I’ve been getting into barefoot running lately, motivated by the book – Born to Run. Which goes into the bio mechanics of barefoot running and the benefits to your arch and such. One of the most fascinating things that Christopher McDougall references is Alan Webb’s barefoot odyssey, in which he has begun to incorporate barefoot running into his training and has seen his foot size shrink from a size 12 to a size 10! He attributes this to the foot becoming stronger, more compact with a higher arch. The arch is the part of the foot that supports our weight on foot strike… a stronger more compact arch, means a stronger push off from the ground. Barefoot running also repositions our body. It forces you to run on the pad of your foot rather than a heel strike, which is easy to do with air padded shoes, but is rather uncomfortable when running barefoot. When you run on the pad of your foot your back is forced to straighten, which reduces the stresses on our lower lumbar vertebrae. In order to really experience this type of running, I got some Vibram Five Fingers, pics below:
I didn’t go straight into running barefoot everyday, rather I started nice and easy with a few 10-15 min jaunts on grass and dirt, letting my muscles in my foot and lower leg get used to the idea. This past week I elevated it to 20-25 min (2x’s a week) and still felt soreness in my feet and calves the next day, but nowhere else… The video below is my homemade Vibram Five Fingers advertisement. Enjoy!
This is not barefoot running, it is shoe running, Barefoot Saxon says it all. This is no different then the scam Nike pulled. Barefoot Sensei, Exuberantanimal.com
Will
Barefoot running is barefoot running. Vibram Five Fingers running is Vibram Five Fingers Running. What am I missing here. This is not barefoot running.
If you really want to learn how to run "Barefoot", take off the footwear!
I don't mind people running in whatever kind of footwear they like, but it is deceptively misleading - and in fact, is leading to many people getting injured - to call running in minimalist shoes, "Barefoot".
The problem is, with these crutches, people are not getting one of the most important benefits of running barefoot - the feedback from the multitude of nerve endings in our bare soles. Without this feedback, people are from the beginning, running longer, and landing harder, than their feet, body, and minds are capable of the first time you run barefoot.
I can understand the desire to start out, gradually, carefully, with baby steps, and you should - but no infant I ever met, was born with shoes!
In bare soles, we are like infants, with the benefit of sensitive feet, that have rarely touched the earth, TEACHING us HOW to interact with the earth, naturally, more gently, effieciently, and gracefully.
First, learn to run, with the full benefit of precise feedback from our soles, teaching us how to run gently.
Second, if you want to run on extreme surfaces, wear the minimalist footwear, but chances are, if you have really mastered running barefoot, you'll find they are completely unnecessary, and actually get in the way of your running.
Amazing! It is obvious watching your video that you are really on to something. I am a trail runner too. The past couple years I have had to slow down the frequency of my workouts though. I picked up fallen arches and bad knees from a stint in the Marine Corps. I will definitely have to try barefoot running with the Vibram Five Fingers. Maybe it will help repair the damage.
Barefoot/POSE running style definitely has all the science and research behind it, but alas it goes against "conventional wisdom" so people still think its crazy. Good work.
Shane
I did the same thing...read the book...bought the five-fingers and have been running in them. After having foot problems for over two year I'm now pain free. Completely sold on the logic of it all.
dude. that is awesome! you sail, you run barefoot, your engaged.... we are the same person! hope all is well shane, we need to go sail sometime before it gets too cold!
shane
you're right we are. when is the big day? and also, have you been running on concrete or grass? any trail running yet? October is a great month for sailing, so there's still time.
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