Its said that being down to earth is a good quality to have. I believe that applies literally as well. Just over a month ago I attended an online workshop on CreativeLive featuring Dr. Kelly Starrett titled, How to Maintain Your Body Dr. Starrett is a physical therapist, strength and conditioning coach, and a Crossfit gym owner out in the San Francisco Bay Araa. Hes an advocate of is the idea that everyone should be able to do basic maintenance on themselves. One of the things he pointed out was that one out of three people who engage in running activity will be injured. Were talking ACL injuries, sprains, etc. The reason for this is because most folks dont know the proper technique of movement and running. Weve forced ourselves to wear shoes and sneakers that squeeze our feet that dont allow our basic foot muscles to develop. Its like growing up with a crutch all our lives. So, when we decide to lose the crutch, we dont have the strength to do basic running. You may recall Vibram, the funky looking shoes that have the five finger/toe shoes, getting sued because of the large number of injuries that were taking place. The company decided to simply settle as a means of avoiding an ongoing court case and legal fees. The reality was that so many folks bought into the whole barefoot or minimalist running trend, which fundamentally makes sense. Except, that many people didnt realize they have to actually develop their feet since theyve been running with a crutch all their lives. I recently started reading his new book Ready to Run which is about enabling regular people like us to be able to run like we were meant to able to do. I recall in the seminar he pointed out some basics steps to reclaim the natural strength of our feet and I started implementing them right away. Step 1: Take out the insoles in your shoes. Dont worry about getting a new pair of shoes. Simply allow your toes and feet to spread. Naturally, when standing, our toes shouldnt be touching each other. It took me about a week of no insoles to achieve that. instagram/p/txnP6enRC-/# You may experience some discomfort initially, but once your foot muscles start building up again, youll find that its has comfortable as walking barefoot at home. Step 2: Get as close to the ground as possible. For some, this might require getting new shoes. I decided to take the cost-effective route and simply cut the heels of my shoes in half using a hot knife. It was like cutting through butter. I dont recommend this for everyone, because you risk messing up your shoes. But, being the curious adventurist that I am, I decided to go ahead with it and suffer whatever consequences. In the end, it worked out just fine. FYI, If youre going to do this, be sure to turn on the vent fan or do it outside. Youre cutting through rubber which will smell and smoke. My sneakers I did replaced. I ended up purchasing the Reebok Crossfit Nano 4.0, which is what Dr. Starrett was wearing. He wasnt pushing the shoes at all. In fact he expressed fondness toward the company Inov8, which is what he ran the 100 mile ultra marathon in. I actually wanted to purchase the Inov8 XF260, but there were no retailers in my area carrying those. And, I wasnt fond of the idea of buying shoes online and discovering they dont fit and having to deal with the hassle of shipping back. When I discovered there was a Reebok store near my workplace, I tried on the shoes and they were good to go. I ended up removing the insoles in these too. Step 3: Learn proper running technique. You can either pick up Dr Starretts new book Ready to Run or simply look up Pose running technique on YouTube. There are a lot of demo videos by Nicholas Romanov. Hes the primary advocate of the technique. And, Brian Mackenzie, another strength and conditioning coach and ultra-marathoner.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 14:34:05 +0000
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