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Of all the ‘how to…’ questions that I get, one of the most common is about ‘how to make running shoes last longer.’ Let’s begin by answering that question with this question: How do running shoes die? The most important part of the running shoe is the part that the runner stands on—the midsole. The…

Rebecca Qumon is one of the many runners who are members of The Training Station Gym. She normally laces up her sneakers, walks past all of the strength equipment, hops on the treadmill, does her run, and walks past all of the strength equipment on her way out the door. But she recently asked me…

Sam Adele buys her shoes from us. She also hits us up for running advice, about everything from interval training to nutrition for runners. There are different categories of running shoes: neutral, stability, motion control, etc. For Sam, and nearly everyone else, one of those categories is most comfortable—in her case, neutral shoes. Think of…

It had been 6 years since Dean Sato played on his college football team’s offensive line. Football isn’t the kind of sport that people continue after they graduate, so during all of that time he hadn’t blocked or tackled anybody. He wasn’t going to the gym. Running for weight loss was far from his mind.…

Every shoe in Run Shoe Store—the largest selection of any Philadelphia-area running shoe store—has a drop. There are 7 drops currently (drops are measured in millimeters): 13mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8mm, 5mm, 4mm, and 3mm. That corresponds to .51 inches, .47 inches, .40 inches, .31 inches, .20 inches, .16 inches, and .12 inches. It seems that…

Here’s the important fact that should be considered when we talk about the best shoe for heel-strikers: just about every technical running shoe has been made to accommodate heel strikers. (This is beside the point but heel-striking is not necessarily a bad thing.) Sneaker manufacturers aim to make shoes that respond to the things that…

Before talking about the best gym shoe, we should talk about what happens in the contemporary gym. Here is a list of the most popular equipment, according to IHRSA: Treadmills Resistance machines Hand weights Dumbbells Stationary bikes Elliptical machines Barbells Ab machines Stair climbing machines Rowers Cardio cross trainers Kettle bells The best gym shoe…

The part of a technical running shoe that you are likely to feel the most is that part underfoot, which is called the midsole. Think of the midsole as the foundation that the rest of the shoe is built on. Midsoles are most commonly made from relatively soft plastics like thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and ethylene…

Disease is a leading cause of foot numbness. Morton’s neuroma, diabetes, Chiari Malformation, tarsal tunnel syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and mononeuropathy all list foot numbness among their symptoms. The following quote from a newsletter of the National Institutes of Health gives sound advice: “Health problems can also affect the feet. Lack of feeling in your feet…

Competitive runners have always wanted lightweight running shoes and manufacturers have always fulfilled that desire. There is some evidence that heavier shoes reduce the running speed achieved in lighter shoes. Young, competitive, male runners, who run the 5K in less than 20 minutes, were observed wearing lightweight shoes and heavier shoes. The later slowed them…