The Barefoot Running Coach Certification Alternative

[BFwillie_g]

the thing is , BL (the reason I keep harping on this), one of the common positive side-effects of barefoot running is the elimination of call(o)uses. It's something that comes up now and again, and especially something that people ask us: "aren't you afraid of getting callouses?" Or they say, "I guess it takes a while to build up callouses". And we tell them, "wrongo - no callouses on my feet, just take a look!"

So, I think the semantics really is important to some extent.

My wife is jealous of my soft feet, btw.

I play electric guitar and have had real callouses on my fingertips, hard as rock (and can be painful, too). Totally different world.

 

[Bare Lee]

with you using the term callus and everyone else who thinks bf'ers get callused feet i steer clear of it. my feet aren't callused, they are leather thick and smooth. i tell people that. your skin doesn't get callused but gets thick and smooth like leather. of course they are always skeptical and usually don't want to see my feet. oh well.

Yah, I see you and BFwillie's point about wanting to steer clear of the term for pragmatic reasons--recruiting others to the benefits of BFR--I just don't know if the distinction holds up in physiological terms. My wife begins her nursing program this fall, maybe we'll have the definitive answer in a year or two . . .

 

[Bare Lee]

the thing is , BL (the reason I keep harping on this), one of the common positive side-effects of barefoot running is the elimination of call(o)uses. It's something that comes up now and again, and especially something that people ask us: "aren't you afraid of getting callouses?" Or they say, "I guess it takes a while to build up callouses". And we tell them, "wrongo - no callouses on my feet, just take a look!"

So, I think the semantics really is important to some extent.

My wife is jealous of my soft feet, btw.

I play electric guitar and have had real callouses on my fingertips, hard as rock (and can be painful, too). Totally different world.

I think the kind of calluses we get on our fingers are different because the pressure/friction is concentrated. But I find the calluses from playing stringed instruments are only painful when you're building them up. I used to play stand-up bass several hours a day, and got much bigger calluses than I did on electric bass or on guitar, and in all instances the calluses only hurt in the beginning of the adaptation. Also, when I started BFR consistently again last spring, I got a hard little spot in the middle of my right forefoot that eventually smoothed out, very much like the development of calluses on my hands and fingers, although, as you say, the calluses are a lot harder than on the soles, especially with acoustic guitar or bass.

So, while I can't see these adaptations to stimulus being any different in kind, certainly, I can agree with you guys that the adaptation differs in degree, and that there may be good reasons for avoiding the term altogether in order to not scare people away from the pleasures and benefits of BFR. In my case I often say something like "you develop a smooth, slightly thick callus, very different from those you get from shoes" That way I can maintain a certain level of descriptive accuracy without scaring anyone off.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Potatoe/Patato, a callous is the concentration of hardened skin due to repeated pressure, as Lee states. It's not necessarily a bad thing in barefoot running; in fact, it's a good thing. In barefoot running, if you develop a callus and it causes you pain, then you will know to adjust your form, so you don't become injured. Just like blisters, callouses are little teachers of proper form. I say, "little teachers of love."

 

[Bare Lee]

Potatoe/Patato, a callous is the concentration of hardened skin due to repeated pressure, as Lee states. It's not necessarily a bad thing in barefoot running; in fact, it's a good thing. In barefoot running, if you develop a callus and it causes you pain, then you will know to adjust your form, so you don't become injured. Just like blisters, callouses are little teachers of proper form. I say, "little teachers of love."

Ha! I was going to include that Armstrong lyric this morning, but then thought it would be too corny. Glad to see we think alike! And 'little teachers of love' is a great one to remember . . .

 

[migangelo]

um i think you missed the part where she said they're like blisters and tell us our form needs improvement.

calluses aren't a good thing.

I worked sales many years and the minute you say "callus", no matter what you say after, people will only remember that. it's best to keep it out of your vocab for this reason.

 

[Bare Lee]

hmnn, getting a little prickly here . . .
I guess I should have been clearer, but I thought we were already belaboring the point, and was looking for a diplomatic way out.
To sum:
*As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of calluses, the good kind and the bad kind, resulting from the same stimuli via the same physiological process.
*As both you, I, and Willie have noted, most people tend to think of calluses as only being the bad kind.
*I accepted you guys' argument that it might be bad pr or salesmanship to use the term for this reason when describing to initiates or the 'bare curious' our plantar adaptation to BFR.
*Therefore, when TJ used the term 'callous/callus, I took it in the communal, albeit possibly erroneous, sense used here, and agreed with her.
Are we done?

 

[BFwillie_g]

In barefoot running, if you develop a callus and it causes you pain, then you will know to adjust your form, so you don't become injured. Just like blisters, callouses are little teachers of proper form.

right ... and once you're adjusted and built up enough miles, no more call(o)uses; just lovely, envy-inducing soft skin

 

[migangelo]

i've said all i can. don't think i was angry because i wasn't and i'm not. just giving another point of view.
i've learned no matter how well you may explain things people will interpret in their own way. i tend to keep my answers short now because of it. no need to waste my time if someone won't understand even if i laid it out from 1-10.

 

[Bare Lee]

i've said all i can. don't think i was angry because i wasn't and i'm not. just giving another point of view.
i've learned no matter how well you may explain things people will interpret in their own way. i tend to keep my answers short now because of it. no need to waste my time if someone won't understand even if i laid it out from 1-10.

Right, no anger, just mutual incomprehension. It happens. I didn’t appreciate the condescension, but no worries—I have a thick (smooth) skin .

 

[jldeleon]

Mutual incomprehension...lol. I pick up so many good phrases on this site. Lol.

 

[migangelo]

i'm a nice guy but i am a guy and can be an ahole at times. wasn't trying to be condescending but more opening your point of view. i deal with people all the time and things easily get misconstrued.

 

[Bare Lee]

i'm a nice guy but i am a guy and can be an ahole at times. wasn't trying to be condescending but more opening your point of view. i deal with people all the time and things easily get misconstrued.

Yah, no harm no foul. I generally like your laconic comments and sense of humor. When I said condescending, I meant the I'm-a-longterm-barefooter-and-you-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about attitude expressed in some of you and Willie's comments. Even if I had begun BFR last week this kind of claim would be largely irrelevant (a shod, non-runner dermatologist, for example, would greatly outrank us in this kind of discussion), and I didn't appreciate the presumption. That's why I described at length my past experiences, to move that silliness to the side and focus on how, exactly, two different processes could be involved, or how and why we could call the results from the same process two different things. And, unlike you two, I always qualified my assertions, since my background in medicine/the natural sciences ended at the beginning of my junior year in college, when I switched from premed/bio major to political economic anthro. Anyway, I consider the case closed unless someone (not us) who really knows what they're talking about wants to arbitrate . . .

 

[NickW]

political economic anthro.

What exactly is this Lee?

 

[Bare Lee]

Basically, it tries to understand different cultures and cultural development in terms of social formations and modes of production. Most of our modern anthropological knowledge began with the expansion of capitalism into tributary (feudal), horticulturalist, and hunter-gatherer societies. So it's useful to frame our understanding of a given society and its ongoing development (or debasement) within this wider context. Other schools of thought try, or tried, to understand societies as entities in and of themselves, without taking into account histories of trade, slavery, hut taxes, seasonal labor, etc., and therefore had a very biased or partial view of what was really going on.

 

[NickW]

That sounds interesting. The political part of the title is what threw me off.

 

[Bare Lee]

That sounds interesting. The political part of the title is what threw me off.

Before the development of social sciences last century, the 'political' and the 'economy' were often grouped together as a single object of study. Some would argue that their separation mystifies for us plebs their true nature. But we're getting pretty far away from certification here . . . I think this is the biggest hijack I've participated in.

 

[migangelo]

lee, i completely see where you're coming from. i did get calluses, big ones under my 2nd met really and the ones on my big toes got even bigger. they went away, thank goodness. now just smooth skin.
i just believe for someone to hear that term, no matter the true definition, a picture of a big ugly patch of skin will come to mind. no one who gets pedicures will want that.

 

[jldeleon]

Basically, it tries to understand different cultures and cultural development in terms of social formations and modes of production. Most of our modern anthropological knowledge began with the expansion of capitalism into tributary (feudal), horticulturalist, and hunter-gatherer societies. So it's useful to frame our understanding of a given society and its ongoing development (or debasement) within this wider context. Other schools of thought try, or tried, to understand societies as entities in and of themselves, without taking into account histories of trade, slavery, hut taxes, seasonal labor, etc., and therefore had a very biased or partial view of what was really going on.

That's awesome! If I could go back to school, I would major in cultural anthropology. I got scared away from it in the first place when I almost flunked my first basic anthropology class. I can't remember names and places, so that is not useful at all. Lol. Instead I majored in Intercultural Communications and Relations with an emphasis in Communications, Political Science, and Humanities. Sounds pretty cool huh? I just wanted a degree that sounds cool. I love multi-emphasis degrees, they make more sense.

 

[migangelo]

always thinking of what i should've said after i did it. you're funny and insightful as well. we've gone way OT here but it's in the same sense. we have to qualify barefoot already. now to explain the correct terminology for callus. waste of energy to me. just like all the energy i wasted explaining my line of thinking. time to go drink.

i had an oakshire ipa. it's organic beer from track city usa, eugene, or. wait, damn. wrong thread again.