For just about everything in life – from sprinting, to lunging, to squatting – we need a certain amount of dorsiflexion (think of how far the knees can go over the toes, or the positive shin angle one can create without lifting the heel).  If we don’t have it, we have to compensate.

One of the most common things we see in people with a lack of dorsiflexion ROM is an “out-toeing,” as this opens up the ankle and allows for them to get to where they need to be – even if it isn’t the most biomechanically correct way to do so.

This out-toeing may also be caused by hip internal rotation deficit (HIRD), so it’s important to assess both.  Check out this previous video blog for more information on how to assess for HIRD.

In a more “uncompensated” scenario, an athlete with poor ankle mobility may push through the toe instead of the heel – creating a quad-dominant propulsion in a scenario that should have signification contribution from the posterior chain musculature.  In the pictures below, you’ll see that Josh Beckett requires a considerable amount of dorsiflexion range-of-motion to get the job done (push-off without the heel leaving the ground).

This lack of ankle mobility may also negatively affect knee function.  Research has shown that a lack of ankle mobility can increase rotational torque at the knee.  This falls right in line with the joint-by-joint school of thought with respect to training; if you lock up a joint that should be mobile, the body will look elsewhere to create that range-of-motion.

This definitely applies to what happens to the lumbar spine during squatting in a person with an ankle (or hip) mobility deficit.  If someone can’t get sufficient dorsiflexion (or hip flexion and internal rotation), he’ll look to the lumbar spine to get that range of motion by rounding (lumbar flexion).  We know that combining lumbar flexion with compressive loading is a big-time no-no, so it’s important to realize that folks with considerable ankle mobility restrictions may need to modify or eliminate squatting altogether.

Take, for example, Olympic lifters who wear traditional Olympic lifting shoes with big heel lifts.  This artificially created ankle mobility allows them to squat deeper.  While I’m not a huge fan of this footwear for regular folks for squatting, used sparingly, it’s not a big deal.

Other individuals may be better served with hip dominant squat variations (e.g., box squats) that allow them to sit back and not squat quite as deep while they work to improve that ankle mobility and get closer to squatting deeper (with more dorsiflexion).  With these individuals, we supplement the more hip dominant squatting with extra single-leg work and plenty of deadlift variations.

The take-home message is that ankle mobility has some far-reaching implications, and it’s important to be able to assess it to determine if it’s the factor that’s limiting someone’s safe and efficient movement.

For more information on how to evaluate and address ankle mobility, check out Assess and Correct.

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Stuff You Should Read: 7/15/09

Written on July 15, 2009 at 7:25 am, by Eric Cressey

Here’s a collection of stuff I encourage you to check out this week:

The Return of BSP – I really enjoyed CP staff member Brian St. Pierre’s latest blog post on supplements.  Some people just need a smack in the face to wake up from idiocy.

Research links Nicotine to Pre-Diabetes – And you thought that only junk carbs, poor genes, and a lack of exercise makes folks insulin resistant.  In reality, it sounds like smoking does as well.

Self-Ankle Mobilization to Increase Dorsiflexion – Here’s a cool new video Bill Hartman just posted on ankle mobilizations.  I’ve used stuff like this in the past on my own ankle and it definitely makes the mobilization more effective.

Static Posture Assessment Mistakes: Part 3

Written on April 1, 2009 at 11:22 am, by Eric Cressey

The positioning of the feet in a static posture assessment can tell you a lot, but simply looking without following up won’t give you a definitive answer.  The most common postural distortion you’ll see is an externally rotated foot position.

It’s common to assume that this is simply a case of an athlete with hips that are stuck in external rotation.  And, in many cases, this is definitely the culprit.  For these athletes, a hearty dose of knee-to-knee stretches will do the trick (along with some stretches for the hip external rotators in a position of hip extension).

For other athletes, though, this foot position is simply a compensation, as athletes will turn the feet out to compensate for a lack of dorsiflexion (toe-to-shin) range-of-motion.  These athletes need to work hard to improve ankle mobility with a combination of lower-extremity soft tissue work and mobility drills.

For more information on postural assessment strategies, check out the Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set.

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