Going Barefoot. Ish
August 3, 2011
My holiday has given me the opportunity to try out a few things that otherwise get lost in the melee at work. I’ve been delving deeply into barefoot running, reading Born to Run, wearing my Vibram Five Fingers AKA ‘gorilla feet’, pondering more day to day shoes at vivobarefoot.com but not yet actually running barefoot. I tried it last year, in the same, location at the same time with mixed results due mostly to ignoring the advice to ease in gently and use specific drills and training techniques. You’d think I would know better and lead by example.
This year I’m determined to do it properly but am hampered by a lack of time (short holiday this year) and phenomenally tight
calves and hamstrings, probably due to being right at the start of restarting running and right at the end of a bike racing season. The postural issues I have won’t help with that either.
On the positive side I have the time to be thorough about the flexibility and mobility drills, the stuff that is hard to convince people is an essential part of fitness on sessions at work. It takes nerves of steel to get people expecting calorie burning efforts to do all the agonising stuff on a foam roller, the stretches and odd-looking mobility movements: these are are things I can be diligent about doing daily for a change.
The barefoot running idea has spawned an interesting line of thought, one that conflicts head on with many of the trusted sources I draw from. Born to Run (which is a more entertaining read with a far stronger narrative than I was expecting) goes into convincing detail, presenting evidence that we are evolutionarily designed to be endurance runners, we have just forgotten how and, more importantly, have been hoodwinked by sports shoe manufacturers into buying shoes that create greater problems than they address.
Although strength and conditioning experts have on the whole embraced barefoot training (something I do myself and encourage in clients) that’s where the line gets drawn. This section of the fitness industry considers distance running an aberration, a fast track to injury. The statistics are on their side (up to 80% of runners get injured, which is why if you’re a runner training with me most of your session is about injury prevention) but thrown right back at them by the Born to Run argument : running badly, in restrictive footwear will inevitably end in injury.
Another interesting conflict for me is the dietary approach that Born to Run encourages. High carbohydrate, especially whole grains, low protein, practically vegetarian. It’s the polar opposite of the information that is usually recommended in much of the research material I draw from.
This ties in nicely with my recent experience: a dreadful 5 weeks on the bike, followed by a resumption of high carb, whole grain eating and a quick return to decent form.
I don’t think there is one type of eating for everybody – I prefer the Metabolic Typing approach with it’s appealing ‘it takes all sorts’ ethos – and I would be far from the first to suggest there could be preferential types of exercise for different types of people as well.
