I'm a big fan of mine. And yes, for the love of God, ease your way into using them. While they might decrease your chances of injury in the long term, not so much when you first strap them on.
I also highly reccomend not ordering online initially. They're very fussy with the sizing, and either the sizing guide that Vibram has on their website is inaccurate, or I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to use it, as the size I initially tried on based on that guide was a good two sizes smaller than the ones I bought after trying them on.