Article: Dr. Mark Cucuzzella’s Reply to Jeff Galloway’s Views on Minimalist Running Shoes and Injuri

There just seem to be an awful lot of people who are out there running BF / Minimalist and staying healthy and happy. I'm one of 'em. If it didn't work for me over the last 16 months I'd probably have stopped. We don't hear from many folks who give up and revert to conventional shoes once they've acclimated, either.

I also believe that the key is education. The ones getting hurt are the ones treating it as the fad and not giving the transition its due. I was lucky in that respect. I didn't transition at all, except from non-runner to barefoot runner.

Maybe Jeff galloway will live to revise his opinion. It's happened.

It's alwaysaggravating to mewhen people who don't support our running style trot out "severe injuries" as the main argument against running without the Highly Engineered Running Shoes. As if podiatrists and orthopaedic surgeons had no steadybusiness everfrom severely injuredrunners before this so-called fad? That's just silly. We get hurt because we move. A year to transition is about right and the first months were definitely tough for me, but I would do it again, absolutely. Wish I had taken off my shoes years ago when I first heard of barefoot running. Also,glass is very sparkly in the sunshine and easy to avoid. That one always puzzles me.

Ha ha.

IT's a shame that all the years of running haven't taught Jeff that much about the the sport he loves if that is the kind of uneducated belief he holds.

Ok, so as far he sees it the fad ends when all the injured runners tell their friends about the injuries and not to buy minimalist shoes or run barefoot. Well, considering the numbers of people that are being injured by conventional running shoes it may be about time that 'fad' should have ended but it hasn't so that argument has been debunked.

If he is meaning to say that runnners in conventional shoes never get injured then there would obviously be no need for all the podiatrists and sports doctors out there manufacturing orthotics, because, after all, the running shoe companies spend millions on their 'research'.

It's something of an irony that Jeff calls his stores Phidippides I bet that the real Phidippides wasn't sporting heavily enginneered running shoes, raised heels, springy cushioning etc, in fact I would hazzard a guess and say, if he wasn't barefoot then he would have been wearing something similar to a minimalist shoe.

Enough said.

Neil

BF Runners,



Want to leave you with a great piece and video that sums this up.....I think?

Rememeber the child and marshmellow experiment?

http://zero-drop.com/?p=3068

Enjoy and just go run!

Mark

This was a great post! I reposted it to facebook and laughed out loud at the marshmallow test!

I don't think I could have resisted the temptation of instant gratification back then. Different story with my barefoot running though.

Thanks Mark

I made the switch to barefoot/minimalist about a year and a half ago.My first transition footwear were Vibram Five Fingers and an old pair of Converse shoes. I currentlywear Luna Sandals and also do one or two total barefoot runs per week and run a total of about 50 miles per week. My prior chronic knee pain is now completely gone.



I have seen two cases of people injuring themselves while using Vibram Five Fingers:



The first is a 50-something year old male who was really jazzed about the idea but when we ran together I noticed that he continued heel striking in the VFFsjust as if he were wearing shoes. He went back to shoes.



The second is a 20-something female who is overweight and attempted to do mega-miles too soon before dropping the extra weight.



These injuries had more to dowith improper technique than the barefoot style itself.

Barefoot Friends,

I've been running sans shoes for about 10 months and usually run 4.5 milesevery other day. While on business in West Virginia, I greatly enjoyed running barefoot through the beautiful historic towns.In Shepherdstown, WV, Ihad the opportunity to visit Two Rivers Treads and truly enjoyed the family atmosphere andgenuine runners who work there! Dr. Mark Cucuzzella offers free clinics on running 101, injury prevention, and barefoot running. I highly recommend them!

Some of the towns have older roads, red brick sidewalks, and occasional glass shards (no explanation there)that can turn the soles of bare feet into hamburger.Recent 100+ degree daysmade the black top roads very toasty, so I went back to Two Rivers Treads to buy my first pair of KSO's. I put the shoes on, paid for them,and literally ran out.They were filming a Newton Running Commercial outside, which was far more fun to be in than listening to a marathon runner/chi running instructorexplain the importance of proper fit.

I later explained to Tom Shantz, one of the Shoe Guys, that I had a blister and may need to return the shoes. Tom refunded the money andthen refused to sell me a different pair of shoes until afterthe blister heals."It is the only way to ensure a proper fit when we put you in another pair of shoes," Tom told me. Tom then spent close to an hour, 20 minutes of which was after the store was closed, to share the benefits of a number of different minimalist running shoes. Wow! I learned more in that hour with Tom and during the barefoot running clinic withMark than I have in 10 months.Theytruly believe in what they are doing.



Run lightly,

Barefoot Dad

Galloway is (in a way) describing something we've often discussed on this site, that the experience of wearing minimal shoes can get people too excited and lead to TMTS injuries. I think that most people at the BRS wouldn't disagree with that observation, but they would disagree with dismissing minimal shoes outright as he seems to be suggesting.

As for actual BF running, it doesn't sound like Galloway really knows what he's talking about. The whole comment about the dangers of rocks and glass and etc. is frequently trotted out by "experts" (usually podiatrists) who discourage barefoot running, but anyone who has actually run BF knows how overblown those fears are. Accordingly, I get the impression that Galloway has observed very very few true BF runners.

The whole thing about "decades of orthopedic research" behind shoes is irrelevant. In all of that research, there is simply no evidence demonstrating any difference in injury rates between shod and barefoot runners. Every runner should know that, whether they choose to wear shoes or not.

My expreiance, I start running in VFF KSO, at frist I could not even make it 15 mins, after 3 months, I was able to complete a 1/2 marathon . last fall I complete my 8th 1/2 marathon and second one with my VFF. All I can say is Im running faster, stronger, and feel great at the end of the run. Also I have been injury free. Im now training for a full marathon.