Barefoot running

[RichTravsky]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-science-running-barefoot-idUSTRE7B818520111209

Despite the cold and many other potential hazards, naked from the ankle down
is the way Anna Toombs likes it, and she gets plenty of catcalls in the street
as a result.

The 35-year-old co-founder of the personal training company Barefoot Running
UK says she's lost count of the times people yell "where are your shoes?" as
she and partner David Robinson negotiate London's parks and pavements to
indulge their passion and train their clients.

"People give you a lot of weird looks," says Robinson.

They are also getting a lot of inquiries.

A surge of interest in "natural," or barefoot, training has seen runners
around the world kick off their arch-supporting, motion-controlling,
heel-cushioning shoes and try to feel the ground beneath their feet.

Top scientists - from sports physicians to podiatrists to evolutionary
biologists - are jumping in too.
...
The current barefoot trend has its roots in the book "Born to Run," by
Christopher McDougall. In it, he tells of time spent with Mexico's
Tarahumara tribe who can run huge distances barefoot, often very fast,
apparently without suffering the injuries that plague many keen runners
in the developed world.

The debate centers on whether running in shoes with cushioned heels and
supportive structures changes the way people move so dramatically that
it's more likely to cause injuries.

Proponents of barefoot running say the natural way is more likely to
prompt a runner to land on the padded and springy part of the foot,
toward the front, rather than strike the ground with the heel as many
shod runners do.

In a study published in the scientific journal Nature last year, Daniel
Lieberman, an evolutionary biology professor at Harvard University,
sought to find out how our ancestors, who ran and hunted for millions
of years in bare feet or simple moccasins, coped with the impact of
the foot hitting the ground.

Lieberman and colleagues from Britain and Kenya studied runners who
had always run barefoot, those who had always worn shoes and runners
who had abandoned shoes.

They found that barefoot endurance runners often land on the fore-foot
before bringing down the heel, while shod runners mostly rear-foot
strike, prompted by the raised and cushioned heels of modern running
shoes.

In a series of analyses, they found that even on hard surfaces, barefoot
runners who fore-foot strike generate smaller "collision forces" - less
impact - than rear-foot strikers in shoes. Barefoot runners also had a
springier step and used their calf and foot muscles more efficiently.

Lieberman, who spoke at the conference after an early-morning barefoot
run along the banks of London's Thames, is keen to stress that the
scientific evidence on whether barefoot running is better in terms of
injuries is still very unclear.

"A lot of people are arguing on the basis of passion, anecdote, emotion
or financial gain - but what's quite true is there are no good data
saying whether it's better for you or worse for you," he said.

Having said that, he has already voted with his feet.
...
Back in 1960 Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila, one of the world's greatest Olympic
marathon runners, won the first of his consecutive gold medals without
shoes, covering the 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 17 seconds. And
in 1984, South African barefoot runner Zola Budd set a track world record
when she ran 5,000 meters in 15 minutes and 1.83 seconds.
...

[Lee Olsen]

On Feb 10, 2:05 pm, RichTravsky <traRvEskyM...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-science-running-barefoot...

And neither a kudu or a lion can run that far or that fast in the heat
of the day. We certainly didn't evolve into distance runners sitting
around a garden-like platch watching the flowers grow.

[RichTravsky]

It's inconceivable that a habitual biped could not also run.