If you have ever decided to run for exercise, fun, or sport, you more than likely didn’t think twice before lacing up your shoes and heading out. Unfortunately, you probably also didn’t think twice about the significance of those shoes when you got back home and had to perform your post exercise ritual of stretch/massage/ice/roll/heat/ice again.
For years the running shoe industry has worked to make a softer, more absorbing pairs of sneakers, hiking the price with each new shock absorbing air bubble they added. The problem: it doesn’t seem that any of this new technology has helped. It turns out, our painful relationship with running is not that our shoes are lacking in support or cushioning, rather, it is that they have fundamentally changed the way our feet function. Let’s take the stride for example. In populations where barefoot running (or barefoot living!) is the norm, they would never think to reach out with their leg and land on the heel with each stride, it would be too painful. With the invention of the running shoe (big soft heel) the heel strike was invented and the modern runner was born: very dedicated, but chronically plagued by injury.
Now, the training style for endurance sports is a topic that should be saved for another day—another contributing factor to the injury cycle of endurance athletes—but today we will focus on the shoe.
So back to the heel strike, what’s the big deal? The big deal is the shock wave of force that your body has to absorb each time you take a stride. As shown by Daniel E. Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, this force is upwards of 2x your body weight and is demonstrated in a series of clips on his webpage:
With each stride (roughly 1500 per mile) you are not only enduring a violent force with each leg, but you are also dissipating that force primarily through your bone structure (heel bone’s connected to the ankle bone, connected to the shin bone, connected to the knee bone, etc.) Now look at the clips of the forefoot strike (as is natural when barefoot). As you can see, there are two key differences. First, the force wave is much smoother with no initial jolt at impact, and second, now your leg is in an optimal position to dissipate force through the lengthening of muscles & tendons in the calf and thigh.
So hopefully we can tell that heel strike is not the best thing for us, but as you can see, shoes do not make you heel strike (though they do encourage it with the shape of the sole). Plus, shoes are not just for running in, they are for walking too. So are shoes always a bad thing? Well no, but I do believe that the less the better. While there has not been much research on the general use of athletic shoes, I have some of my own theories why they might not be very good no matter what the activity.
There was a great quote that I once read about the foot and how the author found it funny that people we often so concerned about arch support in their shoes. This is something that I hear all the time when I talk with people about spending most of their time either without shoes, or in very thin soled shoes. In his view, this argument did not make sense because in the world of architecture, there is no structure more beautiful or structurally sound than the arch. We rely on them every day as arches are invariably helping to hold up our homes, offices and overpasses. I think the most revealing structure to think about is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The beauty of an arch is that as more pressure is pressed down on it, the stronger it gets. So let’s now think of our foot as that Gateway Arch. What would happen if we “supported” the arch by placing force from the bottom? It would fall apart! And that is what I believe is a key factor in many of the problems people face in their feet. Fallen arches, flat feet, plantar fasciitis, all have to do with the muscles and tendons in the feet not functioning properly because they are too weak. Well (in my opinion), of course they are weak! We spend our whole lives putting upward supportive pressure on a structure that was designed to thrive on its own. The more I research and the more I experience barefoot activity in my own life, as well as the in the lives around me, the more I believe in the ability of the foot to do better on its own than with a piece of equipment attached.
But don’t take my word for it, try it out! That is the best part about going barefoot, it’s free! Now I would start slow and find a nice grass field to do some walking/jogging around, but try not to do too much because your feet and calves will not be happy! If you really get into it and want a little extra protection, I would recommend Vibram FiveFingers. They are a little quirky, but at least you can blend in a little more than if you were just walking around barefoot all the time!
I would also like to say that a big part of my inspiration in researching this topic was brought on by the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. I have a link to it in my continuing education sidebar and I highly encourage all of you to read it. Even if you do not agree with barefoot running, it is a great read that is exciting, thought-provoking, and inspirational.
Please let me know if you try out barefoot activities and what changes you feel in your life and your feet! Thanks and happy running.
Colin
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