Major sports brand Reebok have claimed that their new line of Easytone trainers can tone your hamstrings, calves and bum nearly 30% more than regular trainers just by walking in them. They claim the trainers can “train muscles your trainers never knew you had.”
They seem too good to be true; you can exercise the same amount or simply walk around and your legs and behind get a workout that would usually take hours a day at the gym. But do they actually work or is this all just some marketing campaign? A team of scientists with backgrounds in exercise, sport and physiology at the University of Wisconsin conducted a study to test the claims on each of the shoes.
Leading the test was John Porcari PhD, who agrees that the trainers should work in theory as they create instability that the body attempts to counteract thus making the muscles work harder. The shoes are based on a curved sole which creates an unstable surface which forces the wearer’s body to constantly struggle to find equilibrium.
The trainers are not recommended for normal sports such as tennis or netball due to their lack of lateral support, which is fine by us. What they are designed for is everyday use which allows muscle activity to take place during even mundane tasks.
You are able to wear the trainers, flip flops or sandals whenever you want and as long as you’re standing, they are working your muscles. It’s like sitting on an exercise ball all day rather than an office chair.
The scientists also surveyed users of the shoes over a period of several months and found that they experienced a degree of toning of the legs and bum. But the team struggled to determine whether the toning was entirely due to the imbalance the shoes created or the motivation to walk more.
Consumers have so far gone mad for the Reebok easytone range and there is rumour of further, more casual models to be added to the popular easytone trainers