Sensing ground, as a lifestyle: A review of Barefoot Running by Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee - R

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[photo by Karri O. (Creative Commons)]
Sensing ground, as a lifestyle: a review of Barefoot Running by Michael Sandler and Jessica LeeReview by Abide
[Editor's note: One of the most persistent promoters of barefoot running is Michael Sandler, who travels and teaches running widely, but does not receive the same level of adoration from BRS members as Ken Bob Saxton. Sandler is a constant presence in Internet news and publicity feeds about barefoot running, and (assuming these sources are true) often shows up in news stories and at store events that promote minimalist running shoes. From the point of view of someone who's never met Sandler, namely this editor, it's been fair to ask if Sandler is selling out or just incredibly enthusiastic, preaching to all comers. In his review of Sandler's book, the BRS's Abide suggests the latter view is the right one. Sandler's book places barefoot running inside a whole barefoot-inspired lifestyle. For my own part I knew that Sandler was for real when I read his entirely serious chapterette on barefoot trail running in the dark... something I do but have been too timid to recommend to anybody else. :) --stomper ]

Barefoot Running: how to run light and free by getting in touch with the Earth. by Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee. Run Bare Publishing. ISBN-10: 0984382208.

After receiving Michael Sandler’s book Barefoot Running I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading his book. Initially when I received the book I thumbed through it to get an idea of how someone could actually write 300 pages about barefoot running. It was no surprise that the barefoot running portion of the book was supplemented by sections about: how the foot works, diet, sleep , grounding blankets, barefoot children and barefoot elderly (for me these last two made this book worth its weight in gold). Now to be fair the bulk of the book is about barefoot running but be prepared if you are a cover to cover reader like me you will have to wade through some fluff to get to the meat.

Michael is a barefoot running coach located in Boulder, Colorado, that is a former speed skater and professional cyclist. I’m not sure what professional cyclist and speed skater have to do with running, but hey who cares they sound cool on your resume. And he finished the Bolder Boulder and the Denver half marathon on crutches, anyone who would attempt that is pretty awesome in my opinion. Stories like that are why this book oozes Boulder. In fact the nostalgia from reading his book almost made me back my bags and head back to Colorado. Boulder is one of those special places that houses some of the most unique and contradictory people in the world and Michael is a poster child for a stereotypical Boulderrite.

Barefoot Running is a cache of great information about barefoot running for beginners and experienced runners. For the beginner Michael provides detailed steps on how to begin and what distances to run. His recommendations about starting out are accurate compared to the general consensus of barefoot runners, start with slow speeds and short distances, build up slowly and give yourself ample rest time. For the more experienced runners he provides a variety of different ideas about running form, strength exercises and cross training ideas. Overall the advice is solid and thorough, but not ground breaking. There are some points in the book I would argue, but they are so minor it would be fickle to do so, with one exception, he preaches running on your toes a little too much, let your heels touch for your achilles sake.

The question now is would you benefit from this book? Maybe, but then again maybe not. There is a general theme across most barefoot running advice, “listen to your body” and here is where I believe the disconnect begins for a barefoot runner. We stop listening to our feet and start listening to others advice instead. I think that the overload of information from reading an in depth barefoot running book may actually be counterproductive for most runners. For example Michael discusses proper arm position when running. His belief is that you should run with chicken wings or arms contracted more than 90 degrees, or your fists by your chest. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with running like this, but it may not be the most efficient running style for everyone. Some runners preach holding your arms at 90 degrees and some for an even greater angle. Ultimately I feel you should pick the one that works the best for you, the one that feels the most efficient. Which is probably the one your run with when you are not thinking about it, or as I like to call it unmindfully running.

There are two chapters in this book that I think everyone should read and I wish Michael would post on his web site. They are about the benefits children and elderly going barefoot. These two chapters are very well written, convincing and crucial for people to know. I would honestly recommend buying this book for these two chapters alone. In fact TJ just posted a great essay about barefoot children on the BRS located here.

If you are relatively experienced barefoot runner, you enjoy reading different perspectives and like to experiment with different ideas in your running then I would highly recommend reading this book. You can find all of this information fragmented on the internet, but it is nice to have it consolidated in one place. If you are beginning barefoot running, I would not recommend reading this book from cover to cover. Start out with just reading the beginning section, then go run barefoot for a few months. After your get some experience barefoot running come back to finish it. There is way too much information to absorb and effectively utilize when you are just starting. Listen to your body initially and develop your own style of barefoot running that is unimpeded by others advice. One additional note before I finish, if dreamy spirituality or pseudo science is your pet peeve, you may want to pick and choose what chapters you read to the barefoot sections only. Otherwise enjoy!
 
I saw Michael and Jessica talk at In-Step in Boulder (barefoot friendly running shop) about a year ago. Of course I picked up a signed copy of the book as well. I found the writing better than the editing...the chapters are well written and there is clever advice throughout, but the same advice is in the body of text, in sidebars and in summaries.

After the first few chapters the redundacies seemed to level out, or I began to ignore them...not sure which, but the reading got easier.

I found the book to be an excellent source of info on how to run in general. Like Abide, I don't exactly agree with everything (chicken arms cut off circulation to my hands), but there is reasoning behind everything in the book and I found myself learning a lot about running even though I've been doing it a while. Worth the read, for sure.