Are running trainers doing more harm than good to your feet?

Are running trainers doing more harm than good to your feet?
By Peter Francis, The Independent


The author, Peter Francis, is a member of the BRS:
running-barefoot-1.jpg



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For once a good article.
I was trawling through Youtube the other day looking for videos on barefoot running and came across the usual where a sport person is consulting the "expert" ie a podiatrist and getting the usual rubbish that they are taught about running barefoot leads to collapsed arches. It makes you want to pull your hair out, it's the sort of thing you expect to hear out of Fox news or the Murdoch misinformation empire when it comes to global warming.
The things that leads to collapsed and weakened arches are arch supports and weak calves. I know as my feet were stuffed up by "experts" with qualifications.
When it comes down to it, experience beats qualifications hands down. I ran 22km over the weekend barefoot on sand, brick pavement and concrete without a problem, my arches and connective tissues in my feet are so much stronger than when I first threw my orthotics in the bin where they belonged. When I got rid of them I could hardly walk 100m barefoot without pain.
I have learned over the years not to be fooled by so called qualified experts, show me the experience is what I ask for now.

Regards

Neil
 
I read all I can come across about barefoot running and some "expert" advice is to transition to minimal and then barefoot. I followed that advice and it was horrible. Just an anecdote but still shows that after more that 10 years of BTR, the wisdom of the initiated was diluted in disinformation.
Thankfully, there still are communities like BRS holding strong and helping people.
 
I read all I can come across about barefoot running and some "expert" advice is to transition to minimal and then barefoot. I followed that advice and it was horrible. Just an anecdote but still shows that after more that 10 years of BTR, the wisdom of the initiated was diluted in disinformation.
Thankfully, there still are communities like BRS holding strong and helping people.

Indeed! My main regret is I followed the advice to "transition gradually" going from lower drop with stability control to neutral shoe to 0mm drop with padding to no padding ... Along the way I got top-of-the-foot pain, calf pulls, achilles tendonitis and my running performance wasn't improving. Once I finally took the shoes off it was like finding the cheat codes for running.
 
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Cheat Codes...I like that! :barefoot::happy:

haha

I started thinking of that analogy a couple years ago. I noticed how much harder others seemed to be working during the 50k compared to me. I actually admire those people. There are so many runners who haven't worked on their form much at all and they're stomping it out with ponderously slow steps, relying way too much on raw muscle power, pushing their bodies to the limits and really working hard. They don't have to work that hard and that may be kind of a sad thought but it's also somewhat inspiring. Humans are stubborn, tough, resiliant and strong. Our main failing is we often just don't know what we're doing and we try to fix that by doing it wrong harder.
 
haha

I started thinking of that analogy a couple years ago. I noticed how much harder others seemed to be working during the 50k compared to me. I actually admire those people. There are so many runners who haven't worked on their form much at all and they're stomping it out with ponderously slow steps, relying way too much on raw muscle power, pushing their bodies to the limits and really working hard. They don't have to work that hard and that may be kind of a sad thought but it's also somewhat inspiring. Humans are stubborn, tough, resiliant and strong. Our main failing is we often just don't know what we're doing and we try to fix that by doing it wrong harder.
Work Smarter, Not Harder! Right?
 
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running-barefoot-1.jpg


That image speaks volumes to me, a very accurate rendition of what I experience when I’m running the trails- my feet automatically compensate and “wrap” themselves around protrusions such as rocks, roots (unless I drive my damn toe into those buggers!), pine cones, etc. We’ve got a pretty awesome suspension system (feet, knees, hips...) if we use them right.

Cheat codes- good one Trevise :)
 

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