Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield, and today I'd like you to imagine the perfect legs.

Tight, curvaceous, symmetrical things of beauty, able to look fantastic in tight jeans or shorts, yet also able to leap, jump, and step, with grace and ease.

Now, imagine a funky-looking piece of footwear with an awkward bump along the bottom and a jutting soul along the mid and front foot.

This footwear is called a fitness shoe and promises to give you

those very legs I had you imagine. In addition to bestowing upon the wearer, the calves and

butt of Greek gods and goddesses, fitness shoes also promise to enhance balance and posture.

But do fitness shoes actually work? So what is a fitness shoe?

Fitness shoes go by many different names, including wellness shoes, toning shoes, and shaping shoes.

A relatively new phenomenon over the past five years or so, fitness shoes are referred to in the shoe industry as rocker-style shoes,

because they have a curved bottom and a heel that's lower

than the toe, resulting in a rocking motion from the heel to the toe during the gait motion.

The premise of fitness shoes is that because of instability and a shift of your weight from the

back of your feet to the front of your feet, your body will be forced to use different muscles

while walking, specifically the buttocks, thighs, and calves. In addition, because your weight is

shifted forward, you may be less likely to slouch with poor posture and could even get better

balance from the instability of the fitness shoe. So let's examine whether these claims are true. Here's the fitness shoe

research. Although shoe companies have sponsored and conducted in-house research on their

particular brand of fitness shoes, only one independent study exists that examines whether

fitness shoes actually work. This study, which was conducted by the American Council on Exercise, enlisted a group of

female treadmill walkers and measured their metabolic rate and muscle activity of the quads,

calves, hamstrings, buttocks, back, and abs when the walkers were clad in special fitness shoes

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