Many of you athletes, particularly runners, have heard of energy return before. It’s the notion that properly designed athletic shoes can actually assist you in propelling yourself down the road or across the court or field faster and smoother than you would be able to do wearing normal shoes.
Is there any truth to this? Energy return is a concept that has come and gone several times over the last few decades. But we here at Z-CoiL have a pretty good handle on all things feet and all things pain reduction, so we thought we’d try our hand at explaining it and showing you how it really works.
Running in Sand
Have you ever gone to the beach and run in the sand? It’s hard, isn’t it? Your feet just bury themselves in the sand and don’t want to come back out. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to pull them back out and push off for another stride.
Why? Because the sand acts like a shock absorber when you land on it. It shifts out from under your feet, taking all your forward energy and pushing it down into the sand—where it stays. The landing might feel great on your heels, but then it’s like you’re stuck in mud. All your body’s energy goes down into the step, and none of it comes back to you for the next step.
That’s poor energy return. Actually it’s more like energy drain. And it can leave you with foot and leg fatigue.
Shock Absorption vs. Foot Support
Herein lies the trick of building a good shoe. The bones in our feet, particularly our heels, need shock absorption or cushioning to help offset the impact they take during exercise, daily walking, and standing on endless hard floors and streets. But shock absorption alone results in the running in sand effect—our energy disappears into the bottom of our step and none returns to spring us onward.
In contrast, a firm sole provides better support for the bones of your feet and better energy return, but results in traumatic impact to the sole of our foot with each stride.
What’s a person to do?
The answer is, of course, get both foot support and cushioning. And also get re-coil. You need all three of these components to get proper energy return out of your shoe.
How Z-CoiLs Energy Return Works
Designed by an injured runner, Z-CoiLs answers the call for cushioning, firm support, and re-coil, thereby delivering great energy return to their wearers. It took a number of design attempts before our founder finally got it just right; but he finally did it and got his design patented so years of wearers could benefit from it.
When you come down on your heel, Z-CoiL’s coiled heel absorbs the impact of that step beautifully. Some clients describe the feeling as “walking on clouds.” These shoes’ firm insoles keep your bones aligned properly and give you a sturdy surface to push off of, at the same time their coiled heels bounce back, springing your forward.
Call it the proper design balance point or call it walking on clouds. We here at Z-CoiL simply call it effective pain relief, and we are proud to provide them to clients all over the world. Over a million feet have benefitted from our patented design and continue to stride through life with less pain, better body alignment, and increased mobility.
There are enough things in your life that drain energy away from you. Don’t let your shoes be part of the problem. Try a 30-day risk-free pair of Z-CoiLs and see how good your feet can feel with great energy return.