Essay on "barefoot"

A well written and credible view on the whole barefoot thing, including good references, healthy cynicism, and good prose.

This was sent to me by my nephew in the USA, who follows the hairy author - can you name him?

Minimalistic Running Shoes - The Big Debate

The theories into minimalist shoes and barefoot running are everywhere, and everyone has an opinion. It works for some people and it doesn’t for others. But there are a few interesting things to think about relating to changing footwear and going for the more fashionable and up to date craze.

In the western society, we all have been wearing shoes since we could walk. Our feet have adapted to this, and removing this protection could potentially be detrimental. If you have been a heel toe runner for your whole running life, then buying a pair of minimalist trainers forces you to run on the balls of your feet. Now, running on the balls of your feet is supposed to be quicker which has been backed up with some research, but how does the body cope with changing from having a huge support and padding at the heel of a trainer to having no protection and running on the ball of the foot? The answer is, you can get away with it, some peoples bodies (especially if you are younger) can cope with the change, at the same time there are many people who can’t. The pressure is increased on the foot, so stress fractures can occur, the Achilles tendon has to absorb more force which it isn’t used to doing as well as altering the biomechanics all the way up the leg. It may be quicker, but if your injured it doesn’t matter how much quicker it is because you can’t race to find out.

This is not to say I am against minimalist shoes, it is just the fact that you need to change your technique to be able to cope with the change in footwear. Changing from a heel toe to ball of the foot running takes time.    

Race for Life and bare feet!

Life has been a bit hectic this last week, so apologies for the lateness of my post. So Jessie (my nine year old daugter) and I and her pals ran The Race for Life a week last Saturday. We ran in the afternoon in glorious sunshine. I have to admit I thought it was going to be a bit of a mud bath after the torrential rain we had in the morning. I felt for the morning runners doing the Race for Life 10k.

We fought through the crowds and got round the 5k route, but it was a bit of a truggle for Jess. I joked in my last post that Jess might run bare foot if she didn’t wear her trainers at least once before the race. (She had been refusing to wear them despite loving them when we bought them). But that’s exactly what happened. Last year she flew round the course wearing basic kiddies trainers from Clarks. This year she was wearing new “clumpy” trainers,  if that’s the word to use, but she struggled and moaned so much that I said, “right, take off those trainers and run bare foot!” and that’s exactly what she did. In fact her mate did the same and all of a sudden they were racing ahead. They loved it and their feet felt so much better on the cool soft grass. They got lots of cheers from the crowd as they ran along in their muddy socks.

I think she should just wear her daps next time or just a very basic plimsoll/running shoe. Just goes to show these fancy trainers aren’t all what they are cracked up to be. Does anyone have any tips on running shoes for kids? Obviously Jessie is only nine and wouldn’t normally be running 5k, but it would be interesting to hear if any other parents have had similar problems. She had her Sports Day this week and wore her daps. No problems with these.

The great footwear debate - Part 1

Given the number of questions I’ve been asked about this lately, I thought I’d give my thoughts on footwear quality, needs and prices.

Professionally, I see alot of runners with footwear of variable quality and wear. They recieve many contradictory messages on shoes. Having seen patients in everything from £150+ trainers to 1980s Nikes with holes in the soles, I’ve come to the same conclusion our tutors espoused at University. It’s not about what the shoe costs, it’s about how the shoe fits you, how it fits your purpose and how long you have been wearing it for.

When buying new shoes, it’s easy to get carried away with technology, foot scans and flashy colours, but the things I tell my patients to look for are:

• A firm heel counter, especially if they tend to ‘roll in’ (overpronate)
• Support under the arch, again more important if they overpronate. If they have high arches (oversupinate), runners can still benefit from small degree of arch support if running longer distances
• Good quality materials – most recognised brands have this, but it’s worth running and jumping around in the shoes before you buy them to make sure they have alot of ‘give’        

Overall, comfort is key. It overrides almost all other considerations.

If you’ve got problems with your running or an injury and think shoes could be an issue, seek professional advice from an accredited running coach or sports physio.  

I also get asked alot about barefoot running – I’ll leave that for another day, but I would say I’m concerned about people running without support when they don’t go shoe-less any other time.

A bit more on barefoot

Following my recent post about my outing without shoes (which did result in sore calves a couple of days later, in a healthy feeling kind of way), I thought I would post a link to an article from the excellent New York Times “Phys Ed” section.

I think it sums things up really well. To quote the final statement from Daniel Lieberman:

I disagree with the notion that somehow modern runners are biomechanically disadvantaged and require fancy, expensive shoes. But I also reject the notion that we should return to life in the Stone Age. If you want to wear shoes, that’s fine, but if you want to try barefoot or in a minimal shoe running, you might really enjoy it.

You can read more here.