New Trend in Running: No (or Almost No) Shoes

The Lab Rat
Shoeless Joe
When it comes to running footwear, sometimes less is more.

By Nick Heil

ON A WARM MARCH DAY, in a fit of spring fever, I drove to a nearby park, whipped off my shoes and socks, and set out for a run. I wasn’t just trying to get in touch with my inner Tarahumara; I was investigating the new trend in "natural-motion" running, the purest embodiment of which involves jogging sans shoes.

I didn’t make it very far. After dodging dog droppings and rusty beer cans land-mined across a baseball outfield, I hit a dirt path that immediately began to flay my feet. Even at my tenderfoot pace, my calves knotted up like Chuck Liddell’s fists. Forget this, I thought, giving up after less than a mile, and limped back to the car to recover my smelly old kicks.

For around 40 years, running shoes have been evolving into a $4 billion industry of ever-more-sophisticated support systems involving techy foams, air bladders, springs, rubberized padding, and gel. Recently, however, there’s been a back-to-nature movement, with runners opting for minimalist shoe designs or, in extremis, no shoes at all. "Cushioning gets oversold," says Dr. Stephen Pribut, a biomechanics expert in Washington, D.C., and former president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. "Thinner-soled shoes can give runners important proprioceptive feedback and encourage a shorter stride and midfoot strike, all of which helps prevent injury."

Natural-motion evangelists believe our feet have become "lazy," overswaddled in unnecessary layers of fabric and foam. This allows runners to strike heavily on their heels, driving the impact of each foot plant straight up into their ankles, knees, and hips. With less shoe, the argument goes, you land on your midfoot, so your ankle and knee joints work more like shock-absorbing springs, warding off joint problems, plantar fasciitis, and even sprains. A 1997 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that the more heavily engineered (and, typically, more expensive) the shoe, the more likely it was to contribute to an injury.

Some proponents, like "Barefoot Ted" McDonald, of Seattle, take the trend to its limit: If less shoe is better, no shoe must be best. "The beauty of barefoot running is that there is nothing forcing your foot to do something other than what it wants to do," says McDonald, who’s run 20 marathons and ultramarathons unshod.

The first company to chase this small but growing community was Nike. In 2005, it released the Free, a shoe with so many flexible, underfoot grooves that it mimicked barefoot running. More recently, a raft of companies have followed suit with models that have lower heels and less cushioning, encouraging a barefooter’s short, springy gait.

After my discouraging attempt to go bare in the park, I eased toward full foot nudity by test-driving some of the latest: the New Balance MR800, the Newton Motion, and the Ecco Biom B. Within a few weeks, I was converted. I ran longer and faster, and with less soreness afterwards.

I decided to up the ante with the wild-looking, barely-there Vibram FiveFingers. The sole is just half a centimeter of Vibram’s sticky rubber glued to a stretchy, socklike nylon upper, with individual sleeves that wrap each toe like a tiny condom. First released in 2006 for boaters, they were quickly adopted by barefoot runners who don’t like picking shards of old Mickey’s bottles from their feet.

It took me a while to get used to the VFF’s simian appearance, but soon I began wearing them everywhere—walking my dog, going to the store, hiking nearby trails—much to the amusement of my fellow pedestrians. I still couldn’t manage to run more than a few blocks in them, but I soon felt the actual bones, tendons, and ticklish soft spots under my arch getting stronger.

It dawned on me that while I’ve long heaped attention on my core, arms, legs, and shoulders, I’d neglected the foundation of the entire system. Strong feet provide essential balance, power, and speed for a variety of sports, not just running. I began deploying the FiveFingers during drills and gym workouts, rehab exercises after spraining an ankle in a soccer game, and while padding around my house battling writer’s block.

It seems unlikely I’ll ever join the tribe of barefoot runners, but I do intend to refocus on my feet as a woefully overlooked link in my fitness chain. Sometimes it pays to rethink your basic assumptions about training. This time, my overhaul is happening from the ground up.

Outside Magazine, June 2009

 

In the same category: The Running Shoe Debate: How Barefoot Runners are Shaping the Shoe Industry

 

 

Break Your Bad Running Habits

 

In 2001, Melisa Christian was a 3:30 marathoner plagued by stomach cramps and frequent porta-potty stops. But she never sought a doctor’s help. "I thought it was either a normal part of training or race-day anxiety," says the 31-year-old Dallas dentist. Three years later, Christian was diagnosed with food intolerances. After she eliminated wheat and dairy from her diet, her symptoms vanished. In November, she ran a 2:41:57 personal best in New York City. "I no longer have the mindset that because I’m a runner I can’t benefit from a checkup," she says.

Running makes us fit, not invincible. When we neglect our bodies’ basic needs, we can’t go as far or, as Christian discovered, as fast. Breaking your bad habits with these easy fixes will make you a better runner, not to mention a happier, healthier person.

BAD HABIT: You Are Your Own Medic
We runners are often hyperaware of our bodies, and when something’s "off," we’re quick to self-diagnose and treat. We’ll ice a tight hamstring, pop ibuprofen, and hobble through lingering pain. Big mistake, says Lewis G. Maharam, M.D., medical director of the New York Road Runners and Team in Training. "Minor injuries could turn into serious issues like muscle tears or stress fractures."

BREAK IT :
When you have a nagging ache or pain, the sooner you see a doctor—preferably a sports-medicine specialist—the faster you’ll be back on track. An expert who recognizes that you’re an overpronator, for example, could offer better insights on treating your iliotibial band syndrome. If you’ve been sluggish on runs, schedule a checkup. Asthma, a heart murmur, high blood pressure, or anemia can sap energy levels. Ask your doc to test your blood’s iron stores. "Serum ferritin, a protein responsible for iron storage, can become depleted, which is associated with slower recovery and declining performances," says Dr. Maharam.

BAD HABIT: You Never Stretch
It’s hard to squeeze in runs some days, never mind stretching. But tight muscles can contribute to shinsplints, plantar fasciitis, and muscle pulls, which could sideline you for weeks. Improved flexibility also shortens recovery time; looser muscles are more receptive to glycogen replacement, which accelerates healing, says Skip Stolley, director of VS Athletics Track Club in Santa Monica, California.

BREAK IT:
Your muscles get the most benefit from stretching postrun. Ideally, you’d tack on a 15-minute flexibility routine to your workout. No time? Drop a six-miler to a five-miler and use those leftover minutes to hit your calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes. "You’re not hurting your workout—you’re enhancing it," says Stolley. "The benefits of stretching will do your body more good than could be done by running that mile."

BAD HABIT: You’re a Night Owl
Runners who shortchange sleep compromise recovery, immunity, and mental sharpness, which can turn an easy workout into a grueling one. "Sleep enhances the restoration of cells that are damaged from running," says Ralph Downey, Ph.D., chief of sleep medicine at California’s Loma Linda University Medical Center. Getting enough shut-eye can also ward off "effort headaches." A 1999 study found that distance runners experienced twice the number of headaches as nonrunners. Downey says this is most likely due to the dilation of blood vessels and sinuses that occurs during exercise. The good news: The headaches occurred less often when the runners got more sleep.

BREAK IT:
Some people are fine with five hours, others require 10. Runners who put greater demands on their bodies tend to benefit from the higher end of that range, says Downey. Note how many hours you get each night in your training log. Review it and look for patterns. Once you figure out your target number, try to hit it each night, particularly during the week leading up to a race.

BAD HABIT: You Forgo Sunscreen
In 2007, the Archives of Dermatology reported that runners are at a higher risk of developing skin cancer than nonrunners. Researchers found that the occurrence of skin abnormalities increased with mileage, not only because of increased sun exposure, but perhaps because training can suppress immune function, making the body more susceptible to the sun’s ill effects. Another study named sweat as a contributor to UV-related skin damage; perspiration increases the photosensitivity of skin, which makes it more prone to burning. "The sun is definitely a job hazard for distance runners," says Deena Kastor, 2004 Olympic Marathon medalist, who was diagnosed with squamous-cell carcinoma and melanoma in 2001.

BREAK IT:
Before every run, put on a water- or sweat-proof SPF 15 lotion that shields against UVA and UVB rays, says Rodney Basler, M.D., past chairman of the American Academy of Dermatology’s Task Force on Sports Medicine. If you have fair skin or a family history of melanoma, follow Kastor’s example: She slathers on sunscreen, wears sun-protective clothing, and avoids midday runs.

BAD HABIT: You Never Rest
Overtraining can cause persistent soreness, suppressed immunity, injuries, moodiness, and loss of motivation. "Rest isn’t the absence of training, it’s an important component of it," Stolley says. "During recovery periods, your cardiovascular and muscular systems are restored and rebuilt to a higher level—that’s where all performance gains are made."

BREAK IT:
Every training program should have a rest day in addition to two or three easy days (shorter, less-intense runs following harder efforts) each week. If you didn’t have a strenuous week, it’s okay to cross-train—go for a hike or swim, take a yoga class, or treat your dog to a long walk. But if you’re coming off a high-mileage week, reward yourself with a day of total rest. Schedule a massage or breakfast with a friend so you’ll feel like the time off was well spent.

 

 

 

4 Ways to Make Your Treadmill Workouts Fun

By The Editors of Women’s Health
Women’s Health

 Just think: If global warming were a good thing, you’d never have to run indoors on a treadmill ever again. You can see where we’re going with this. The next time you’re running bored on the belt, change your routine with one of these four programs. They’ll help you burn calories, without burning you out.

 

Play By Numbers

First, calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) by subtracting your age from 220. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends hitting at least 70 percent of your MHR while you exercise to maximize your calorie burn and fat loss. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, count your pulse for 10 seconds, and multiply that number by 6. Keep working at 70 percent of your MHR for as long as you can. When you get tired, slow the treadmill to an easy jogging pace, and rest for a few minutes. Next, see how long you can go at 85 percent of your MHR.

 

Random Pickup

Tom Holland, a triathlete and physiologist in Darien, Connecticut, suggests watching a 30-minute TV program, like the nightly news. Increase your speed so that you’re running hard (about 80 percent of your maximum) during the commercials. When Katie Couric returns, slow your pace to an easy jog.

 

Take a Hike

Rebecca Rusch, top adventure racer and 2003 winner of the Raid Gauloises, likes to walk or run on an incline to mimic hiking outside. Some treadmills have preprogrammed hiking trails, but if yours doesn’t, Rusch recommends this: Walk at 3.5 miles per hour on a flat belt. Increase the incline every minute until it reaches 5 percent, and stay for three minutes. Next, lower and raise the belt every two minutes until you’ve been exercising for 25 minutes. Gradually lower the belt and decrease your speed over five minutes to cool down.

 

Weight it Out

If you’re short on time, do double duty with your cardio and grab a pair of two to five pound dumbbells. Perform biceps curls as you walk, raising and lowering your arms with each step. Next, perform military shoulder presses. Hold the dumbbells at shoulder height, with your palms facing forward. Press them up overhead, and return them to start. Do 10 repetitions of each exercise. If you need your hands for balance, try this on a stationary bike.

 

 

 

Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

 

The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies in the work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid-1990s. Researchers there, hoping to elucidate the underlying cause of back pain, attached electrodes to people’s midsections and directed them to rapidly raise and lower their arms, like the alarmist robot in “Lost in Space.”

In those with healthy backs, the scientists found, a deep abdominal muscle tensed several milliseconds before the arms rose. The brain apparently alerted the muscle, the transversus abdominis, to brace the spine in advance of movement. In those with back pain, however, the transversus abdominis didn’t fire early. The spine wasn’t ready for the flailing. It wobbled and ached. Perhaps, the researchers theorized, increasing abdominal strength could ease back pain. The lab worked with patients in pain to isolate and strengthen that particular deep muscle, in part by sucking in their guts during exercises. The results, though mixed, showed some promise against sore backs.

From that highly technical foray into rehabilitative medicine, a booming industry of fitness classes was born. “The idea leaked” into gyms and Pilates classes that core health was “all about the transversus abdominis,” Thomas Nesser, an associate professor of physical education at Indiana State University who has studied core fitness, told me recently. Personal trainers began directing clients to pull in their belly buttons during crunches on Swiss balls or to press their backs against the floor during sit-ups, deeply hollowing their stomachs, then curl up one spinal segment at a time. “People are now spending hours trying to strengthen” their deep ab muscles, Nesser said.

But there’s growing dissent among sports scientists about whether all of this attention to the deep abdominal muscles actually gives you a more powerful core and a stronger back and whether it’s even safe. A provocative article published in the The British Journal of Sports Medicine last year asserted that some of the key findings from the first Australian study of back pain might be wrong. Moreover, even if they were true for some people in pain, the results might not apply to the generally healthy and fit, whose trunk muscles weren’t misfiring in the first place.

“There’s so much mythology out there about the core,” maintains Stuart McGill, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a back-pain clinician who has been crusading against ab exercises that require hollowing your belly. “The idea has reached trainers and through them the public that the core means only the abs. There’s no science behind that idea.” (McGill’s website is backfitpro.com.)

The “core” remains a somewhat nebulous concept; but most researchers consider it the corset of muscles and connective tissue that encircle and hold the spine in place. If your core is stable, your spine remains upright while your body swivels around it. But, McGill says, the muscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bear large loads. If you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize your spine by pulling it out of alignment. Think of the spine as a fishing rod supported by muscular guy wires. If all of the wires are tensed equally, the rod stays straight. “If you pull the wires closer to the spine,” McGill says, as you do when you pull in your stomach while trying to isolate the transversus abdominis, “what happens?” The rod buckles. So, too, he said, can your spine if you overly focus on the deep abdominal muscles. “In research at our lab,” he went on to say, “the amount of load that the spine can bear without injury was greatly reduced when subjects pulled in their belly buttons” during crunches and other exercises.

Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs. Side plank (lie on your side and raise your upper body) and the “bird dog” (in which, from all fours, you raise an alternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded along the back and sides of the core. As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks. An approved crunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands positioned beneath your lower back for support. “Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor,” McGill says. Gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down. These three exercises, done regularly, McGill said, can provide well-rounded, thorough core stability. And they avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine. “I see too many people,” McGill told me with a sigh, “who have six-pack abs and a ruined back.”

 

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