 Minimal vs. Maximal, let's get into it. So, minimalist shoes vs. Maximalist shoes. In both ends of the extreme, we got Vibram Five Fingers in one end. Super, super minimalist, thin, thin sole, no protection almost at all. And the other end we have the Hoka One One, which is like probably the thickest cushioned shoe in the world. The Bondi, very cushioned. And in the middle we have something like this maybe, the Ultra One 2.5, which is like cushioned but very minimally and very, very soft and pliable. What's the ideal? What's the best? Well, there's pros and cons to both. And I've been through the whole spectrum. I've recently started running in the Hokas and I enjoy it and I've also enjoyed the Five Fingers. And as I said, there's pros and cons to both. Let's just talk about some of the pros and cons then. The argument behind minimalist shoes is that, well, you have better control, right? You have more ground contact. You can feel the ground underneath your foot, you have a lot of nerves and you're able to sense your position on the ground better and you're better able to quickly change your foot position, etc. Because you're really in touch with the ground. And so for trail runner, for example, it's really important to be in touch with the ground. Whereas for road runner, maybe not that much. And it's just because there's very little between you and the ground. And of course, rolling your ankles, that's not going to happen in something like this. You're not going to roll your ankle. Whereas if you're running in something like this, you very well might roll your ankle. Because that's one of the risks with a maximalist shoe. If you're doing workouts, right? If you're doing hard workouts and you want that speed, you want a light shoe and you want a shoe that is responsive to the ground. And if you have too much cushion, it'll just be like running in mud a little bit. And it's difficult to get that response from the ground. So in that case, you might want to run with something like this, right? Something slightly cushioned or something all the way down to the minimalist shoe. Very little cushion, totally responsive when you're at the track or something like that. And if you think about it, track runners, they're running in spikes when they compete. There's no cushioning there. It's just flat. Now, what about the maximalist shoe then? Some of the arguments, some of the pros for a maximalist shoe. Well, cushioning is great. I remember when I started running, I was running in the Vibram Five Fingers. And I remember as long as I was on the trail, I was happy, right? Soft surface, felt healthy. But when I headed out on the pavement, it was really hard. And I was really sort of, it was sort of taking a toll on my tendons and my tendons in my legs, but especially my foot. And I know you can build up tolerance to this over long periods of time. I know a lot of people like Grant Campbell, the Royal C. Athlete, check out his channel on YouTube. He runs a lot in Vibram Five Fingers, I think exclusively actually in Vibram Five Fingers. And he does pretty good. So you can build up to it over time. But I would argue that it might still be healthier long term to have a little bit of cushioning. Because what the cushioning does is that it sort of gives you, rather than having an absolute impact immediately, like a very quick bam, it's just like there's no give in the asphalt. This type of shoe allows you a little bit more time to sort of land with the ground being a little softer. So it actually simulates, the way I see it, it simulates trail running. Because here's the thing, most people running in Vibram Five Fingers, for example, will argue that it's not healthy to run on the pavement. We should run on the trails. It's really healthy, soft surfaced trails. That's where we should run. But then at the same time, they'll be against something like this. But isn't this exactly the same? You're actually just taking a soft surface with you on the run. So this is sort of your own personal piece of trail that goes with you when you're running on the pavement. So you're running on pavement, but it actually is like a trail. And then the argument against that again will be then that, well, your feet will get weak because you're running on this mushy surface. Like because your feet are just sort of, they just get lazy. The muscles in your feet, the arches, everything just gets lazy because it's so soft, the cushioning, and you just lose all the strength. Well, first of all, I would say that something similar would take place if you're running on soft surface in the trails. And also you got to remember if you're thinking about something like strength, if you're in the gym lifting weights twice a week, say, or three times a week or even once a week, that will maintain your strength. That will even build your strength, especially if you're doing it three times a week. That doesn't mean the rest of the time you also have to lift weights. No, no, you go into the gym for half an hour, three times a week. That's probably pretty good. The rest of the time you can relax. Your muscles aren't going to go lazy just because you're relaxing when you're not exercising. So, my recommendation then is that run in cushioned shoes. Let your feet relax if that's what happens and avoid that hard pounding of the pavement most of the time. Then go on slightly less cushioned shoes maybe when you're doing workouts or if you're running on the trails. But then here's the thing. Make sure you train the feet. Make sure you get some strength training in for the feet to maintain their strength despite running on soft surfaces. So, what would that be? Well, of course, if you're lifting heavy weights like deadlifts and squats, you're going to train your feet a little bit as well so they're probably getting a little bit out of that. But strides, maybe even barefoot strides. Go running barefoot on the grass. Do some quick strides almost like sprints once a week, twice a week. To maintain that foot strength, that might be a great idea. Even if you're not running barefoot, just running in a somewhat minimal shoe like this maybe, on the track maybe. Maybe while you're warming up for a track session, you'll do some repeats. You'll just do some 100 meter repeats or just some strides. That will sort of activate those muscles and keep them strong. So, you don't have to worry about running in very cushioned shoes and getting lazy feet. I don't think so anyway. There's also an argument for rotating your shoes, of course, to avoid a monotonous strain on your feet, on your legs. But if you're a trail runner, then every step will be sort of different anyway. But if you're running a lot on the roads, definitely have a couple of different shoes to rotate between. But I certainly, I feel, I love these shoes. I absolutely love them. I've run 100K in them so far, which is not that much. And every time I head out on the road with them, I'm just like, Yes, I'm flying, I'm flying. Hey guys, so as I was editing this very video, I came up with another pro for maximally cushioned shoes. When you're running on hard surfaces, especially if you're running barefoot, for example, but for every runner, this is a fact, there's something called foot strike hemolysis. And it's essentially destroying your red blood cells and leaking their guts out into the bloodstream. Essentially what happens is that underneath your foot, there's a lot of these capillaries, small blood vessels. And when your foot hits the ground, some of those red blood cells in those capillaries at the time when you're hitting the ground, will actually rupture and lose their contents into the bloodstream. And part of that content is iron. And although some of it, or probably most of it, is reabsorbed, you do end up losing some iron. And this is one of the reasons why endurance athletes have a higher iron need than sedentary people. And so this becomes a problem when you're running high mileage, when you're running a lot of steps, because every step you hit the ground, you are destroying some blood cells. Of course you have a lot of them and you're producing a lot of them, but you're destroying a lot of them too. And runners do that a lot. So that means that if you're running barefoot for a lot of those miles, if you're running with Vibram five fingers, you are going to lose more iron than someone who has more cushion on their shoes or running on softer surfaces. So if you're running on pavement a lot, or if you're just running a lot in general, if you're running high mileage, it's probably a good idea to use maximally cushioned shoes, at least for some of your runs, just to minimize that foot strike hemolysis just a little bit and make sure you're not losing too much iron because of it. And now back to the original video, The Magic of Editing. So that's it, what's my opinion on maximalist versus minimalist? I like both. I think they're both good and I think anyone who says Strictly Minimal or Strictly Maximal will probably, I don't know, they probably haven't considered the complete picture. You know hardcore minimalist might say something like, well we're born barefoot, we should run barefoot, that's the only way we can run biomechanically accurate. And I used to say that too. And it is true, running barefoot is really the best way to learn proper running form and you should do that. That's why you should do barefoot drills I think every week. Like I just mentioned the strides barefoot, maybe do a little bit of running barefoot. But the thing is the environments that we're running in on pavement etc. are not ideal for barefoot. Okay, even with Vibram protection. These are artificially hard surfaces and I think it just takes a toll on our joints and our tendons and stuff over time. But I just, I don't see the point. I see it better protecting ourselves a little bit with some more cushioning so that we can run more miles for longer. Okay, to get that aerobic power going over long distances rather than just being limited to shorter distances because our feet can't handle more because of the impact. But then again I guess you could say the opposite, right? If you're not doing any barefoot running, if you're not doing any minimalist shoe running, you'll end up with sort of weak feet and that will also hinder you from being able to do those long distances and stuff. So as always it comes, it's a balance. You don't do just weightlifting and never rest. You don't just train and never recover. After you've trained you need to recover. So you could almost consider a run in minimalist shoes as a harder workout for your feet. And if you're doing barefoot stride, that's like the hardest workout for your feet. And then when you're needing your feet to recover on an easier day or a longer day when your feet is not the main priority that you're trying to train, you know? You're trying to train your aerobic system maybe, trying to train your legs in general for a long run. On those runs maybe you let your feet rest a little bit that day and you give them a little bit more cushioning. So it's really about constantly balancing those two opposites. That's what training is about. I hope that makes sense to you. I want to know though what you think about it. So please comment down below, let me know do you run in minimalist shoes? What types? Do you run in maximal shoes? What types? What's your favorite? Do you alternate like I just mentioned? Share your thoughts with me. And I'll put some links here to some videos on related topics so you can check those out and of course subscribe if you haven't done so already. Thanks for watching, bye now.