“Kula” is an ancient sanskrit term that means ‘community of the heart’. It is a group coming together of their own free will; an intentional clan, tribe or family.
Part of our Kula Tribe is connecting with the local community. Each month we engage with a different local business as a way of encouraging our members to get to know their local area. It also allows these local businesses to get to know our members.
Whilst yoga is a wonderful opportunity to let your toes run free, we know that many of our Kula crew complement their yoga practice with other physical activity. Whether this be competitive running, social jogging, walking, crossfit or various other sporting activities, it’s a great idea to have a balance in life.
This is why we’re excited to welcome Active Feet as our local business partner for January, who are the best people to look after your feet! We’ve invited them to tell us a little about what they do and why it’s so important.
Why is it so important to be fitted when buying running shoes?
We all know how important and desirable colour brand and price is when buying our training / running shoes.
In addition to this we put multiple times (5 or 6 times) our body weight through our feet when we hit the ground. So it is important to have the right thing between us and the ground when we are doing a repetitive ground contact exercise. The brands already know this and build shoes with a variety of cushioning, and a variety of supportive features. Cushioning for shock absorbing and the supportive features to optimise your individual biomechanics, or how your feet and legs work.
Finding a store that can help you with this is critical, as it is easy to be in the wrong shoe for your mechanics and your activity requirements.
The other obvious element is fit, length, width and shape. This changes from brand to brand and even season to season. The right fit can be the difference success and failure, comfort and pain.
We understand there is a time and place to buy shoes for low impact activity, casual fashion and looks. And there is a time for buying the right shoes for your high impact activity requirements.
All these things may change as your biomechanics change with changing activity and life cycles.
We want to help you make sense of all this, so you stay injury free, perform better and most importantly enjoy being active.
What is involved in the assessment when they come into store?
At Active Feet our podiatrist and podiatry trained staff use a software gait analysis of you walking or running on a treadmill to show you shoes on your feet working well and why or not working well and why not.
When a customer comes into an Active Feet the main aim is to find a comfortable shoe that is appropriate for their current activity, their biomechanics and foot type (pronated/neutral/supinated). We obtain their past history with activity and footwear and then understand their intentions for exercise to ensure we can fit them appropriately with the best shoe for their own set of requirements.
We educate quickly about:
- Foot and lower leg biomechanics
- Shoe structure and function
- Shoe and activity application
- Show people their own barefoot biomechanics
- Assess a range of shoes on the customer walking or running
- Treadmill and software assessment we can show shoes working well and why and shoes not working as well and why not. Till we find the right shoes.
The aim is to find a comfortable shoe that is appropriate for the customer’s current activity, biomechanics and foot type (pronated/neutral/supinated).
This is what we do … for FREE.
- There are many brands & even more models of shoes.
- Different activities may require different shoe features.
- Everybody’s biomechanics and foot types are different.
- Everyone’s stage of life and conditioning levels are changing all the time.
- Everyone’s exercise goals are different and changing all the time.
It is easy to be in the wrong shoe.
Getting the right shoe may require more than one pair to cater for casual fashion times and activity specific times. This will mean the best enjoyment and performance when active and importantly the right thing for fashion times too. Also this improves lifespan of each pair and therefore improves value for money.
Life Span:
Life span of shoes is one of the most common reasons we see for people reporting symptoms during exercise.
The midsole foam section of the shoe compresses and re-bounds under multiple times our body weight every time we hit the ground. Or is held compressed if we stand on them for long sessions.
If the foam is past its lifespan you will compromise cushioning, shock absorption, your biomechanics, risk injury, reduce performance and probably find less enjoyment in your activity.
Manufactures rate shoes for about 600-800 km’s.
So if we run 4 times a week for 5kms (approx. 30 mins) that is 80km a month and represents 10 months as a running impact shoe.
Or if not running but exercising 3-4 times a week for an hour or so a time again it will be somewhere between 8-12 months depending on the activity and the person.
NOTE:
Finding the right shoes for the right times is the key.
This is best done by assessment in a range of shoes when in motion, dynamic assessment, to match biomechanics, foot type, shoe type, activity type.
This is what we do … for FREE.
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Kula Tribe members receive an amazing discount with Active Feet this month, it’s never too late to join!
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Kula Yoga has a beautiful hot yoga studio on Camberwell Rd, Hawthorn, Melbourne. Kula offers ‘Hot Yoga’ classes for detoxification, dynamic power yoga ‘Flow Yoga’ as well as a gentle ‘Light Yin Yoga’ option. Beginners through to advanced students are welcome to all classes. Kula also provides prenatal & postnatal yoga classes, and provides Melbourne workplaces with group corporate yoga programs to build employee health, fitness and wellbeing, and school yoga programs. Kula also runs an annual ‘Kula Cruise’ yoga retreat sailing from Bali to Lombok & the Gili Islands. Find out more on our website www.kulayoga.com.au. Or follow us:
Facebook: Kula Yoga Australia
Instagram – @kulayoga
Twitter – Kula Yoga Australia
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