Barefoot Running
Barefoot Running Encourages a Healthy Forefoot Running Style That Let You Run Farther, Faster
Barefoot running has become a big fad in the running world, thanks to Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.
Actually, the Tarahumara (Rarámuri in their language) natives featured in that book don't run barefoot. They wear huaraches (Mexican sandals) made from leather or used tire rubber held to their feet with laces.
However, one of the book's other characters is Barefoot Ted, who has run barefoot ever since discovering that eliminated the back pain he experienced while running in ordinary running shoes. However, Barefoot Ted will put on Vibram Five Fingers when faced with a really rough surface.
McDougall goes into a lot of detail about how Bill Bowerman devised the modern running shoe with an elevated heel and highly cushioned sole, founding Nike, in 1972. Prior to this time, runners wore normal "tennis" shoes or sneakers. When I ran on my junior high track team, that's what we worked out in. During track meets, we wore very thin soled shoes with spikes in front.
In the Rome Olympics of 1960, the Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikala set a world record in the marathon while barefoot. However, when he broke that record four years later in Tokyo in 1964, he was wearing shoes.
However, they were not modern, support or motion control shoes with elevated heels.
Barefoot Running is Still Practiced by Poor People
Kenyan runners, who often grow up running through the forest without shoes, have also won many races over the years in their bare feet.
Another great runner -- until the Soviet Union crushed his country in 1968 -- was Czechoslovakian Emil Zapotek. He was not a barefoot runner, but ran for the run of it. While in army boot camp, after a full day of training, he'd go running -- in his boots -- for twenty miles.
According to Dr. Craig Richards in the British Journal Of Sports Medicine in 2008, there was absolutely no evidence that modern running shoes prevented injuries.
If anything, they cause more injuries, because -- according to various studies -- from twenty to seventy percent of all runners (of all categories, from beginner to elite) suffer an injury every year.
Yet Adidas has a shoes with a built-in microprocessor that adjusts the cushioning as you run.
The main objection to barefoot running, which is obvious, is that it's rough on your feet. Most of us in the modern world don't have large calluses built up from childhood. Nor do we want to have the bottoms of our feet stained from the dust, dirt and mud.
Plus, I know from experience that it's easy for cuts on the bottom of your feet to get infected. So I have no desire to start running without any protection.
Of course, it's quite likely that paleolithic hunters wrapped dried animals skins around their feet, especially in winter. Thus, it's still quite credible to wear only mocassins or other lightweight feet coverings. The Tarahumara of Mexico reportedly race for up to three hundred miles wearing only Mexican huaraches, made of leather or old tires.
Many Manufacturers Now Make Shoes for Barefoot Running
Modern runners who want the benefits of barefoot running without the risk of slicing open their feet, wear Vibram Five Fingers, Nike Free, and other minimalist running shoes.
Many models of running shoes now work to be much more flexible, and to direct our feet to strike the ground with forefeet instead of heels (as ordinary running shoes do). According to many, this is the natural way to run, and it reduces many overuse injuries.
Other runners are buying or making their own huararches. Some are adopting flip flops. One guy is selling huararches made from modern durable materials. Hey, they cost a lot less than Vibram Five Fingers.
If you do decide to join the craze -- whether to run with no shoes at all or in minimalist running shoes -- do give your feet time to adapt.
Your foot and lower leg muscles must be strengthened and built up just as though you were a baby starting over, because in a sense that's just what you are. You must build up those muscles just as though you'd walked and run barefoot throughout your childhood instead of wearing shoes.
So go barefoot as much as you safely can, walk barefoot on the sand, hold ping ball balls, walk on your toes, and keep your mileage down.
Barefoot running is obviously possible, but just as obviously comes with some risk, so be careful.
- Minimalist Running Shoes -- Vibram Five Fingers are the most extreme of the new minimalist running shoes.
- Adjust to Vibram Fingers -- make a gradual transition to barefoot minimalist running shoes.
- Five Fingers Shoes -- Vibram Five Fingers shoes are the latest running craze.
- Huararches -- Mexican sandals are the running shoes of choice the Tarahumara ultradistance runners.
- Barefoot Running Shoes -- the latest trend in athletics are barefoot running shoes that give you a natural, healthy running technique.
- Vibram Five Fingers Models -- Vibram Five Fingers come in many varieties for many different uses.
- Simple Shoes -- simple shoes help you feel like you're running barefoot even though your feet are still protected.
- Toe Shoes -- toe shoes or vibram fivefingers can give your feet extra freedom and a natural stride.
- Vibram Five Fingers -- Vibram makes the most original of the minimalist, barefoot running shoes.