Frank Forencich, on the Exuberant Animal blog, asks “Have We Gone Mad?!”
He’s responding to an article in the New York Times that chronicles that author’s experience with flat feet and podiatrists.
Frank raises some good questions, I encourage you to head over there and check out his post.
I recently had the pleasure of hosting Barefoot Ted here in SF.
While we didn’t get to discuss this topic while he was here, I’ve been thinking about it since, and figured I’d share these thoughts, and see what everyone out in the web-world thinks…
I ordered some leather huaraches from Ted’s site, and was pondering my choice of leather over the Vibram rubber soles that he offers, and that I think he (and many others) prefer to the leather.
I was thinking more about the leather/rubber debate, and started to think about these things:
leather is a natural material, and is not much of an insulator…especially compared to
rubber, which is a powerful insulator.
(I’ll refrain from the “production” debate for these materials here)
our blood contains hemoglobin, which has at its center an atom of iron (in the heme)
iron responds to electromagnetic charges.
the earth is a giant electromagnet (its core is partly iron)
when we stand on the earth, we receive that electromagnetic flow through our blood (iron).
further…
“polarity therapy” in massage says that one side of the body is positively charged, and the other negatively charged
if that’s the case, when we move on two (bare) feet, we alternately contact the electromagnetic field of the earth with our oppositely-charged sides, creating a current through our body
when we run, that current is even more divided (a true “alternating current”), since we completely separate contact with one side for a period in a running-gait.
further still…
bone forms along lines of stress
that’s because bone is piezoelectric
that is, the lines of stress cause an electric charge to flow through bone
that electric flow is what directs the osteoblasts to break down the bone in places, and the osteoclasts to build in other places.
and…
though the “proof” is controversial, man-made electromagnetic fields are known to disturb natural bodily functions, for instance
high-tension power lines may be related to an increased risk in cancer
microwave ovens can have effects on people
the electrical impulse through natural stone walls has been linked by some to the presence of “ghosts” (as electromagnetic hallucinations)
etc.
final questions:
what happens when we insulate our bodies from the earth’s electromagnetic field
what happens when we don’t…
Seems like I’ve only been posting book reviews lately…other things ahve been happening, honest!
I just read Percy Cerutty’s book “Be Fit or Be Damned.”
Unfortunately for all of us, this classic is out of print. Why, I have no idea!
According to the All Knowing Wikipedia, Percy was born in 1895 and died in 1975. He was an Australian athletic coach, and coached Herb Elliott, who won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympic games.
Now before you go saying “He only lived to be 80, I’m not taking his advice!” realize that 80 is a pretty ripe old age for someone born in 1895 who once battled with cancer – and who actually died of Motor Neurone Disease (called ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease in the US).
His book is about how to live. I think it sums up Cerutty’s “Stotan” (a combination of Stoic and Spartan philosophies) life-philosophy well.
percy picking up a man almost twice his weight, when he was 70!!
Check this book out from your local library (or local university library), or buy it on Amazon used for $25. It’s worth the read!
Charlie Reid and I held another talk on barefoot running at the Sports Basement in Potrero Hill this past Thursday.
First, I want to thank everyone who attended (if you’re reading this). We had a great turnout and some great questions from the attendees.
To sum:
START SLOWLY! – if you’re like most people, you’ve been wearing shoes most of your life. Don’t rush into barefooting. Take it slowly.
Crawl, Walk, Jog, Run – start like a baby, by crawling. Do bear crawls more often. Charlie and I both really like the effect the bear crawl has on the musculoskeletal system. Try it! Once you’ve done that, start walking barefoot for a while before you jog or run.
Soft and Silent – your footfalls should be as soft and silent as possible. In the beginning this will take conscious effort. As you become more accustomed to being barefoot, it will become natural to land this way.
Gait is Speed-Dependent – it is perfectly natural for human beings to heel-strike when walking – at very slow speeds! The faster you go, the more you come up onto your forefoot. Barefoot jogging is more of a mid-foot strike. The walking “fox-walk” is a very special walk for special purposes…
Fast Turnover – the foot turnover speed for a good barefoot jog is about 180 beats per minute. 90 strikes per foot, per minute. You can download a metronome program for your iPhone or other device, or get a runner’s metronome to help you get used to this fast cadence.
Is that it?! Oh yeah – HAVE FUN!
Here it is, the second installment in the FitBusters series.
In this episode, Charlie and I discuss common misconceptions about cardiovascular exercise, prevalent in the training community at large today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zySyo2jQs4o&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
I suppose the crux is this – the human body is capable of doing ANYTHING IT CAN DO.
And, it will adapt, given that the dose isn’t fatal or toxic, and given sufficient time for recovery, to anything.
Further, and more specifically to this video, a few researchers recently have been spreading the idea around that homo sapiens evolved from homo erectus because they ran long distances.
There is nothing wrong with, or physiologically damaging in long, slow, distance cardio. I recently started doing it myself, wearing the Vibram FiveFinger shoes, in the Marin Headlands (trail running), and will be “competing” in the NorthFace Endurance Challenge in that same area next month.
It’s a 50k (30mile) race, and I’ve never been an endurance runner. In fact, I just started about two months ago.
What does that tell you?
It tells me that a diverse workout regimen, involving weightlifting, high intensity, low intensity, and play leads to a well-rounded organism that can tolerate new challenges well.
As far as running 20 miles every weekend…start where you are now. But it’s not such a bad idea to find a trail within driving distance of your home, to get up early on a Saturday morning and get out of town, to get back into nature and walk or lightly jog through it, getting fresh air, beautiful views, and stress-release all at the same time.
I think you should try it. At least once.
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It all started when my buddy Charlie said to me [film cuts to show actor-Charlie, talking to Josh casually over a beer]
Hey, let’s run to Tiburon next week. I mapped it out. It’s 14 miles. We can start at the Golden Gate Bridge, and then take the ferry back.
[cut back to Josh]
I just said “Hell yeah.” But then I thought about it. That’s 5 miles further than my furthest run yet. Is that too much?
All of my friends said I was totally nuts. [cut to friend talking to Josh] “You know, you’re only supposed to add like 10% a week to your run distance.”
[cut back]
But I was like, how do I know what I’m capable of, till I try it?
The run started out well enough. We jogged over the bridge, down into Sausalito. We stopped at a local grocery store to get some water, and an energy bar.
That’s when things went horribly wrong.
Charlie asked the lady behind the counter the best way to run over to Tiburon. [cut to checkout lady] “Go up to the light and then hang a left, and go under the freeway. You’ll run up the hill, and the trail is up there.”
Okay, we thought. No problem!
Off we went, jogging under the freeway, as directed, and into a housing project. We could’ve got mugged or shot. But there was no one around who wanted to shoot us, so it didn’t go down like that. So that was a close call.
We jogged up a very steep hill, and ended up walking half of it. As we were coming down, we saw a guy working on his car. Charlie asked him [cut to Charlie-actor asking guy-working-on-car-actor] “Do you know how to get to the path that leads to Tiburon?”
The guy laughed a little, and said “Well, Tiburon is that way.” pointing back the way we had come. We stared at each other for a second, then started running back the way we had come.
As we were running down the hill, the cops drove by us…one…two…three times. They looked at us each time, but never stopped, or talked to us. They could’ve shot us. That was close. Two near-shootings in one day. I was exhausted.
Back down the hill, and under the freeway, we made it back to the path we’d been on to begin with. We ran flat out for a while, finally coming to rest at a little park. You see, we both were seizing up around the legs. Not just the hips. Yes, those were seizing up. But also the quads, the hamstrings, the TFL, the calves, the anterior tibialii. Everything was seizing up. We could’ve seized up right there! None of those soccer moms probably knew how to relieve seized up legs. We would’ve died on the spot!
We stretched out for a bit, then started off again. We ran into this ridiculous neighborhood. The streets were all on hills. Like some kind of Dr. Seuss book. But it was a ghost town. We didn’t see any people at all. I just thought…”Man, if one of us sprains an ankle, we’ll die here.” It was serious.
By the time we got out of that neighborhood, neither of us could run anymore. That was the 11.5 mile mark. We still had a good 3.5 miles to go. What the hell were we going to do?!
Of course, we were both pleased that we’d exceeded our previous distance by almost 20%! Awesome!
Anyway…there we were. The longer we walked, the more our legs seized up. I felt like my skin-suit had shrunk on my whole body…I couldn’t lift my arms over my head…my legs felt like rusty two-by-fours…my left knee felt like it had a curling iron on it…my feet felt like somebody had eaten them and then put them back on my legs…
Yeah. If it doesn’t make sense to you, then you know how I felt!
At that point, we easily could’ve spontaneously combusted. In fact, Charlie did, once, but he got better. We kept walking, but the worst was yet to come.
If you’ve ever been to the San Francisco Bay area in the months of January-December, you’re probably familiar with something called “wind.” As the sun goes down, the air becomes frigid, and the wind kicks up. All at the same time. It’s like a Vampire’s wet dream. Because it happens fast, too. I mean, one second it’s nice and sunny, and the next it’s dark and windy, and cold, and God is laughing at you. He says He’s laughing with you. But he’s lying when he says that. He’s not.
Well, that happened to us. We both were wearing only t-shirts and shorts. That wind felt like being dragged on a cold wet beach backward by a helicopter. Oh yeah, because there was a bunch of sand on the path. So everytime the wind blew, it gave us exfoliation. Free exfoliation was nice. But hypothermia sucks.
And that’s where I knew we were going to die. We were both walking like we were competing for the role of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. We were becoming delirious, singing hair-rock songs really loud, and doing chorused guitar parts. I knew death was breathing on our necks.
It seemed like it took forever to get to Tiburon. At one point, Charlie looked at me and said [cut to Charlie looking at Josh and saying] “I just hit the Wall.”
If you’ve ever done something you didn’t think was physically possible for you, you know what that means. If not, imagine walking into a wall with your face. It feels like that. And you have to keep doing it.
But we finally got there! We were freezing! We walked into the grocery store and asked when the last ferry was. The guy said “Check the paper.” and pointed to a stack of papers at the end of the checkout counter [cut to guy pointing and mouthing the words "check the paper"].
Well, we were in luck! The last ferry wasn’t till 8:05, and it was now only 6:45! We had time!
You see, neither of us brought a phone. And we hadn’t checked the ferry times before leaving. We realized this around the time we started walking. But nobody wanted to talk about it. It’s like the time somebody in your family farted at Thanksgiving dinner. Yeah. Nobody wants to talk about it.
I still wasn’t convinced we’d make it out alive. And boy was I right!
We ate a pizza and drank beers at the local pizza shop, which helped to numb the pain. Then, got onto the ferry. But there were no life-jackets. And we hit an iceberg, or a giant wave. And it splashed on the boat. Close call.
When we landed at Pier 54 I leaped off the boat and kissed the ground. OH HALLELUJAH!
But the worst was yet to come.
It was about 10 degrees in SF at that point. And the beer was wearing off. We were trying to catch a cab in the only city in America that, as Eddie Izzard points out, has only 5 cabs. Luckily, Charlie noticed the hot-shit tourist hoodies for sale. We got some, and looked like homeless hobo twins with black feet.
Just then, Charlie spotted a cab and I flagged it down.
Mr. Cabbie had no fear of death. He never wore a seatbelt, and drove 50 miles per hour as quickly as he could get to it, for as long as the lights would let him. I surreptitiously buckled my own seatbelt…quietly, in case he had some moral issue with them, and might kick us out for using them.
When we got home, I wept. Well…that’s right now.
Thanks.
Hi!
Exuberant Animal is holding its first ever East Coast event on the weekend of November 7th and 8th, at the Gerstung Intersport Center, in Baltimore, MD.
The event is only $150, and includes 2 full days of play and learning, dinner on Saturday night, and a party.
Click this Picture to Download the Event Flyer
For those of you who don’t know, Exuberant Animal is a group founded by Frank Forencich that promotes health, vitality, and happiness, through physical activity – in particular, in play and play-based movement.
EA is built around a concept of fitness that comes from an evolutionary perspective of the human animal. We advanced through eons of development by being playful – inquisitive, adventurous, daring – by experimenting with new ways of doing things.
This evolutionary perspective is a large part of the EA mission, and includes addressing not just the ills of sedentarism, but also the ills caused by some of our modern “conveniences” – shoes, computers (and other devices leading to repetitive stress syndromes), hard flat surfaces, etc.
Because of this, you find people as diverse as Mick Dodge (the Barefoot Sensei), Barefoot Ted McDonald (barefoot running expert, and one of the cast/characters in Chris McDougall’s new book “Born to Run“), Kwame Brown (neuroscientist, child-development expert, and board member of the IYCA), Dr. Stuart Brown (head of the National Institute for Play).
As different as we are, we all share a common belief in the benefits of play for all people.
For me, being a part of Exuberant Animal has been a transformative process.
Having been in the fitness industry for 9 years now, and involved in play (in every aspect of life) and physical activity for my whole life, I’d come to a point where the traditional approach of sets, reps, and boring static exercise using machines, dumbbells, and other equipment, just wasn’t making sense anymore. I could feel the boredom flowing between my clients and myself after their umpteenth set of squats, bench press, or other “traditional” exercise.
Taking the reps/sets out of exercise, and injecting play in its place, brings diversity to movement. From that diversity, happiness grows.
As anyone knows who ever played competitive sports, you were at your peak when you weren’t focused on how much conditioning you did that day, but on how much you were “in it” – in the flow state. This is the state of play – where possibilities are open, you are unselfconscious, able to enjoy using your body in the moment to have fun and accomplish your desired goal.
In my experience, what most clients suffer from is a lack of motivation. Then, they come into the gym and we put them into bizarre circumstances where we’re observing and correcting them, making them even more self-conscious.
EA provides alternatives through fitness “games” that make the process interactive, playful, and most of all FUN. You still get to work people in all three planes of motion, you still get to use whatever equipment you like the most, but now you also get to engage your client’s spirits in their workouts.
If you’re on the East Coast, and you’re at all interested, go to the EA website, check out the details, and register for this event. It’s going to be great – and even greater if you’re there!
I’ll see you there!
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I attended a seminar this past Saturday at ZombieRunner in Palo Alto. The presenters were Barefoot Ted McDonald, and Christopher McDougall. Ted is a longtime barefoot running, and minimalist-footwear expert. Chris is the author of the book Born To Run.
Ted Transmitting the Know-How
The seminar was great! Ted covered the three foundational elements for a good barefoot running practice:
1. Land Gently/Silently
2. Have a fast foot turnover cadence – it should be around 180bpm
3. Have a relaxed and upright upper body posture
Another great idea that Ted shared was holding sticks or other straight objects in each hand when you run, to make sure your arms are swinging as directly forward/backward as possible, and not across the midline of your torso (creating torque, wasting energy).
If you’re just getting into barefoot running or running with minimalist footwear (Vibram Fivefingers, Vivo Barefoot shoes, or Feelmax shoes), try the tips above. For cadence training, it’s helpful to buy a metronome, or download one that you can play on your MP4 player, or iPod/iPhone touch (there are a couple).
Here are a few great quotes from Ted:
For safety, tie together your eyeballs, your brain, and your feet.
You perceive unfamiliar signals [such as pointy rocks that you're stepping on barefoot] as emergency information. That starts a feedback loop. You have to learn to recognize the difference between true emergency information and just uncomfortable sensation again.
Extend the imaginary boundaries of what you believe to be possible for yourself. Iti’s only by practice that you learn what your capacities are…
First off, sorry it’s been a while. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know my grandmother passed away about a month ago. Between that and “life,” I’ve struggled to keep up recently.
However, “here I’m is,” as they say.
I just finished reading “Born to Run.” Christopher McDougall’s excellent book is a combination of a historical treatise on the history of endurance (especially ultra-endurance) running and the Tarahumara Indians, barefoot running overview, and personal experience with running.
As with most books on exercise, the science bits of this book left me very unconvinced. These scientists say that humans gained bigger brains because we ran. But wait, they said we gained bigger brains because we ate more meat. But wait, they said we should eat vegetarian diets if we’re going to be long-distance athletes…
Let’s skip the “science.”
The best part of the book is the narrative McDougall weaves, and the lessons he interjects, seemingly casually, throughout that narrative.
His accounts of the Tarahumara Indians, and other great runners, not only smiling, but laughing, as they ran 100 miles, really resonated with me. Also, the stories of the great distance runners who were great because of the extreme joy they found in running – not because of macronutrient balance, heart rate workouts, or anything else.
It’s a joyful book, and a testament to finding joy in what you do, and looking for things that bring you joy. I highly recommend this book to anyone out there who wants to be happier!
I just want to be clear about my ideas about barefooting. I do believe that being barefoot as much as possible is healthy. However, I also believe that shoes are necessary at times, and particularly in the types of environments we’ve chosen to build for ourselves.
Here in SF, people pee and poo on the streets. I’m not interested in walking through that with my bare feet.
It’s not a great idea to go barefoot in the city for a number of reasons (aside from that one) – broken glass and other debris can cause real damage if you aren’t careful. If you have to look down to see what you’re landing in all the time, you might be better-served to use some shoes (more on those later).
It also isn’t too good to run barefoot on concrete. It’s an unforgiving surface (not at all like grass, dirt, or sand), and you’ll suffer for it, no matter what your form is like.
It is, however, physiologically more healthy to be barefoot as much as possible. And, with regards to footwear, it is healthy to wear shoes that allow your feet to move freely, and to run in a way where you land on the middle of your foot instead of on your heel.
Something else to think about, though, is what our choice of footwear (or any clothing, for that matter) is doing to our environment. Suddenly, when you have dense footwear, it’s okay that there’s broken glass on the streets. It isn’t a big deal. It’s okay to build time-, material-, and labor-intensive surfaces like sidewalks everywhere. When your life revolves around an automobile, people on bicycles are annoyances. It isn’t important if the roads are uneven or dangerous for cyclists.
Your choices necessarily exclude other things. It’s important to pay attention to what you’re choosing to exclude.
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