RIFREV Article: "Barefoot Running Versus Shoes" by William Wragg

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    RIFREVArticle: Should I run with shoes or barefoot - is there a

    right answer?? By William Wragg

    www.rifrev.com

    Points included in the article:

    Why barefoot? Why shoes? Is there an in-between? Have we ever adapted to cement/ concrete? Barefoot versus Shoes the physical effects Conclusion

    One of the hottest topics in running should I be barefoot or, are my shoes ok to run in?

    Ive found typically theres nowhere in between with opinions; its either I run barefoot or

    not. There are those runners who are slightly in-between with the minimalist shoes but

    commonly a minimalist runner is a barefoot runner whos wearing the thinnest sole possible,

    with the minimalist drop. Whats right? Whos right? Lets look at why we do what we do

    and why we run the way we run and how thats changed over time.

    So we all used to run barefoot, what changed?

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    Human beings (Home-erectus, and most recently, Homo-sapiens) were designed to run, but

    not on artificial surfaces. In the exactsame way a tiger isnt designed to run on concrete, or

    any other wild animals! So when the Western World was basically concreted over, the

    effects on our body from running have increased ten-fold.

    So, the common running injuries are not something we have always suffered from, and is

    why modern-day running tribes to this day like the Tarahumara in the Copper Canyons and

    many runners in Africa can run such extreme distances but are yet to have been effected by

    the injury phenomenon! - Given that they still run on softer surfaces (soil and sand).

    How can running barefoot help our bodies as we run?Running barefoot is 100% going to reduce our chances of injury on soft surfaces. Not

    wearing shoes automatically increases ground-feel and proprioception and thus, our bodies

    adapt accordingly to each surface to prevent the over-use of our bodies and reduces theforces riding up through our bodies.

    When you take your shoes off and run, these wonderful things naturally happen:

    1) You naturally land in the Mid-foot2) You straighten out through your hips and do not sink through your knees3) You lift your chest and automatically want to become taller; thus reducing those

    pressures riding through our bodies

    4)Our contact with the ground is therefore reduced5) We automatically start to create movement naturally using our body

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    However, when you have a pair of thick shoes on, your senses are reduced and these

    natural responses do not occur!

    The ground forces Barefoot versus shoes!The image below, from a Harvard University Human Biology study, shoes an African runner

    running both with and without shoes. It also compares the force (body weight) during the

    motion.

    The results showed that when wearing shoes, the runner was more exposed to greater

    forces riding up through their body. As mentioned above, the reasons being are we naturally

    lengthen our bodies and improve our alignment, naturally land in the mid-foot and create

    movement using our body as we run without shoes and these techniques all contribute to

    this reduced amount of force.

    So why does wearing shoes increase those forces (and injuries)?When you wear shoes, the ground feel reduces, as does your proprioception. As these

    senses and this feel diminishes, our bodies ability to respond to differing surfaces and

    increased pressures weakens, and poor technique can onset.

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    The shoes above are the 1972, Nike Cortez. Known in History as the first real running shoe

    developed for track athletes for comfort and durability, both for road running and distance

    running. Before this, runners tended to wear incredibly flat shoes, the shoes you would see

    in the film classic, Chariots of Fire.

    The purpose of the Cortez was obviously to protect us/ runners from injury however, there

    are an abundance of studies conducted since that point at the spike of injuries ever since

    the production of running shoes developed for comfort as being a considerable,

    contributing cause. Thats why injury prevalence for conditions such as Plantar Fasciitis or

    Shin splints have increased to an alarming degree over the past forty years!

    Looking at the body: barefoot versus shoes!Im going to take a second to look at a few parts of the body and how wearing shoes versus

    barefoot can cause a positive or negative effect!

    The foot

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    The foot can definitely take a massive hammer from wearing thick soled shoes. We ashumans are designed to land in the mid-foot (in our arches) to absorb the ground force

    thus, preventing the pressures from riding up through our body to our joints, and also from

    damaging our feet.

    Wearing thick shoes, people who run too straight and dont create movement efficiently are

    quite often seen to over-stride and land on their heel. The heel is awful at absorbing

    pressures and consequently, trauma injuries such as ITB Syndrome both at the knee

    (friction syndrome) or on the hip are very common as are shin splints (Medial Tibial Stress

    Syndrome) a general term used to explain trauma in the connective tissues of the tibia.

    People also commonly over-activate the muscles in their feet and can seriously weaken their

    ankle strength and the peroneal tendons (peroneus longus and brevis) at the ankle can

    weaken.

    Not absorbing the ground forces effectively, over time, can also develop a lot of wear and

    tear on the foot itself and areas such as the metatarsals can become damaged, causing

    injuries such as metatarsal stress fractures or metatarsalgia or even Mortons Neuroma.

    The Knee

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    The knee is not widely understood, its like a musician ahead of its time. The patella is

    clearly used to form a joint but, like our foot arches, the knee is incredible at absorbing

    pressures.

    When we barefoot run we use the knee very effectively we do not sink at the knee and

    ourknees and hips almost align, and we keep our knees soft by relaxing our thighs

    (quadriceps); allowing us to absorb a lot of the pressures at the knee, and preventing

    against cartilage damage from overuse, the potential onset of osteoarthritis and most

    commonly the onset of Runners knee (Patello Femoral Joint Syndrome PFJS).

    So, when we wear shoes, we tend not to be required as much to lengthen through our body

    and maintain a good posture to prevent pain so we start to become too relaxed and lazy,

    particularly when tired. Our knees start to hyper-flex and lock. This causes inflammation

    in the knee and the onset of PFJS or PFJ Pain or even Chondromalacia (a pain usually found

    between the patella and the femur, at the top of the knee).

    The Hip

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    Our long pelvises are what made the homo-erectus and what makes us, the homo-sapiens, so

    fantastic, at least structurally, historically, and in theory in this modern-day, at running

    long distances.

    Our hips are developed to absorb pressures that ride up through our bodies and this

    prevents damage and overuse potential injuries from being onset.

    However, because many runners today are not successfully landing in the mid-foot and often

    over-stride (landing in the heel) this causes pressure to ride through our body and can even

    cause significant injuries at our hip - For example clicking hips (or Coxa Saltans or

    illiopsoas tendinitis) or even stress fractures at the hip.

    Coupled with this, because of our modern day cultures and day-to-lives we often drive

    everywhere and sit for WAYYYY too long at work, causing us to get stuck through our pelvis

    and resultant poor posture through the hips, resulting from a weakened core and tight hip

    flexors. Being too relaxed and stuck through our hips further increases the pressures on

    our lower body and makes us a lot less efficient at creating movement, with our movement

    lever only really at waist height.

    So, can we wear shoes and not get injured!!!!???YES, YES, YESwe can. But to this point, we have not learned internationallyand as a population to do so and at this point our bodies have not really started to show

    evolutionary signs of change to adapt to these surfaces, either.

    But thats what the Running Injury Free Revolution is all about. In order to run

    effectively on hard surfaces you first of all have to understand how to create movement

    naturally, and without using power and thus, over-working our bodies. You then need to

    understand what the optimal postural positions are and why a good alignment is so

    important. Finally you need to understand how to land, and what part of body causes each

    injury and why? So when a pain onsets, we know how to stop that ASAP, and prevent those

    pains from becoming injuries.

    One thing we cannot do if we ever want to stop the common running injuries is RUNNING

    LAZY. Running Lazy is not using our bodies effectively and simply relying on our shoes to

    do all the work. Buying new shoes to prevent pains therefore is a lazy quick-fix and in order

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    to actually stop the pains from ever on-setting we have to teach our bodies to do the work,

    not our equipment or accessories.

    When I ran my 50 Marathons in as many days, I found it fairly easy and didnt get any pains.

    The reason was, plain and simple, because of my personal injury history I understood how

    each part of my body worked, how each pain came and how to as quickly as it onset, put a

    stop to each. When you run thinking in this way, with a good education and knowledge about

    your body, even if the ground feel is less, you can prevent any running injury! Its also how I

    ran my 50 marathons in the same pair of shoes that were already 6 months old at the start

    of the event!!!

    So, do I barefoot run?I do a little bit of barefoot running, I also own a pair of Vibram Five Fingers that I learned to

    run injury free in, and love to do a little bit of barefoot running.

    However, I run only on grass or in safe, screened concreted areas. I dont think Id feel

    confident running in the dark because of the risk of needles, dog mess and big rocks.

    But barefoot training is incredible! As soon as you take off you immediately get taller, land

    in the mid-foot, reach out through your hips and chest and bring your hip to the sky. The

    body is designed to run barefoot but, with the modern-way adaptations (silly adaptations in

    my eyes, except for roads) to concrete the Earth I guess we have to adapt.

    I 100% suggest taking off your shoes for at least A SHORT TIME EVERY WEEK listening to

    your body and how it adapts without shoes. To become an injury free runner on concrete

    you need to understand how the body does what it does and how it responds accordingly and

    theres no better way than taking your shoes off and giving it a go!

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    The ConclusionMy conclusion is that the World has changed and with that, so has our footwear. If the

    World was still all sand and soil there wouldnt be this debate, and wed all run without

    shoes, but it has changed. Our footwear has therefore adapted to this change and we need

    to learn how to work with these changes as well.

    I definitely suggest giving running barefoot or wearing Vibram Five Fingers or at least

    minimalist shoes a go. In terms of learning how to run injury free, I also 100% endorse

    buying a pair of Vibrams or learning barefoot or, probably the safety most efficient method,learn wearing minimalist shoes on trails (or softer surfaces, like grass).

    Once youre able to learn the Running Injury Free Techniques its then a matterof

    transitioning those Techniques in to a pair of road shoes.

    My Personal shoe preference and adviceI have found minimalist shoes to be an excellent choice for trails running. Minimalist shoes,

    because of the minimal drop, have excellent ground feel and it helps you, almost forces you,

    to become a better runner. It also helps your calves, feet and knees to really strengthen andhelps develop all of those small muscles in your lower body structures.

    However, particularly if you cover long distances, when transitioning to road, minimalist

    shoes can be too weak in terms of support - and if youre not landing perfectly in the mid-

    foot, plantar Fasciitis can loom. Though if youre only doing say up to 20 miles, a minimalist

    pair of shoes, such as the Nike Free Runs, could be good. I think beyond that I would opt for

    a more comfortable neutral shoe.

    I have to say, I am deeply against thick soled shoes. Shoes advertised and designed toprevent: Over-pronation, over-supination, exaggerated inversion or eversion, I find to be an

    easy option, but often the wrong option, the same for orthotics. I think theyre a massive

    factor for injuries today and having your shoes do the work for you is a massive recipe for

    disaster. Im sure there are certain RARE circumstances where theyre necessary but,

    instead of answering a problem with an accessory, learn how to running properly and

    efficiently and stop those pain from on-setting the first place with good technique and a

    better overall knowledge of how the body works!

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    I have to state, this is what I have learned. People will have differing experience and

    peoples physical structures differ. So your experience may be different from all of your

    friends so play around, try different shoes, and try barefoot and eventually youll find what

    best suits and best fits you.

    If you need any further information on how to run injury free, pleasefeel free to contact me on the information below and check out ouronline resources atwww.rifrev.comWilliam Wragg

    Running Injury Free Specialist

    Running Injury Free Revolution (RIF REV)

    www.rifrev.com

    e:[email protected]

    [email protected]

    m: 0435 864 000

    a: 401 Old Cleveland Rd, Coorparoo

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