Conditioning Research

Not sure that it is all about efficiency....what about injury prevention ..... but you might be interested in this from here . UPDATE - Someone pointed me to the comments to the Scientific American article and this one from Ken Schafer makes some excellent points, so I hope he doesn't mind me cutting and pasting: ..............I have read the study. This study had nothing to do with cushioned shoes. They took experienced barefoot runners. And compared how much energy they used running barefoot and how much energy they used running in very light weight minimalist running shoes (little to no cushion). The subjects used slightly more energy when running barefoot. It is important to understand that the subjects maintained the same "barefoot" running technique with and without shoes. So this was not a test of fore-footed running technique vs. heel striking running technique. Most of the evidence to date indicates that the technique used by barefoot runners is more...

My work is too busy at the moment for me to do much on this blog, but I am still keeping an eye on news and research. This study popped up last week and I thought it had some interesting implications. Altering gait by way of stimulation of the plantar surface of the foot: the immediate effect of wearing textured insoles in older fallers Conclusions - Stimulating the plantar surface of the foot by way of wearing this type of textured insole causes an immediate effect - in this case a slower, more cautious gait in older fallers. Further work is required to determine how textured insoles can be used to improve gait in older fallers. The whole study is there for you to look through. Anyway, what this made me think of was the value of being barefoot.  So much information comes from the feet, from the sole.  While shod, all that information is blunted.  Barefoot there is so much more stimulation and data that can be processed by the brain to feed into the propriocep...

This is fantastic from Steven Sashen

Marc from Feel Good Eating pointed me towards this one from yesterday's NY Times: Does Foot Form Explain Running Injuries? But, says Mr. Daoud, who was himself an oft-injured heel-striker during his cross-country racing days, "if you have experienced injury after injury and you're a heel-striker, it might be worth considering a change." (If you're unsure of your strike pattern, have a friend videotape you from the side as you run, he suggests, then use slow motion to watch how your foot hits the ground.) If you do decide to reshape your stride, proceed slowly, he cautions. Many people who abruptly switch to barefoot running or a forefoot running form get hurt in the process, he says. The body's tissues adapt to the forces generated by long-term heel striking. Change your form, and the forces will affect different parts of the leg, leading to soreness and, potentially, injury. Try landing on the ball of your foot "for five minutes at first at the ...

Excellent stuff from the Natural Running Centre Lots of good stuff here on posture, gait, mobility and stability thanks to Jim Hansen for pointing this out

Thanks to Adam Dean for pointing this out. Almost a year ago I had a couple of posts ( here and here ) about a Harvard Professor who was doing research into barefoot running.  The research continues, and Wired Magazine had a feature on his two latest studies which have been published just this month.  Their piece is called More Evidence Supports Barefoot Running and points to Daniel Lieberman's latest work: If you’re a runner, start striking with your forefoot. And wear those goofy minimalist shoes while you’re at it. Your body will thank you. Those are the findings of a pair of studies by Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He found runners who use a forefoot strike face a significantly lower risk of repetitive stress injuries, and barely there running shoes produce more efficient movement than conventional kicks. The two studies are: Foot Strike and Injury Rates in Endurance Runners: a retrospective study. PURPOS...

I thought this was interesting: First Step Toward Treatment for Painful Flat Feet It reports on a study which looks how flat feet in an adult occur: Adult-acquired flat foot is most common in women over 40 and often goes undiagnosed. The condition results from the gradual 'stretching out' over time of a tendon near the ankle bone -- the tibialis posterior tendon -- which is the main stabiliser of the foot arch. The researchers looked at the very structure of this tendon: Working with surgeons and scientists at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge and the University of Bristol, the team showed that the structure and composition of tendon specimens had changed and found evidence of increased activity of some proteolytic enzymes. These enzymes can break down the constituents of the tibialis posterior tendon and weaken it -- causing the foot arch to fall. The study itself is available here .   What I found interesting though was the way the report skims over something i...

Here is a study which looked at treating a common running injury - Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) - by getting runners to modify their running technique, moving to a forefoot strike.   Although there were only 2 in the study it seemed to fix the injury.  The entire paper is here. Here is the abstract for you. EFFECTS OF FOREFOOT RUNNING ON CHRONIC EXERTIONAL COMPARTMENT SYNDROME: A CASE SERIES. INTRODUCTION : Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is a condition that occurs almost exclusively with running whereby exercise increases intramuscular pressure compromising circulation, prohibiting muscular function, and causing pain in the lower leg. Currently, a lack of evidence exists for the effective conservative management of CECS. Altering running mechanics by adopting forefoot running as opposed to heel striking may assist in the treatment of CECS, specifically with anterior compartment symptoms. CASE DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this case...

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There is a really interesting interview here on barefoot training: Ben Dearman Barefoot Training: Running and Strength and Conditioning Interview Some really good stuff there.  Flat footed people do tend to benefit the most from going barefoot because they no longer have that medial arch support to prevent their foot from crashing to the ground.  Instead the muscles of the lower leg and foot have to control that motion now.  And a foot that has proper motion, stability and mobility is a foot that is less likely to be injured with sprains.      (hat tip to Sprint Strong )

A few weeks ago I posted my review of a pair of Invisible Shoes .   I just noticed that Drew Baye - interviewed here - is also a fan of the shoes.  His review is here.   I've just returned from a couple of weeks in Spain - hence this blog has been quiet for a bit - and wore them a lot in the heat.

I've mentioned the barefoot running research of Prof Daniel Lieberman before but here is a great interview with him explaining some of his ideas . While he is known mainly for his ideas on running, given some of the things I've been thinking about recently I thought his bit on sitting was interesting: Q. People with bad backs often blame evolution for their pain. They say, “My back aches because man was not meant to walk on two feet.” Are they right? A. If that were true, natural selection would have its toll and we’d be extinct. What is more likely is that many people sit in chairs all day, get no exercise, and thus have weak backs. We did not evolve to sit in chairs all day.

Here is another one to support the barefoot guys. An interesting piece on how basketball players who wear shoes with air filled cells building up the heels are more likely to get injured. Basketball Sneakers, Ankle Sprains and Ankle Pains

I mentioned the other day that I'd been sent some Invisible Shoes to try.  Here is my review Barefoot is best Over the past few years on this blog I've often linked to pieces about the benefits of being barefoot.  Our feet are precisely engineered to support our motion, with an elegant arch to provide a great foundation for whatever we do.  Depending on your personal cosmology they have been designed - by God or evolution - to be the optimal solution, the best things that a biped could stand, walk and run on.  It is not just the engineering either - our feet are full of receptors that feed information to the brain about our body's position in space giving data for your head to work with to keep you balanced and moving efficiently, an idea developed in Becoming Bulletproof . Shoes interfere with all of this - they mess up the mechanics clamping the complex structures of the foot into a rigid brace and damp out all of the sensory information that should be f...

I have been sent some invisible shoes to try out!!! Fantastic.  They came in the post this week and over the weekend I am looking forward to setting them up, fitting them and doing some almost barefoot walking.  These are pretty authentic huaraches.

It is interesting how certain ideas surface at the same time.  Last week I receieved a copy of Ken Bob Saxton's book, Barefoot Running Step by Step.   I've followed him a little for years and it was strange to watch the barefoot movement boom recently with vibrams etc. Anyway, KenBob stresses that it is not enough to have minimal shoes - barefoot means barefoot.  Proprioception - the sense of your body's position in space - is driven by the feet and shoes blunt that sense. The same idea popped up in the Becoming Bulletproof book that I mentioned last week.  Then I saw this excellent piece from mc   Mick Wilkinson Part I: Why Barefoot Running (in shoes) Is not barefoot running   It is an excellent piece and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

I have been browsing through the excellent website of the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group and there are some good resources there.  This is a good presentation (pdf) on barefoot training It is a good overview of the science and research. Conclusions: Safety First : Evaluate and Educate It’s not for everyone Protect your feet : Minimal Shoes to start Slow and Steady wins the race (10% rule) Get Fit To Run, Don’ t Run To Get Fit Eliminate the high heels Be nice to your kids : wide toe boxes If you’re not injured, don’t change I've mentioned a lot of this - like Lieberman's research - on this blog before

This looks like an interesting new site: Welcome to  the Natural Running Center. Our overall message is simple: Learn, Evolve, Run! With the information, education, and expert advice you will find on this site, it’s our hope and mission that all runners, beginners or veterans, fast or slow, the formerly injured or those hoping to get back in the game, will learn about the health and performance benefits of minimalist, natural, and even barefoot running.  On the educational front, it’s  also our responsibility to be as neutral and impartial as possible with our recommendations and knowledge that we will be sharing. These are exciting times in the footwear, sports medicine, and running world. The Natural Running Center hopes to makes sense of all this “newness,” and provide a safe, injury-free path for runners everywhere.

Runners World have put up an interesting interview with Biomechanist Irene Davis, Ph.D., a leading researcher in the running field for more than 20 years. She is very much in favour of barefoot running: Davis is an unabashed promoter of barefoot running and barefoot-like running form. “I believe there is a compelling body of evidence that suggests we need to consider a paradigm change," she told me yesterday. "But paradigm changes are risky, and younger scientists may be more tentative." The whole thing is worth reading but I liked this bit: Why isn't anyone studying barefoot running and landing styles on different surfaces? We've got a lot of hard asphalt out there today. There have been numerous studies that have looked at how runners react to different surfaces. We now know that runners will change their form in just one or two strides when they hit a hard surface like concrete or a soft surface like sand. They'll adapt a softer landing on concre...