VIVOBAREFOOT Training Clinic: Making Sense of Barefoot Running

Lee Saxby's training manual is available for download.  Looks like you must fill out a form that guarantees you'll get junk emails :).  But worth it.  Topics covered:

1. We have forgotten how to run
2. the human foot is an evolutionary masterpiece
3. Proprioception: Our sixth sense
4. Footwear that makes sense
5. Reawaken your innate barefoot running skill

Link Here

Funny: Persistance Hunt, The Real Story

Sorry the footage is low-res, but I think it tells the story!

Dogs Are Paleo

No, please don't eat your dog!  I mean Paleolithic man was already domesticating canis lupus familiaris - the 'dawg' ;).  Early man would take whatever help they could get - such as following scavenging birds to recent kills, or watching fleeing prey to get a head start on fleeing themselves!  When wolves came close foraging through our trash, they would eventually trust some humans and vice versa.  According to Steven Hawking, without writing a species learns ONE bit of information er generation.  Dogs learned bit by bit that their relationship with man could be symbiotic. They help support us in a hunt and we'd share the spoils.  It was a somewhat simple migration of logic, they are pack animals, and man seemed dominate and a leader to them.  


In the 1950s, an interesting experiment was done in Russia. Wild foxes were bred for friendliness, and within a very short time (only 5-10 generations), the foxes not only became very friendly, but they developed very dog-like appearances. Floppy ears, big eyes, and unfoxlike colors.  The conclusion of this experiement was that what was needed for this 'obedience' or coexistence with man was their 'eternal' immaturity. It's similar to the story of how you can live with a chimpanzee until it hits puberty - after that it's as likely to tear your face off as it is to play with you.


Dogs have been with us so long, their relationship extends beyond perpetual immaturity.  Recent experiments show the capability of a dog to understand a human goes much further.  A dog is the ONLY animal that understands that we're pointing to something.  They are 'eye' focussed when looking at us.  Try this, if you have a dog, just keep looking to one direction and see if they get curious to what's over there.  This coexisting relationship is long process and it flooded me when i went on a run with my dog today.  She's been living alone with my son for a while.  She's not very leash trained and HATES other dogs. I swear, if I took her off the leash she'd "escape" or get hit by a car :(.  BUT... when we run together, it comes ALL together.  She notices a me making a subtle change in direction and is happy to oblige, her face is lit up in what seems like a smile (sorry for the personification) and tongue out for cooling.  If she heads the wrong way in the woods, a small click from me and she bounds my way.  It is as if she and I are 'on the hunt' and she knows it!  Your dog knows that feeling, maybe better than YOU do. Take your dog out and show him/her a sample of their past - make them think you're on the hunt.  


Sources:  The Human Spark, The Origin of the Domestic Dog, Jessie-Girl the animal-dog

Improving Ankle Stability For Off-Road Running

This piece first appeared in the August issue of Competitor Magazine.

Written by: Matt Fitzgerald

A small amount of barefoot running each week will strengthen your feet.

You need three things to minimize your risk of twisting an ankle when running off-road: stronger foot and ankle muscles, better balance and improved proprioception, or body awareness.

The simplest way to strengthen your foot muscles and some of your ankle stabilizers is to do a small amount of barefoot running each week. About 20 minutes of unshod jogging on grass or your home treadmill will do the trick.

To improve your balance and proprioception while also strengthening your ankle stabilizing muscles, try pillow balancing. Place a bed pillow on the floor and stand on it with one foot. Try to go for 30 seconds without touching your other foot down. If that’s too easy, try it with your eyes closed or stack pillows. One minute per foot every other day or so is plenty.

Balance boards such as the Fitterfirst Softboard or Indo Board are also great tools for training balance, proprioception and strengthening the ankle musculature. Time how long you can stay balanced on your board, and aim to improve your personal best every other day.

The 5 Ele­ments of Good Bare­foot Run­ning Form

Running is a mix of flexing and relaxing; a harmony of strength AND elasticity. Running is defined as 'a stride that results in both feet being off the ground at one time'.  The beauty of being off the ground is there's NO impact.  When it's time, and it should be brief, for your foot to land on the ground you get to choose how it lands and how long it's on the ground.  Let the foot fall, dont force it or push it.  As Gordon Pririe says in his "Running Fast and Injury Free", "Instead of looking for padding[in your shoes], learn to run properly, so that you stop punching holes in the ground with your feet."

1. Foot Placement (think of how a jet airliner comes in for a landing, the best pilot touch all three sets of wheels at once, you also have three set points in your soles and they all must touch down for a landing)

Per­haps the most doc­u­mented ele­ment of good run­ning form is a fore­foot strike. Daniel Lieber­man (click for the link of his famous shod running paper) has shown how land­ing on your fore­foot or mid­foot results in less shock than land­ing on your heel first. Whether you land fore­foot or mid­foot seems to be a mat­ter of pref­er­ence. When­ever you read fore­foot or mid­foot, just think ‘not heel’ first.

Exer­cise: Run­ning in Place

A good way to get a sense of what a foot landing feels like is to run in place. You’ll find it’s very hard to land on your heels first. Go ahead, try it. It’s just not effi­cient to land on your heels when you run in place. Your body nat­u­rally lands on its fore­foot when your feet touch the ground.

Com­mon Mis­take: No heel strike.

Now it might seem con­trary to this whole ele­ment to say that the com­mon mis­take of work­ing on fore­foot strikes is to not heel strike. The prob­lem with talk­ing about a fore­foot strike is that peo­ple think they are to only touch the ground with the fronts of their feet, run­ning ‘tippy-toed.’ This is not the case at all. If your heel doesn’t touch the ground at all you’re in for a world of hurt, in your calves and quite likely your achilles. You should land on your fore­foot first when your foot is strik­ing the ground, quickly fol­lowed by your heel touch­ing the ground for a split sec­ond. Only short-distance sprint­ers never let their heels touch the ground. As Michael San­dler puts it, let your heel ‘kiss’ the ground.  When I am 'at speed' I feel a bit like my feet are paint brushes stippling the ground beneath me. 

2. Slight Lean (relax your ankles as if it's a game of trust and you're falling while maintaining good posture.  Avoid Folding at the waist or eye contact with the ground in front of you - either will cause you to work harder)

 

Another impor­tant ele­ment of a good run­ning form is a slight lean for­wardby relaxing your ankles. The Pose tech­nique of run­ning, as taught by Dr. Ramanov, explains why lean­ing for­ward is an impor­tant part of run­ning effi­ciently. The idea is that by lean­ing for­ward you can use grav­ity to your advan­tage rather than fight­ing it. Instead of hav­ing to push your­self for­ward, you already have for­ward momen­tum when you work with grav­ity. It’s just a mat­ter of mov­ing your foot under you again as you ‘fall’ forward.

Exer­cise: Part­ner Lean (or Wall Lean if no partner)

Have some­one you trust (or who at least isn’t hold­ing a grudge against you!) stand in front of you a few feet away. Have them hold their arms out so they can place their hands on your shoul­ders when you lean a cou­ple of feet for­ward. Prac­tice lean­ing into them a few times to get the dis­tance right so they catch you just after you pass the “point of no return.” Then, look­ing straight ahead, body in a straight line, lean for­ward. Get used to how far you have to lean before you reach the point where you have to put a foot for­ward to catch your­self. Lean a lit­tle beyond this point, with your buddy catch­ing you. This will help you learn how to lever­age a lean to pro­pel your­self forward.

Com­mon Mis­take: Bend­ing at waist, not ankles.

Watch runners whenever you can (and if possible record yourself!). You often see run­ners hunched over, bent at their waist. This is caused by fatigue as well as a mis­un­der­stand­ing of what a lean should look like. If you bend at the waist you put a lot of stress on your lower back. It’s also not as much of a lean if only your top half is tilted, result­ing in a less effi­cient means to for­ward momen­tum. Make sure you are lean­ing at your ankles, not your waist or neck.

3. Cen­ter of Gravity

When your foot lands on the ground it should be under your cen­ter of grav­ity, not out in front of you. Land­ing with your foot in front of your cen­ter of grav­ity results in many problems:

• Your leg is locked out, this negates the use of your springy tendons in absorbing impact.  When your knees are locked and leg is in front of your center of gravity the only impact absorption in in the small cushions between your bones, they're not designed for that!
• Vector mechanics: you can't fight against physics!  A foot landing in front of you creates a force vector that includes absorbing your weight and braking your momentum (aka inertia) - why ADD to the force that your mass and gravity have offered? Landing under your body creates a force vector that contains ONLY your mass * gravity.  It is therefore the same regardless of your speed.

Exer­cise: Puppet-on-a-String

As you take a deep breath in, imag­ine that a string, pulling from your spine through your head is lift­ing your whole body straight up. As the string gets taut, your hips and feet fall into place so they align under your head. Now, the imag­i­nary string is let loose and you col­lapse. Do this exer­cise a cou­ple of times, pay­ing atten­tion to how it feels to have your head directly over your shoul­ders, your shoul­ders back, your chest up, your hips in a neu­tral posi­tion (not tilted for­ward nor back­ward), all rest­ing on your forefeet. Go ahead and stretch up onto your fore­foot as the string pulls you even higher. Then exhale and “crum­ple.” Do this sev­eral times.

Com­mon Mis­take: Being too tight, not bend­ing legs.

The above exer­cise helps you feel what hav­ing your whole body in align­ment over your cen­ter of grav­ity feels like. If you run like this, though, you will obvi­ously be too rigid and thus break­ing the car­di­nal rule of being relaxed. As you run, focus on land­ing your foot under your cen­ter of grav­ity, yet don’t for­get to be relaxed in your neck and shoulders.

4. Bent Knees

Our knees are meant to be bent upon foot landing. This allows all of our leg mus­cles to engage, result­ing in less shock to the rest of the body. You wouldn’t even con­sider jump­ing off a table – or even a sin­gle step – and land­ing with straight legs, would you? We need to make sure our legs are bent when we run, too. It makes for a much lighter land­ing with each step.

Exer­cise: Two-Foot Jumps

Place your feet next to each other, slightly apart. Then jump a few inches up into the air and land back in the same place. Were your knees bent or were they locked? I bet they were bent. Doesn’t even the thought of land­ing with locked knees give you the shud­ders? Ouch. The body knows to soften the impact by bend­ing your knees. Next, jump a foot in front of you. Over-exaggerate how bent your knees get after impact. Now jump two feet in front of you. Swing your arms and fin­ish your land­ing in the squat posi­tion. Try and land as softly and smoothly as pos­si­ble, like a cat does. You’ll notice that the more you bend your knees the softer you’ll land.

Com­mon Mis­take: Push­ing off with feet rather than pulling up legs. (It is obvious when someone is pushing off before lifting their foot as they tend to have more bounce, watch a woman's ponytail or head bounce of someone on a treadmill.  Any vertical component in your stride is wasted energy - you only get credit for the energy that propels you forward!)

Running is lifting your foot off the ground, not pushing up using toes or your calves.  Think of which leg muslces are the biggest/longest and use them first! So land with bent knees (which fires your quads) and use your ham­string mus­cles to lift your foot back off the ground (if you feel like your head is bob­bing up and down more than an inch, you’re push­ing off).  I always say in my head "pop-pop-pop-pop.." to the beat of lifting my heel towards my butt.  It's one of the few concentric (or tightening) muscles firings we do while running.  

5. High Cadence

This seems to be the tough­est con­cept for peo­ple to imple­ment. For what­ever rea­son, we have a much too slow cadence burned into our brains. Your cadence is the num­ber of times your foot lifts off the ground in a set amount of time, usu­ally a minute. No mat­ter your height or what speed you’re trav­el­ing at, 180 foot strikes per minute is about right. That’s 90 times your right foot hits the ground and 90 times your left foot hits the ground in 60 sec­onds. An easy way to count your own cadence is to count how many times your right foot lifts off the ground in 15 seconds.  A goal would be 22-23 counts.  


Note: I suggest counting foot lifts not footfalls because focussing on footfalls could cause you to plant your foot in time with your counts negating a gentle placement.


One rea­son this is so impor­tant is because your feet and legs can store energy after impact for a short period of time before that energy dis­si­pates (a sort of resonant frequency of the springyness in our legs and body). This Ele­ment is so impor­tant because it is in aid of each of the other Ele­ments. With a shorter stride you’re more likely to land under your cen­ter of grav­ity (#3), with bent knees (#4), and with a midfoot landing (#1).

Exer­cise: Baby Steps with Metronome

Use a metronome – there are many apps for this you can down­load to your cell phone – and set it at 180 or 90 beats per minute. Now run in place to the beat. Once you have a sense of what this feels like – how often your feet need to be tap­ping the ground – try adding for­ward move­ment by lean­ing for­ward. You’ll find that after awhile you can hear the beat in your head and don’t need to actu­ally lis­ten to it on a speaker.

Com­mon Mis­take: Run­ning faster, with long strides.

A higher cadence doesn’t mean you need to run faster. Just shorten your stride. In fact, you shouldn’t change how many foot-strikes you have per minute, no mat­ter what speed you are run­ning at. Over-exaggerate how short your stride is when run­ning to begin with. Think baby steps. This will help you keep your stride short.  Many runners new to this complain that it takes more effort to maintain 180 stride per minute - this too shall pass! The quick cadence takes practice and proper muscle sequence to learn 'not to fight it' stay loose and slowly notice 

Wanna Take Part in a Barefoot Running Survey?

Attention barefoot runners!  The University of Delaware Running Laboratory would like to invite you to take part in a web based running survey in order to better understand the habits of the barefoot runner.  Your participation will involve 15 minutes of your time each month to fill out an online survey.  You will fill out one survey a month for a year, upon which your name will be entered into a raffle to win a GPS!  To qualify for this opportunity you must be relatively healthy, between the ages of 18 and 50 and run more than 10 miles/week.  You also must have been running barefoot for more than 6 months, and at least 50% of your mileage must be done completely barefoot.  Please contact Allison Altman at coordinator.runsurvey@gmail.com for more information.

Has Paleo Helped You (Ursula Grobler interview)

Paleo Endurance Athletes

Ursula Grobler:

"How has Paleo helped you?

"Ursula’s Answer: At first the amount of energy I had was noticeably different. I could hold a larger volume of training and recovery was faster. I also noticed how my nerves and cognitive ability kept sharp and those sluggish lulls in the day were being erased. My whole quality of life went up, with little things like my allergies that went away and I was sickless often. I was more productive and had more time for what I really wanted to do.

"With more training, I catapulted into the rowing scene breaking the world record on the Concept 2 rowing machine just three years after taking my first strokes at a “Learn to Row Class”. I learned to row at the age of 26 and now I’m standing in line as an Olympic hopeful for 2012. I believe diet had a huge part in making this dream, that I was told had passed me by, possible!..."

"...Do other athletes and/or coaches try to convert you to a ‘normal’ athlete’s diet (high carbs, low fat)?

"Ursula’s Answer: Not athletes. Most athletes are open to learn. Coaches want performance, so if you perform – then it’s your business how you eat. It’s when you don’t perform that they will start questioning your diet, but usually at this point it’s not the diet, there are other mental factors like lack of sleep and high cortisol levels that seem to be the hindrance. The most critical are medical doctors actually. Funny how that works out? The people who are thought to know the most about your workings don’t care about your well-being...."

NUTRITION - Sunny Blende Interview

Podcast here.  Sunny talks about what you should be eating before, during and after your training runs and ultra races. We also cover carbs, electrolytes, bonking, fatigue and ton of other information to help prepare you for your next ultra.

We recommend you grab a note pad, pen and comfortable chair, you’re about to become smarter runner and a smarter eater too!!

Sunny Blende has her own practice specializing in Sports and Fitness Nutrition. One of her many services includes individual consulting. Her website can be found at www.eat4fitness.com. Check out her article ‘Demystifying the Bonk’ here.

In the Words of a Champion (Salazar)

Salazar entered coaching and tried things like red blood cell saturation, fatigue analysis.  The MOST bang for the buck came when he simply critically looked at his athlete's form!  

Looking back, Salazar blames his form for his decline. “The way I ran, it wasn’t sustainable,” he said. “The attitude at the time was: if you were gifted with perfect form, great. If you weren’t, you were just kind of stuck.” While a runner with an awkward stride might win a few races, Salazar argues now, he’s ultimately doomed to break down: “The knee injury, the hamstring injury—in hindsight, these were the things that killed me.”  Salazar found his running performance unsustainable:  

Salazar’s interest in form began in 2006. Watching a race on TV, he was struck by something distinctive in the stride of an Ethiopian racer named Kenenisa Bekele, the world record holder in both the five thousand metres and the ten thousand metres. Scrutinizing Bekele’s body on the screen, Salazar noticed that he didn’t arc his back leg up slowly between strides but instead retracted it sharply, like a piston. “While all these other runners had long, trailing legs, his foot was coming right up to his butt,” Salazar recalled. “I thought, Is that just coincidence? Or could that perhaps be part of why he’s so good?

The fastest finishers had a higher thigh drive, for one thing; at its apex, their femur bone was almost parallel to the ground, like the front legs of a bounding deer. They also slapped the ground so quickly with their forefoot that the contact seemed almost incidental. According to Walker, the short slap transfers force more efficiently, shooting it from the ground forward into the pelvis, rather than allowing it to dissipate in the flex of the foot. The effect, Walker says, is like “a pogo stick with a stiff spring.” He explained, “You want the chain of force to travel from the ground through the body with minimal energy loss. That’s what it means to run efficiently.”Read more 


I think about my feet barely swiping the ground beneath me as I run (esp at speed).  When things are just right I am brushing the ground like a 3" paint brush.  ..Stuff to think about from the pros.

Marketers Sprint to Join Lightweight-Running Craze

lol, 'pumagility', 'reeflex'.  These PR firms weigh in on this sudden surge of minimalistic footwear, it's a game changer to be sure:


"Once you've made the transition [to a minimal or lightweight product] it's difficult to go back," said Katherine Petrecca, collection manager for New Balance's minimal line. "What will happen in the more mainstream channels remains to be seen, but in performance and specialty channels, it's here to stay."


New Balance, which launched its Minimus collection in March, used 3point5.com, a training portal, to educate store employees, and is running an ad campaign with the tag, "Like barefoot only better." It also has "how to transition" guides at point of purchase. 


Puma will be launching a lightweight-training product dubbed "Pumagility," supported by a campaign that will include TV buys. "[The space is] very cluttered, so we have to bring our point of view. You have to start doing things a little bit of-calendar to build some buzz and excitement," she said, acknowledging that Black Friday and the holidays are not typically major marketing periods for performance footwear.


Reebok also plans to dial up ads around the holidays, re-airing TV spots that supported the launch of its ReeFlex lightweight product earlier this year. The campaign, which turns the 76 "sensors" on the bottom of the shoes into animated "running buddies,"


entire article here

Cool, Get To See Local News Senationalism About Barefoot Running

You know the stories: "are our vacuum cleaners killing our children?"  Now it's 'could these shoes be dangerous?'  Of course now we picture these shoes sitting on our chests as we sleep, stealing our breath at night.  Of course they have it poorly described "you run a bit tippy-toed" and "sure it burns more calories, but it's less impact".  Even the DR interviewed said there's no research saying it reduces impact.  (oh brother...)

Watch the video here:

Health Watch: Could Barefoot Running Shoes Be Harmful To Your Health?: Stephanie Stahl takes a look at the hottest trend in footwear, barefoot running shoes, and how they could impact your health.

Good Running Form Video

A Case Against Cardio (from a former mileage king)

(Article by Mark Sisson, marksdailyapple.com) We all know that we need to exercise to be healthy.

Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, immune-compromised exerholics. Hate to say it, but we weren’t meant to aerobicize at the chronic and sustained high intensities that so many people choose to do these days. The results are almost always unimpressive. Ever wonder why years of “Spin” classes, endless treadmill sessions and interminable hours on the “elliptical” have done nothing much to shed those extra pounds and really tone the butt?

Humans, like all mammals, evolved two primary energy systems that powered the skeletal muscles of our hunter-gatherer ancestors 40,000 years ago and that would keep us all well-powered the same way today, if we weren’t so bent on circumventing them with our ill-fated (literally) lifestyle choices.

The first energy system relied heavily on the slow burning of fats, keeping us fueled while we were at rest or sleeping, yet also allowing for continuous or intermittent low levels of aerobic activity (think of our ancestors walking across the savannah for hours foraging for roots, shoots, berries, grubs, insects and the occasional small animal). It makes sense. Fats are very efficient fuels that are stored easily in the fat cells and burn easily and cleanly when lots of oxygen is present (as when we are breathing normally). Even if there’s no food in the immediate area, a well-trained fat-burning hunter-gatherer could continue walking and foraging for days without compromising his or her health or efficiency.

The second major energy system we developed through evolution was an ATP-fueled system that allowed for intense loads of work to be done in very brief bursts (think of our hunter-gatherer ancestors sprinting to the safety of a tree to avoid being eaten by a lion). ATP is always sitting right there within the muscle cells, available in a split second, and it is the highest octane fuel we have. In fact, it’s ATP and adrenaline that allow the little old lady to lift the front end of the Ford Fairlane off her husband when the jack fails. Unfortunately, the muscles can only store about 20 seconds worth of this precious fuel to complete life-or-death tasks. If our ancestors survived that quick sprint to safety, their ATP reserves were filled again within minutes using the other energy systems.  The rest is HERE

Why Do I Do It (...because I can)

What a weekend, and why do I do it?  As a 41 year old that's been on-again/off-again into fitness, I find myself in an upswing in concern for my performance.  From 2009-end of 2010 I checked off so many goals I had set up for myself, first 1/2 and full marathon, first 50km, 50miler, etc.  But since I don't have years and years of mileage and good running form under my belt, I always seem to suffer some pulled muscle or inability to tolerate some trail missteps.  This brought me back to strength training.  My honey-bunny encouraged me to try out her crossfit gym and I am glad she did.  Today was an indicator of how far I have come.  9mos ago when I finished my foundations class I ended it with a 7round 1/2 Cindi, today I did 10rounds+22.  This is a way to quantify the differences in my strength and performance in other areas.  November 20th is my 'true test' of this added fitness.  The JFK50 second try!!  Last year it took me 10+1/2 hours to complete that race.  I went out so strong and hurt myself by mile 15'ish.  I was even sitting on the ground contemplating DNF'ing.  This year I know I will have the strength, my cardio capacity is huge, my running form has improved.  Of course a long race such as this will have plenty of curve balls, but all I can say is 'bring it'!

The Effect of Running Shoes on Lower Extremity Joint Torques

Objective

To determine the effect of modern-day running shoes on lower extremity joint torques during running.

Design

Two-condition experimental comparison.

Setting

A 3-dimensional motion analysis laboratory.

Participants

A total of 68 healthy young adult runners (37 women) who typically run in running shoes.

Methods

All subjects ran barefoot and in the same type of stability running footwear at a controlled running speed. Three-dimensional motion capture data were collected in synchrony with ground reaction force data from an instrumented treadmill for each of the 2 conditions.

Main Outcome Measurements

Peak 3-dimensional external joint torques at the hip, knee, and ankle as calculated through a full inverse dynamic model.

Results

Increased joint torques at the hip, knee, and ankle were observed with running shoes compared with running barefoot. Disproportionately large increases were observed in the hip internal rotation torque and in the knee flexion and knee varus torques. An average 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque, a 36% increase in knee flexion torque, and a 38% increase in knee varus torque were measured when running in running shoes compared with barefoot.

Conclusions

The findings at the knee suggest relatively greater pressures at anatomical sites that are typically more prone to knee osteoarthritis, the medial and patellofemoral compartments. It is important to note the limitations of these findings and of current 3-dimensional gait analysis in general, that only resultant joint torques were assessed. It is unknown to what extent actual joint contact forces could be affected by compliance that a shoe might provide, a potentially valuable design characteristic that may offset the observed increases in joint torques.

Entire Study Here

Funny: Beware the maximilist Shoe!

Gggggreat, now I'm going to have nightmares! (Brought to you by zero-drop.com)

Bedrock Sandals (love the name :) )

Another huarache building company.  I have not tried these, but glad to see the market filling with options!