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Barefoot activities can greatly improve balance and posture and prevent common injuries like shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, bursitis, and tendonitis in the Achilles tendon, according to Patrick McKeon, a professor in Ithaca College's School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.
The small, often overlooked muscles in the feet that play a vital but underappreciated role in movement and stability. Their role is similar to that of the core muscles in the abdomen.
"If you say 'core stability,' everyone sucks in their bellybutton," he said. Part of the reason why is about appearance, but it's also because a strong core is associated with good fitness. The comparison between feet and abs is intentional on McKeon's part; he wants people to take the health of their "foot core" just as seriously.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday November 28 2015, @11:42AM
The foot is truly a fascinating organ. Its skeletal structure and musculature are truly complex. Now, I don't have a foot fetish, but I can easily see how one might come to have one of those. The organ has evolved over millions of years, and even now as I stumble half-drunkenly while waiting for liquor stores to open, I can appreciate how the subtle muscle and tendon actions in my foot keep me from having a total klutz moment.
It works in tandem with (what remains of) my inner ear to activate muscle groups I'm normally not aware of even having! This thing can solve the inverse pendulum problem with finesse, and it somehow keeps me upright despite my best efforts to disable its functions. Even if I stumble, it will compensate, applying pressure at the exact spot to keep me standing!
Go run (almost) barefoot sometime. Just run like when you were a kid. I don't even need to invoke the Amazons here. Take the example of the Tarahumara tribe. In his book Born to Run, Christopher McDougall writes about how some were offered Western “running” shoes and summarily rejected them in favor of simple footwear jury rigged from scrapped rubber tires.
The modern running shoe is a nightmare for our inborn reflexes. It “protects” us from injury, but it is actually the cause of most running injuries. It silences our sense for the ground, and we compensate in all the wrong ways leading to, yes, the dreaded plantar fascitis.
Just run. It's what your body evolved to do. Trust it to do what it can do. Feel the ground beneath your feet and cherish it.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:35PM
With a few caveats, the surface makes a huge difference, shoes give you traction and the ability to stop on smooth surfaces, running barefoot means you need more distance to stop.
The other thing to worry about is stress fractures. For people that don't walk barefoot already, it can take quite a while for the muscles and the bones in the feet to build up to the point where they can handle running. Best take it easy, make sure that the arches are activating and that everything is well before doing the running. Children don't have to do that because they haven't been walking around in shoes for decades. Shoes themselves are a mild form of footbinding as they prevent the foot from moving in a natural way.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:53PM
Indeed, if you have the opportunity to read the mountain of clinical information that now supports the hypothesis that in the 70's the rash of big heeled running shoes caused the vast majority of injuries. I could not believe my ears when a runner explained that "heel to toe" was how they were taught to run.
Human evolution has been shaped by our ability to run continuously. Not necessarily very fast , but long distance. Look at any 4 legged animal: they cannot eat or drink while running.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday November 28 2015, @02:59PM
I think a lot of people don't realize that running requires a lot of actual knowledge. Heal strikes are probably the worst thing you can do when you're running. Most of the other stuff is more about efficiency than anything else. In general you want to be moving smoothly. You want to be moving up and down and side to side as little as possible. Smoothly, quietly and gently are really the keywords here. If you're moving in an efficient way, the body knows how to handle that for miles and miles, but if you're insisting on "pounding the pavement" the pavement is going to be pounding back.
When I'm in the park, and I hear somebody jogging behind me, I like to try to guess the sex of the runner. Most of the time it's obvious, but occasionally there'll be a man with a lighter than usual step or a woman who hits the ground too hard.
People also forget that the core is hugely important to efficient running, especially the muscles of the back that help maintain upper body stability as there's a huge amount of mechanical inefficiency that can come from being off balance.
Running should feel good. Human evolved to run and we're some of the greatest runners of the animal kingdom, it's a shame that we've largely forgotten how to run properly. It should feel good, smooth and like we were meant to run forever. If it genuinely feels like that, then chances are good that you're doing it right.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday November 28 2015, @05:50PM
I sort of agree. I never knew there was so much to running (A competitive swimmer speaks...!), but a great deal of the information was incorrect in the recent past and has dissuade generations from running.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday November 28 2015, @08:20PM
Strictly speaking, when we're very young we tend to get most of it right instinctively. It's as we grow older and pick up bad habits of motion that things get bad. Children used to spend just about all day running around with short rests to gawk at something interesting. The main reason they could do it is that their mechanics were pretty good. If you ever see children walking or running, you'll probably notice that they don't do it the way that adults do.
Just like nutrition, we tend to bollocks this up with a lot of un-scientific bullshit from poorly designed studies and call it good.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday November 28 2015, @09:28PM
yes, and the fact that as children we wear shoes, means our feet grow differently according to our environment. Though I am encouraged as an adult that slow retraining is possible, and I can manage >1hr with no problems!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:56PM
You wrote this comment on a cell phone while half drunk? Your hand may be the winning organ.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @03:27PM
The sensory processing in the brain for feet and your genitals are right next to each other. A little neuron cross over and your feet become highly erogenous zones.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Saturday November 28 2015, @06:31PM
The modern running shoe is a nightmare for our inborn reflexes. It “protects” us from injury, but it is actually the cause of most running injuries.
Just run. It's what your body evolved to do. Trust it to do what it can do. Feel the ground beneath your feet and cherish it.
I don't think our bodies were evolved to run on concrete or tarmac. Especially if they are really hot - which is common in warmer climates.
So my recommendation is to ignore the barefoot running fools and learn to use modern technology wisely. Pick good shoes, run with shoes, BUT learn to switch to running properly with forefoot strikes instead of heel strikes. That way you get the benefits of running barefoot while getting "soft friendly ground". Do it gradually to build up strength and toughness with lower risk of injury.
Imagine if you step on a thumbtack or worse stuff. It's better to replace a shoe than have to wait for your foot to heal. The CDC claims that people can get hookworms by walking barefoot on contaminated soil: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm/ [cdc.gov]
Perhaps the CDC are wrong, perhaps they are right. But if they are right you should take your shoes off before stepping into your home that way you can walk barefoot in the safer confines of your home (you may need indoor protection in some scenarios [1] ;) ).
The technology has had some issues but it still works better if you use it right.
[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/legos-anti-lego-slippers-have-extra-foot-padding-for-protection/ [cnet.com]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday November 28 2015, @08:01PM
Vibram FiveFingers seem to be a good compromise