The barefoot running phenomena has certainly caught fire recently. With the release of Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, every yuppie in YuppieTown is running to their local REI or running store to buy a new pair of Vibrams. "It's natural." "Surely, if I run barefoot like our ancestors did, I will stop getting injured." Maybe. But probably not.
I can certainly agree that there are many good reasons to go barefoot (or at least more minimalist). Our foot muscles have become weaker running in heavy clonkers. But that's just the thing - our foot muscles are weaker, and we need to respect that. Namely, if one elects to go minimalist, one needs to take a very long time getting there. I am not talking about starting off walking in the Vibrams for one mile a week and then proceeding from there. Hell, some people, including my sister, have gotten injured that way. That way is still too fast. I am talking about a multi-stage approach to barefoot running. Slowly introduce a slightly lighter shoe into your running over the course of a few months. Then, once you have adjusted to that shoe, continue running in that shoe for a few months before introducing an even lighter shoe. Yadda yadda yadda. This process takes years, not months. If you take it too fast, you will certainly get injured.
Even though I do agree there are reasons to go barefoot, there are some things I would like to make clear before I proceed: (1) going barefoot is not necessarily going to make you a faster runner, (2) going barefoot is surely not the only way to become a faster runner, (3) if you get injured running barefoot, your barefoot running (and perhaps not your training!) might be at fault (check out http://www.sportsscientists.com/), and (4) if you wear Vibrams, I will still point and laugh.
There has also been some talk among the blogosphere that perhaps we weren't all *gasp* born to run. See, for example, this article by Matt Fitzgerald, which consequently has been blasted by a lot of minimalist runners. The idea is that every cheetah is a world-class sprinter. However, not every human is a world-class long distance runner. In fact, there is a ton of variation. Humans have a wide variety of talents and skills compared to other animals. Some just simply aren't that great at running. Are these folk perhaps not born to run? To quote Matt, "The romantic vision of an Edenic primitive humanity in which everyone ran like Kenenisa Bekele is complete hokum. Endurance running was very likely only ever a specialization of the few, exactly as it is today." I am not saying that I completely agree with Matt and his article, but I do agree we need to read books such as Born to Run with a grain of salt.
Some last thoughts. Minimalist running does not necessarily mean Vibram running. I run much of my mileage in racing flats, and many consider this minimalist. However, if you must insist on running in ugly shoes to the same effect as the Vibram Five Fingers, save yourself a few dollars and buy a cheap pair of water shoes. They're so much less expensive and still protect your feet. And Vibram isn't such an innocent company. They have funded many of the studies illustrating the advantages of the Five Fingers. For example, Vibram funded research done at Harvard which concluded there is less pounding associated with running 25 meters barefoot than running 25 meters in heavy shoes. And we all know 25 meters is roughly a marathon. Okay, that was harsh. I agree there are many reasons to go barefoot. Just please don't look like this guy while channeling our ultra-marathon ancestors.
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i think it's cool to run barefoot occasionally to expose one's feet to sensations that are nonexistent with shoes; it also allows a person to work other muscles in the feet and legs that don't get used as much with shod running.
ReplyDeletei grew up running around a lot barefoot, and i'd like to work myself back to doing a lot more barefooted stuff, not just running. it's nice to feel the earth beneath your feet!