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We’re excited to announce our upcoming barefoot running book!

With the incredible success of Chris McDougall’s best-seller Born to Run and Vibram FiveFinger sales taking off, there appears to be an incredible well-spring of interest in barefoot running. However, until now, there hasn’t been a comprehensive book in print on the “how-to’s” of barefoot running. This book addresses topics such as getting into barefoot running safely, how to transition, proper form, the science behind barefoot running, what to watch for, how to condition the feet, strengthen and stretch the feet, how to prevent and heal from injuries, or even what minimalist footwear to wear, and when and why you’d want shoes.

Until now.

In between our barefoot running clinics, talks, and coaching, we’ve been working around the clock to put together the most comprehensive book on barefoot running and minimalist footwear to date. It’s title, put simply is ”Barefoot Running: How to Become Healthy, Fit, and Blissful, by Getting in Touch with the Earth”.  At over 250 pages in length, including extensive illustrations and “how-to” photographs, it takes an in depth look at just about everything you want to know about barefoot running and includes the latest findings from Dr. Daniel Lieberman’s paper published in Nature Journal.

If you’re looking to get into barefoot running, overcome a nagging injury, learn to run pain free, or just get in the best running shape of your life, then this book’s for you.

It’ll be coming out this Spring and we’ve been taking pre-orders on a limited edition first copy at http://www.BarefootRunningBook.com.

The book’s been generating tremendous buzz and excitement, as we found it being talked about all over at the Outdoor Retailer’s Show in Salt Lake City this week, and with pre-orders and interviews coming in from Europe and elsewhere abroad it looks to be a winner.

Starting in April we’ll be hitting the roads, holding clinics and free talks in 166 different cities in 180 days. We’ll cover all 48 states plus 4 provinces in Canada, including cities totaling well over 170 million people.

Phew! This could be a little work, but fortunately it’s a labor of love. We can’t wait to help people learn more about barefoot running, safe & proper technique, do’s and don’ts, minimalist footwear, and more.  We also hope to dispel a few myths along the way and help runners rediscover the joy of running - healthy, happy and injury free.

Below you’ll find a map of our journey. We’ve broken the map up into four 6-week phases.

RunBare takes barefoot running education on the road, hitting 166 cities in 180 days.

Phase 1: Clockwise, Boulder, CO through the Southwest, up north to the Pacific Northwest & Canada, before diving back down through the Rockies.

Phase 2: Boulder, CO to New York City, then heading south clockwise, down the coast to Florida, up around the Gulf Coast, and back up to New York.

Phase 3: Up through the Northeast, into Canada and Quebec, before heading west. This is our most northerly route, heading through Montreal and Toronto, then down into upstate New York, across the Great Lakes, across Ohio to Michigan and Chicago, up through Wisconsin to Winnipeg, then diving south into the Midwest and back to Chicago.

Phase 4: Takes us on a giant loop from Illinois, heading clockwise down to Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, before hooking back north to catch Arkansas, then heading back south through New Orleans and onto Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Austin, before heading back up to Oklahoma, Kansas, Saint Louis, and back to Chicago, just in time for the Chicago Marathon on October 10th.

Below you’ll find our Phase 1 timetable, including dates and locations. We’ll hold an average of two clinics per week (one weekday, one weekend) and 4 talks per week. If you’re a running store or club interested in hosting a talk or clinic, or getting involved in any way, please contact us at info@runbare.com. We’re booking events on a rolling 1-2 month window with the goal of reaching as many people as possible.

Coming soon, to a city near you!

Phase 1 of Barefoot America takes RunBare on a clockwise route through the Southwest, California, Pacific Northwest and Rockie Mountain regions.

By Jenn Fields, fields@coloradodaily.com

Michael Sander, of Boulder, and his fiancee, Jessica Lee, along with their dog, Pumpkin, run around the lake outside of South Boulder Recreation Center in Boulder, Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. (KASIA BROUSSALIAN)

 

Runner Scott McLean has had sore feet lately from doing something unusual — wearing shoes.

“When I’m running barefoot, my feet tend to stay warmer, but walking to class, I wear shoes,” said McLean, a University of Colorado senior.

For some runners who prefer to go barefoot, even snow, ice and cold aren’t enough to make them slip into shoes.

“I love it,” said Michael Sandler. “We went out to Mount Sanitas a day or two ago on snow and ice and mud, and it was a hoot.”

Sandler co-founded Boulder’s 200-plus member Barefoot Running Club with his fiancée, Jessica Lee. The two have written a book, “Barefoot Running,” which will be published this spring.

“You can feel the sensation of cold, but you adapt,” Sandler said. “When you adapt, there’s no pain associated with the cold. Because your body has adapted, 20 or 30 degrees, snow and ice, unless it gets really cold, doesn’t feel any worse than a cold tile floor.”

This is Sandler’s third winter running barefoot, and “three years in, this is still a running experiment,” he said as he warmed up on a treadmill before heading outside, into the snow.

In any season, running barefoot is a very gradual transition, Sandler said: “It’s something you get into 100 or 200 yards at a time.”

Whether going completely barefoot or wearing Vibram FiveFinger shoes (minimalist running shoes with separate toes), Sandler says runners must always consider the terrain, temperature, humidity and other factors to determine whether it’s safe. He said he knows a runner who went too far the first time and got frostbite.

Michael Sander, of Boulder, warms up on a treadmill at the South Boulder Recreation Center before going running barefoot in the snow on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. ( KASIA BROUSSALIAN)

 

He also advises barefoot runners to carry shoes and follow the two-question rule: “The second time you think, ‘I’m cold, should I head home?,’ throw on the shoes and head home — don’t even think about it.”

McLean said when he first tried running in snow, he cut back to adjust. He’s running through this winter either barefoot or in FiveFingers, depending on conditions.

“My feet get cold, but it’s not uncomfortable,” McLean said. “You still feel the cold, it just stops mattering so much. The rest of the day, your feet feel hot.”

Invisible shoes

Barefoot runners say they warm up inside, on a treadmill or run stairs, then go outside for short periods of time, never going far that they can’t loop back to re-warm. They run on warm, sun-drenched pavement or run wearing FiveFingers, neoprene socks or Steven Sashen’s new Invisible Shoes.

Sashen started running barefoot in September, so it wasn’t long before he had to deal with cold. He thought huaraches — sandals the Tarahumara Indians sometimes run in, made famous recently by “Born to Run,” Christopher McDougall’s book about the Tarahumaras and barefoot running — could be helpful and found some online, but the choices seemed complicated and expensive.

“I thought, there’s got to be a way to do it on your own, hopefully less expensively,” Sashen said. “I found some materials, made some for myself, my wife, a few pals from the running gang.”

Sashen has since sold hundreds of Invisible Shoes — a thin, 4mm Vibram sole with a simple cord to keep it on your foot — to runners around the world. He offers two options: do-it-yourself kits — cut the rubber and tie the knots yourself — for either $19.95 or $24.95; or custom sandals for $49.95.

Be careful

Dr. Tom Shonka, practicing in Boulder for 25 years and the attending podiatrist at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, said if you’re going to try running barefoot, go slowly and be very careful with the cold.

“The adaptation is more the foot adapting to the mechanical loads, which are incurred by not having the structured cushioning of the shoe,” he said. “It’s more your musculoskeletal system might adapt to the differing stresses” than your vascular system adapting.

Since the circulation in your feet is significantly altered by cold, he said, it would be risky for people with circulation issues to even try it.

“If there’s any existing compromise of the neurovascular system, it’s not going to adapt,” he said.

But for people who are healthy and fit, and have good mechanics, sensation and circulation in their feet, Shonka said, “Under those circumstances, my attitude would be, I don’t know why you’d want to, but go ahead and try it” in small doses in a controlled way.

Read more: Boldly barefoot: Boulder runners hit the snow sans shoes – Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_14458238#ixzz0gUSF19cR

Before you take off in your brand new Vibram Five Fingers, seriously consider going barefoot first. Build stronger feet and diminish your risk of injury.

Chances are you’ve just purchased your first pair of Five Fingers, or are considering getting a pair. They’re a lot of fun, and you’ll likely soon find yourself with a near permanent case of the ear-to-ear grin.

But this is a double-edged sword, because if anything, Vibram’s are too much fun.

If you don’t learn to go slow in the beginning, sooner or later the perma-grin you’re experiencing may be replaced with a perma-ouch.

Running in Five Fingers feels so much like being a kid all over again. They’re just so much fun we can’t help but overdo ourselves. We go too far, and too fast, before our feet our ready, and then BLAMMO, we hit the dreaded ‘setback’.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. If you go slow, and let your skin be your guide (more on this in a minute) you’ll build the strongest, healthiest, happiest feet in the world, capable of mile after mile of near effortless enjoyment, fast and free in or out of your Five Fingers.

But first, we need to wake things up slowly. Unfortunately, modern shoes have weakened our feet.

In short, our feet have been asleep for years, trapped in a dark, narrow constrictive boot that’s shortened, weakened, and stiffened our muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and left our bones weak and brittle. We can build them incredibly strong and supple, but it takes time. If you do too much before they’re ready, you risk tendonitis, muscle tears, strained ligaments, or stress fractures.

To avoid all of this, you need to go slow, and consider tiny distances to begin with.

Let your skin be your guide

Over time, your Five Fingers can help you become the strong, efficient, healthy and fast runner you were born to be. But to transition safely, you need to first feel the ground by going fully barefoot. If you take the time to feel the ground, build your feet, and develop your stride, you greatly diminish your chances of injury when it comes time to slipping on your Five Fingers.

When you run fully barefoot, you learn to run incredibly light, because you can fully ‘feel’ the ground and your impact. Most importantly, when your skin gets raw and tender, you stop and head for home. There aren’t too many people out there that’ll push through raw skin or a blister, at least NOT on an easy training run. That’s why I always tell my runners, “Let your skin be your guide.”

When you let your skin be your guide, you protect everything underneath the skin. The challenge with the Vibram’s isn’t that your skin gets raw, it’s that it doesn’t. You also don’t feel the cumulative damage you’re doing to weakened parts on the inside of your foot. First off, your muscles are still asleep, and aren’t used to the new stride yet. Second, even if the muscles are ready, the tendons that attach the muscles to the bones are still asleep. Third, EVEN if the muscles and tendons are ready, your bones haven’t grown beefier to handle the muscles and tendons pulling at their attachment points. You also haven’t developed the flexibility for the foot to handle a full range of motion, stride after stride, mile after mile. And last, you haven’t developed the ‘padding’ in your foot, to help naturally cushion the impact.

Add all of this up, and you’ll find if you do too much too quickly, you’ll soon tear your feet apart.

If you buy the Vibrams, have fun exploring in them. Just don’t go running too far in them just yet. Instead, invest in your future with a month or two of barefoot running first. Consider this foot conditioning, or boot camp for your feet, to wake them back up, and help them get strong. So, before running far in your Vibrams, begin running fully barefoot, and let your skin be your guide.

But I feel great in my Vibram Five Fingers!

Even if you think all is good, it’s likely not the case. Our bodies build with the use-it or lose-it principle and the principle of ‘specificity’. This means if we use something we get stronger, if not, it goes away. And it means if we’re used to a specific movement, we get stronger for it, and if not, we lose the ability (at least in the short run) to perform that specific movement. These two principles dramatically affect our feet and transition into Vibrams and barefoot running.

Ways in Which Our Feet are Weak

1.) Our Arches are Asleep

With ‘great arch support’ found in traditional running shoes, our strong and springy arches haven’t had to work.  Moreover, by relying on arch support, we’ve locked out one of nature’s greatest shock absorbers and stabilizers, and reduced our arches to mush. They can be rebuilt and raised up stronger than ever; however, you have to start slow. Wisely, the Five Fingers are built with minimum arch support. That’s great for letting your foot do the work. But, if you do too much too fast, your muscles won’t be able to handle the new workload. Instead, you’ll force the job onto your plantar fascia, the band of easily-upset connective tissue running the length of the bottom of your foot. It was never meant to handle such force, and can quickly lead to Plantar Fasciitis.

 2.) We’ve Lost Flexibility

Our incredible foot flexibility and dexterity has been eliminated by stiff soles and over-effective ‘motion control’ systems. Our feet were meant to bend and flex, fore and aft, and to the sides. This allows us to absorb impact, use the foot as a spring, and handle uneven terrain and rocky surfaces. We once had incredibly flexible feet – just look at those of a baby. But now our feet have become as rigid as our shoes. While we NEVER twist our feet in our shoes, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do in your Five Fingers for terrain, propulsion, and shock absorption. It’s a big part of what makes us feel ‘free’. However, building this flexibility takes time. Do too much too fast, and you risk tendonitis, strained ligaments, tears, or even a stress fracture by putting new forces on your feet.

3.) Our Achilles and Calves Have Weakened and Shortened

Ever taken a close look at the heel of your shoe? Chances are it’s almost an inch high or GREATER. Now, I’m not talking about high heeled shoes, but your RUNNING shoes. Supposedly, this high heel helps ‘protect’ our foot with extra cushioning. But what it really does is prevent your foot from its full range of motion. Our bodies adapt to raised heels by shortening our achilles and calves. To add insult to injury, when we’re forced to heel strike, we lock our achilles out of the equation. The achilles can handle almost two tons of force if fully strengthened, but in a modern running shoe that promotes heel striking, it hasn’t had to work.

The Vibrams, however, allow you to use a more ‘natural’ stride, and that means landing on your forefoot, loading your achilles and calf, and springing back with each step. That’s why the achilles was built so strong in the first place and it takes time to build them up again. Work your calves and achilles too much and too soon and you’ll pull and strain these muscles and tendons, or literally tear them apart. 

4.) Our Incredible Toes Have Become Unbelievably Weak

Did you know 18 out of 19 muscles and tendons of our feet connect to our toes? Mother Nature wouldn’t have done this if the toes weren’t vital to our feet. Unfortunately, our poor toes have been asleep for years. Look at your current running shoes. See how high the front of the shoe is off the ground? That’s called ‘toe spring’. Shoe manufacturers add toe spring to help your foot roll more easily. Now look at your foot. Are your toes up and off the ground? Far from it! We grab with our toes, support ourselves with our toes, and keep our arches strong with our toes. Strong toes and the attaching muscles are essential for our stride and healthy feet. When you have strong toes, you have a strong foot. But in a shoe with toe-spring, there’s no way for our toes to spread, grab, or feel the ground. This atrophies all connecting muscles, making them incredibly weak. Wake up your toes too quickly and you’ll start tearing your feet apart.

Getting Strong for Five Fingers

If you let your skin be your guide, you’ll find you rarely go too far.  Instead, next time you get sore or tender, head for home.

Start barefoot, but remember to carry your shoes with you. Consider them your new "Hand Weights"!

Try this on your next run: Start out barefoot but carry your Five Fingers with you. Then, when your skin starts to fatigue, put on the Five Fingers and head SLOWLY for home. Don’t sprint home. Even if you only have a few hundred yards left to go, consider walking home.

As your feet toughen up, so will your muscles, connective tissue and more. You’ll also find your lightest stride possible.

There’s more to it than this, and great strength and conditioning exercises you can do for your feet and legs to make the transition go more quickly, but hopefully this is enough to get you going, and SAFELY in the right direction. For more on getting into the sport, and beginner and advanced technique alike, check out our book due out in March. Pre-orders are available on our limited first edition which you can find it at www.BarefootRunningBook.com. Also check out our clinics. We’ll have a full list of them later this spring, and will likely be traveling to an area near you.

Above all else, go slow and have fun. You’ll love your new ‘shoes’ be that the Five Fingers, or your incredibly strengthened new feet. And you’ll love your beaming new ear-to-ear grin, guaranteed to continue for years and years of running to come.

Have fun and we’ll catch YOU barefoot!!!

It should be an exciting and informative presentation. We’ll be talking about the latest science, including Dr. Daniel Lieberman’s new study, and the recent study from the University of Virginia.

The result of wearing ill fitting shoes for a lifetime.

Unshod Adult Bare Feet are wider in the forefoot, providing natural stability.

We’ll look at transitioning to barefoot running, proper form, the dangers of modern footwear, the benefits of minimalist footwear and what to look for, how to train barefoot, and much, much more.  
 
We’ll also be looking at how to overcome injuries and get back into the sport, injury free, and how to stay that way for a lifetime of running 

We’ve been doing a lot of research for our upcoming book, “Barefoot Running,” which we’ll be sharing as well, and will have a lengthy Q/A session to discuss concerns and questions on this topic.

Bring your questions, bring your shoes, and of course, bring your own bare feet.

This talk is free and open to everyone of all ages and abilities. We welcome everyone to join us. Above all else, we hope you have fun, and learn something to bring back to your training.

A Review of Dr. Daniel E. Lieberman’s study, “Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners”

~Includes an exclusive interview

By Michael Sandler

The long awaited study by Harvard Scientist Dr. Dan Lieberman, is hot off the press on the cover of the British Science Journal Nature.

For years Dr. Lieberman and his colleagues have been looking at the evolution of man in terms of his capacity to run and potential history as endurance or ‘persistence’ hunters, capable of running animals to exhaustion as they hunted their prey.

The hypothesis is that as ancient man left the trees and the jungle, he adapted and became more of a runner than a climber. Many adaptations and changes took place, including, but not limited, to changes in the lower leg and foot.

In his latest study, Dr. Lierberman and his colleagues looked at the difference between barefoot runners and shod runners to understand the differences in form, efficiency, impact, and to try and better understand how we evolved into the bipedal runners we are today.

Below is a review of this article, including a full abstract. To purchase the complete article and see their extensive illustrations and citations, please visit Nature.com. It’s well worth it.

Executive Summary:

By looking at populations of shod and unshod runners, researchers found that runners who land on their forefoot land with far less force and far greater efficiency than their heel-striking counterparts. They found that while modern running shoes afford greater cushioning and comfort for a rear-foot strike (and promote), it likely does little to mitigate the greater impact of this strike, or to reduce injuries. Further, they found that running barefoot has no greater impact when running on hard surfaces than soft.

In conclusion, modern running shoes may be dangerous because they promote a heel foot strike, which this study concludes produces far greater impact than landing on the forefoot. Combined with greater proprioception or ‘feel of the ground’ by running barefoot and stronger foot muscles, they believe barefoot running may help reduce the chance of injury, but that further studies are necessary to test this hypothesis.

With the average runner striking the ground almost 1000 times per mile, runners are highly susceptible to repetitive stress injuries.

In short, forefoot striking, whether in or out of a shoe is best, while today’s most common form of running ‘heel striking’, promoted by the running shoe industry and modern running shoe design, can get you in a lot of trouble.

Abstract:

Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s. For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning relative to modern running shoes. We wondered how runners coped with the impact caused by the foot colliding with the ground before the invention of the modern shoe. Here we show that habitually barefoot endurance runners often land on the fore-foot (fore-foot strike) before bringing down the heel, but they sometimes land with a flat foot (mid-foot strike) or, less often, on the heel (rear-foot strike). In contrast, habitually shod runners mostly rear-foot strike, facilitated by the elevated and cushioned heel of the modern running shoe. Kinematic and kinetic analyses show that even on hard surfaces, barefoot runners who fore-foot strike generate smaller collision forces than shod rear-foot strikers. This difference results primarily from a more plantarflexed foot at landing and more ankle compliance during impact, decreasing the effective mass of the body that collides with the ground. Fore-foot- and mid-foot-strike gaits were probably more common when humans ran barefoot or in minimal shoes, and may protect the feet and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries now experienced by a high percentage of runners.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7280/full/nature08723.html

How the Study was Performed:

Dr. Dan Lieberman set out to determine the differences between running barefoot and running in shoes.

He studied five subject groups, both indoors and outdoors at endurance speeds between 4 to 6 meters per second (Michael do the math). These groups included three adult groups, first habitually barefoot runners from the US, runners from the Rift Valley Province of Kenya who grew up barefoot but now run primarily in cushioned shoes (this is a region famous for it’s endurance athletes) and US runners who grew up in shoes but now run primarily barefoot or in minimalist footwear. It also included two adolescent groups from the Rift Valley, the first who have never worn shoes and the second who have worn shoes their entire lives.

Trials were done both indoors and outside. Indoor tests were performed along a 20 to 25 meter long indoor track where runners ran over a force plate. Outdoor tests were performed along a 20-25 meter outdoor track of hard dirt using a video camera.

(Full methods and any associated references are available in the online version of the paper at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7280/full/nature08723.html).

Summary:

This study is geared to compare the foot strike mechanics (called kinematics) in habitually barefoot versus shod runners. In the past, studies have found that barefoot runners land ‘flatter’ than their shod compatriots, but a detailed study of the foot strike was never taken.

According to this study, running is most dangerous at the moment the foot contacts the ground, and there are three main ways this occurs. There is a heel foot strike (HFS), where the heel contacts first, a mid-foot strike (MFS), where the heel and forefoot strike simultaneously, and a forefoot strike where the forefoot comes down first.

While the majority of sprints are forefoot strikers, the vast-majority, 75-80% of all endurance runners are heel strikers.

The study found that ‘magnitudes of peak vertical force during the impact period are approximately three times lower in habitual barefoot runners who forefoot strike than in habitually shod runners who rear foot strike either barefoot or in shoes. In essence, that running barefoot has 1/3 of the impact of running with a rear foot strike in a shoe.

However, it also found that when comparing habitual barefoot runners to traditional shod heel strikers whose shoes are removed, the heel striker (when barefoot) hits the ground with 7 times the impact loading.

In an exclusive interview with Dr. Lieberman earlier today, here’s what he had to say about the forces involved and he difference between barefoot running and running in a shoe:

“Running is jumping from one foot to the other, one foot at a time, so when you run and your foot hits the ground, a certain part of your body comes to a dead stop. Force is mass times acceleration, there is mass that stops, and a certain change in velocity that occurs, too.”

“In the barefoot runner who heel strikes, the typical impact force that you’ll get landing on your heel is two times your body weight, essentially the same as hitting your heel with a hammer with two times your body weight.”

“So if you land (with a heel strike) with a shoe on, you have basically the same force (perhaps 10% less as a little force is dampened by the shoe) so the magnitude of the force is the same, wearing a shoe or not when heel striking.”

“But when you land with a barefoot running style (much more of a forefoot strike), then the actual magnitude, or the height of that peak, is half the body weight, much less collision force is occurring.

If you look at the rate of loading of that force, how fast that force ramps up, which many people think is the primary cause of injury (nobody knows for sure), the rate of loading, when you run barefoot and heel strike is 450 bodyweights per second—that’s fast.

The reason a shoe is comfortable is that it has a lot of elastic elements in the heel and it slows the rate of loading when heel-striking to about 70 bodyweights per second.

However barefoot runners (most of them) had about 30 bodyweights per second.

The point is that when you run barefoot you can have magnitudes of loading that are much lower than running in a shoe, and rates of loading that are equal to or lower than wearing a shoe…which is why it’s comfortable and potentially less injurious.”

This is what we’ve been finding through our research for our barefoot running book and teaching at our clinics. As the study finds, when you get off of the heel, you can use your leg as a natural shock-absorber, rather than relying on a half-inch or inch of rubber under your heel to absorb all of the bone-jarring impact.

The study goes on to say that ‘modern running shoes are designed to make rear foot strike running comfortable and less injurious by using elastic materials in a large heal to absorb the force and spread it out over a longer time (in essence to make it less injurious).

The trials confirm reports that shod runners who grew up wearing shoes tend to stay with a heel strike (striking just slightly flatter) when out of a shoe, but that those who ‘grew up barefoot or switched to barefoot running most often used forefoot strike landings followed by heel contact (toe-heel-to running) in both barefoot and shod conditions. Mid-foot strike landings were sometimes used in barefoot conditions.

Specific Points:

1^st Point – Higher Impact and Lower Efficiency When Heel Striking

Based on the study, a heel strike converts little impact into forward or ‘rotational energy’ instead transmitting the energy up through the body. In contrast, a forefoot strike decreased impact by storing energy in the muscles of the calf and the achilles tendon, and rebounding it in rotational kinetic energy. In short, running on the heel increases impact (up to three times the impact force of forefoot landing, and up to 7 times the impact loading of running barefoot) and decreases efficiency (causing a braking effect with each stride) while running on the forefoot decreases impact and increases efficiency, by translating stored kinetic energy in the muscles into rotational or forward propulsion.

In essence, if you picture your stride as a wheel, when running with your heel down, you’re running with a cogged or geared wheel, hitting hard and stopping with each stride. When you’re running with a forefoot stride, your impact is less, and is translated into rotational force, spinning the wheel and moving you forward.

Second Point – Barefoot Runners Lower Center of Gravity to Reduce Impact

The study found that barefoot runners suffered no greater impact when landing on hard surfaces than soft surfaces. This is because forefoot runners lowered their centers of gravity more (bent their knees and ankles more) or were more ‘compliant’ to the ground than their rear foot striking compatriots. This allows barefoot runners to ‘adjust leg stiffness depending on surface hardnesses.

This point dispels the myth that we could once run barefoot on the Savanna, but cannot do so on harder ‘modern’ surfaces such as asphalt and pavement as the study found ‘no significant differences in rates or magnitudes of impact loading in barefoot runners on hard surfaces relative to cushioned surfaces’.

Point Three – We Evolved to Run on Our Forefoot

Natural selection suggests that if endurance running was important to our survival, then forefoot running come about to protect the foot and reduce the chance of injury.

While barefoot runners or those who wear minimalist shoes avoid rear foot landings and the associated impacts, in contrast, most shod runners today land almost exclusively on their heels.

From an evolutionary perspective, the study theorizes that ancient man, such as the early Australopithecus afarensis had an enlarged heel and probably walked with a rear foot strike, but was missing many features of the modern foot, such as a strong longitudinal arch.

They found that a strong longitudinal arch which acts as a spring, storing and releasing energy, would have increased performance in a forefoot strike or perhaps mid-foot strike, but not for a rear-foot strike. This not only would have better protected the runner, but likely accounts for the ‘lower (economical) cost of barefoot running relative to shod running’. In short, the longitudinal arch (if not locked in a shoe with arch support) helps us rebound with each stride, reducing the amount of energy necessary to run.

Study Conclusion:

Dr. Lieberman believes this study may have far reaching health consequences and that further studies are necessary.

While ‘the average runner strikes the ground 600 times per kilometer, making runners prone to repetitive stress injuries.’ ‘the incidence of such injuries has remained considerable for 30?years despite technological advancements that provide more cushioning and motion control in shoes designed for heel–toe running.’

He believes that while cushioned, high-heeled running shoes may be comfortable, they limit the amount one can feel the ground, making it harder to mitigate impact, and easier for runners to land on their heels. He goes on to say that running shoes may weaken foot muscles and arch strength through reliance on arch supports and stiffened soles and that this weakness itself may contribute to ‘excessive pronation’ and plantar Fasciitis.

Both Dr. Lieberman and his colleagues, along with Dr. William L. Jungers who published a biomechanical editorial in this issue of nature (which we’ll be reviewing shortly) entitled ‘Barefoot running strikes back’ agree that more study is necessary on injury rates between barefoot runners and their shod compatriots.

‘Although there are anecdotal reports of reduced injuries in barefoot populations, controlled prospective studies are needed to test the hypothesis that individuals who do not predominantly RFS either barefoot or in minimal footwear, as the foot apparently evolved to do, have reduced injury rates.’

We agree and look forward to future studies.

More on this exciting topic to come, as well as more specifics on Dr. Lieberman’s new findings.

The Study: http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/
Harvard Magazine discussing barefoot running last Summer: http://harvardmagazine.com/updates/lieberman-barefoot-running-shoes
More of Dr. Dan Lieberman’s research: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~skeleton/PDFList.html

References

1. Bramble, D. M. & Lieberman, D. E. Endurance running and the evolution of Homo. Nature 432, 345–352 (2004) | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
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So, it’s the dead of Winter. The air temperature has finally climbed into the 40’s, but the ground’s still as cold as ice.  Plus, it looks like snow is in the forecast this week. “Wait, I’m not ready for barefoot running in snow!” you exclaim.  The fact of the matter is we can’t always go barefoot when we want to, especially as beginners.  And, that’s when you start eyeing that trusty treadmill.

Can you run barefoot on a treadmill? The answer is, “Yes,” and it’s not a bad idea if it’s the only way you can get barefoot running. But, please, please, please proceed with caution and consider the issues below before you get started.

Issue #1: The Treadmill Belt Comes at You

There are several mechanical challenges going on with a treadmill. Because it’s coming toward you, rather than you toward it, your mechanics often change from propulsion to deceleration. In other words, we find it hard to spring off of our toes, but instead often have force driving through our toes.

Solution:

You can help avoid this by decreasing speed, while increasing incline, naturally putting you up on your forefoot. Over the course of a run, you can gradually begin to decrease the incline and increase the pace. This way, you should still be able to spring off of your toes.

Issue #2: Running on a Treadmill is Running in a Tight Space

Personally, I find it difficult to keep up on my toes properly when it looks like I’ll land on the plastic in front of me.

Solution:

To overcome this, back up a good foot from where you’d normally run on the treadmill, to give your mind the space you need to stride correctly (chances are, it’s one of perception, NOT of reality, but your toes may think you don’t have enough room to come down correctly when you’re so close to the machine.) Trick here, make sure you can reach the control panel or safety rails and more importantly, make sure you’re not so far back you may wind up running off the machine.

Issue #3: Treadmills Lack Relief

There’s no relief on a treadmill. The surface, not the angle, is always perfectly flat. This means your feet don’t have natural relief in the terrain that lets one muscle group work a little more, and another rest a bit. In other words, when you’re on a dirt trail, or even all but the flattest of bike paths, your feet are constantly making small adjustments for the terrain, and these adjustments help prevent overuse fatigue by resting different muscles with each stride.

On a treadmill, there is no relief, so it’s quite common to develop an overuse injury running the SAME distance you were comfortable running outside. Why? Because step after step after step are IDENTICAL. The lack of relief can get you.

Solution:

So if you’re starting out on a treadmill, and since there are no ‘all-terrain’ treadmills in existence (at least not to my knowledge), vary the speed and incline as much as possible. For myself, I like changing the angle a little bit each minute. For instance, warm up for 3-5 minutes with the machine flat, then throw it up to a 7% to 10% grade, then with each minute, decrease the grade by 1% as you increase speed slightly. Another variation would be to have an interval setting where it changes the speed every minute – fast, then slow, then fast again.

Any change is good when you’re on a treadmill. Even if you’re focused on long, steady speed, steady on a treadmill can be dangerous until you’re ready.

Issue #4: Treadmill Belts Get Toasty

Additionally, those belts are coarser than you think. When you’re running on a treadmill and sense something burning, LOOK DOWN. Chances are, it’s your pads (the thickened skin and fat deposits on the bottom of your foot).

Solution:

I’d recommend starting with 3-5 minutes your first day, and then adding a minute or two each day afterwards. If your pads are cooked, it’s likely you cooked everything beneath as well (muscles, tendons, ligaments).

Remember, even on a treadmill, stand tall, land on your forefoot, engage your core and take short natural steps. One of the keys to barefoot running and staying healthy isn’t stride length, but leg speed. Shorter, lighter strides always win when it comes to a lifetime of healthy, injury free running.

All runners can benefit from practicing Yoga; these articles are written with minimalist runners in mind-specifically, those who run barefoot. Runners who are considering ditching their shoes will find Yoga can help with the transition and with keeping conditioned after making the change. Those who already have will find Yoga’s benefits are just as significant as they ply the course sans shoes. So why not adopt an exercise that lets you be barefoot off the course as well as on it? No matter what your skill level in Yoga or running, these short sets will be a convenient compliment to established routines and new programs alike.

This is part I of a four-part series of articles about Yoga for runners. In all four articles of the series, we’ll focus on the same four goals:

• Stretching to prevent injury
• Lengthening muscles for more complete, effective muscle building
• Building strength for barefoot running
• Creating good running mobility that respects the body’s natural construction

Stretching to prevent injury is a principle that’s applicable to  any sport, but even more important for the minimalist runner.  When you run, you are lengthening and contracting your muscles. Contracting the muscles ultimately leads to making them shorter. If they become too short, they can get torn when they are lengthened during exercise, no matter how strong they are.      

Lengthening the muscles means using stretches to keep them longer when they are relaxed as well as when they are in, which not only reduces injury risk but also makes a bigger area of muscle that can be built and developed. Rather than confining muscle build up to a bulge in one small area, the entire, lengthened muscle can be developed. A larger area of muscle means more ability to absorb impact during exercise, which protects joints, tendons and ligaments, as well as more muscle area in which we can build strength.

Increasing strength is something specifically needed for barefoot running. Running barefoot or in minimalist shoes involves muscles that are hardly used when wearing regular running shoes. More motion in the feet and legs with minimalist running calls for more counter tension to be provided by the muscles as they spring back with each stride, even if there is no change in stride length after the shoes are off.  

And once the barefoot runner moves past the beginner stage, s/he starts to use those previously dormant muscles far more intensely. So we need to be aware of how those muscles move, and build those muscles thoughtfully, with respect to our own body’s unique construction and natural range of motion. When we take this approach we’ll become aware of our bodily limitations and also of our evident potential for success that our bodies were naturally built for, and that’s our fourth goal.

So let’s look at three basic Yoga postures (also know as “asanas”) which will help us meet our goals. 

• Sitting Forward Bend
• King Pigeon Pose
•  Warrior Stance

NOTE: For comfort and safety Yoga should be practiced on a stable, level surface that is not slippery. When indoors, a Yoga mat is recommended. As always, consult a medical professional before beginning any exercise program. 

The first is a sitting forward bend (Pascimottanasana). You probably do this one already as part of your pre-run stretches, but let’s look at it from a Yogic perspective. Sit with your legs together and outstretched, with your torso perpendicular to the ground. Your legs should be straight, but keep your knee joints very soft and never locked. Each time you inhale, bend your body forward a little bit. Let your stomach be relaxed and keep your spine as straight as possible. We’re not trying to aim our heads over our knees. Rather, we are trying to bring our relaxed stomachs over the tops of our thighs. This exercise will give an intense stretch of the hamstrings, so be gentle, listen to your body, and don’t push too far if you feel pain. Work to edge of limitation slowly and steadily, being very aware of how you feel. Work into your fullest expression of the posture and hold for three relaxed breaths. 

Our second posture is the King Pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana). It will help strengthen and lengthen your thighs so they can be the shock absorber you’ll need as barefoot running increases leg motion. Kneel on the floor; then extend the right leg backward. Sit on your left foot, or if mobility permits, sit on your left buttock and the outside of the left thigh. Right thigh should be relaxed so that it stretches between the hip socket and the knee. Knee faces the floor; so does the top of the right foot. Avoid strain. Pay special attention to right thigh, sacral area and left hip socket. Be aware of your mobility range and respect your limitations to prevent strain. When you reach your fullest expression of the pose, hold for three relaxed breaths. Repeat on other side. Work up to where you can spend 30 seconds in the pose on each side.

We’ll stand for our third pose, the Warrior stance (Virabhdrasana). This posture builds strength to the muscles in the ankle, an essential foundation for barefoot running. It also builds leg strength and provides stability to the knees. Stand with your feet approximately three feet apart. Rotate the right foot outward 90 degrees. Rotate left foot inward about 30 degrees. Rotate torso the face the direction that the right foot is pointing to. Be conscious of your breath and slow your breathing so that it feels relaxed. Using you pelvic muscles for support, let your inner thighs begin to stretch gently. Gentle bend the right knee and allow your right shin to be perpendicular to the floor in all directions. Be sure to keep your knee joint “stacked” directly above your ankle joint to prevent ligament strain in the knee. Let your back relax and your front torso stretch slightly. Keep weight distributed evenly on back and front foot and avoid strain. Pose should be comfortable. When you reach your fullest expression of the pose, hold for three relaxed breath, and then come out of the position by straightening the right knee and returning to initial stance. Rest and repeat on other side. Work up to where you can spend 20 seconds in the pose on each side.

 Integrate this routine into your regular stretching routine for best results.

Pat Guyton Pilates, 3825 Iris Ave., Suite 300, Boulder, 303-449-7284, patguytonpilates.com/ and runbare.com/

Isaac Darnell does a core lift / sit up during a pilates seminar for barefoot or minimal runners at the Pat Guyton Pilates in Boulder on Sunday January 10, 2010. For more photos of the workout of the week go to http://www.dailycamera.com.

Instructor: This clinic was hosted by Pat Guyton Pilates in conjunction with Run Bare, which is a local barefoot running school and community. Guyton, 60, of Boulder, and Jan Dunn, 60, of Superior, taught the clinic. Guyton is a Franklin Method Level I instructor and has been teaching Pilates for 26 years. Dunn is a Franklin Method Level II teacher and has been teaching Pilates for 20 years. Michael Sandler, 39, of Boulder and the head coach and co-founder of Run Bare, and Jessica Lee, 29, of Boulder and the president and co-founder of Run Bare were also in attendance to answer questions about barefoot running and their company, which started summer 2009. They also run a barefoot running club (meetup.com/Barefoot-Running-Club) and have a book, “Barefoot Running,” due out in March (barefootrunningbook.com/).

What is the workout? Eric Franklin developed the Franklin Method 25 years ago in Sweden. The method employs the use of imagery in relation to functional movement. By doing so, participants are better able to understand how and why the body moves the way it does, why breath is important, and how to use positive imagery to improve movement and performance.

Joseph Pilates developed his method in the early 1900s. Pilates is a mind-body exercise regimen that promotes good posture, body awareness and functional movement by increasing flexibility and core strength.

The goal of this workshop was to show barefoot and/or minimalist runners how to use the principles of the Franklin Method and Pilates during their runs to enhance their workouts…

…One new move: One visualization we did that really helped me to was to envision a hot air balloon basket. Now place that basket in your pelvic bowl, which is the space right under your public bone and from hip to hip (we spent quite some time defining this area of the body in specific terms and these cues are rather broad, but they’re good enough for this exercise). Now, as you walk, imagine that basket floating up. Do you feel how imagining this causes your abs to tighten and your sacrum to dip under and in? That feeling is exactly what that image is supposed to create and the position your pelvis should be in when you run. According to Sandler, getting your pelvis under you when you run in shoes is nearly impossible because most running shoes have a lifted heel, which puts a curve in the low back and causes the pelvis to flare.

Read more…