To bare or not to bare...?

As I’m sure you all know that when training for, well anything really, it’s a good idea to vary the type of exercise to help prevent injury. This is even more important if you are injured….soooo still in slight recovery mindset I thought I’d dig out some ‘unusual’ footwear that I purchased on a whim a few months ago but never actually got round to wearing and to try them out during a walk.

They’re called ‘Vibram five fingers’ and the theory behind these is that we were made to roam the earth in bare feet, so really our biomechanics have/did evolve to walk in this way. Imagine legging it for a train you’re about to miss in barefoot or canvas pumps with virtually no cushioning in the sole, you will automatically run on your toes to avoid the high impact of heel striking the hard ground. BUT we’re now so used to having solid, cushioned soled shoes strapped to our feet, claiming to be the best for ‘shock absorption’ and the most ‘supportive comfortable’ trainer yet, that we have forgotten our roots. Has it ever occurred to you that all these years of walking/running in these types of shoes has made us ‘lazy’? Has it made us ‘forget’ how to run properly? Has it made us adopt awkward postures? And has this made us more prone to injury? Our close relation between the soles of our feet and floor has reduced; less proprioceptive feedback to our brain has caused connections to be lost and our intrinsic foot muscles and ligaments have weakened. Weakness and laxity  gives rise to biomechanical problems such as flat feet, lazy bums, knock-knees…the list goes on?! So we compensate, but there is only so far we can take our bodies before they eventually decide they can’t go on in this unnatural way before we become injured.

Enough about that for the moment, I’ve read up on these shoe, they recommend to gradually wean into running with them, but start on soft ground for short distances and gradually build up as your body adapts. Expect to feel new aches and pains, as you will be using muscles that simply aren’t used to this kind of activity.

SO…this Sunday morning my cross training was taking me for a bike ride around Macclesfield forest, however a few ailments prevented this (namely and hungover hubbie and a flat tyre with no spare), so we opted for a walk instead, this prompted me to realise a great opportunity to try out my ‘five fingers’, soft ground and walking, that’s got to be the best way to wean into using them surely?

The model I bought are Bikila and I just found out after recently reading the book  Born to Run that Bikila is an Ethiopian Olympian marathon winner. He was meant to be wearing a pair of Adidas trainers for the 1960 Marathon race, but as they were so uncomfortable he decided to run barefoot the way he’d trained for the race. Needless to say he won in a record time of 2:15:16.2, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold medal!!!

Anyway back to Mac and our walk, we were aiming for a couple of hours worth of walking followed by a pub lunch-this ended up as 3.5 hours….and VERY TIRED LEGS!!!

The shoes themselves are extremely comfortable, I feel like I can almost grip the floor-a bit like ‘Beast’ in X-Men!! Quite weird really, and you can literally feel every lump and bump underfoot, but not in a painful stone-in-shoe type of way. I even felt the grass between my toes, I had to keep checking there were no holes in the seams as everything thing felt so hypersensitive (this would be the proprioception I mentioned earlier!).

All in all, I can say I’d certainly consider trying to build up my training in them, maybe it will sort out all the nagging niggles I keep getting while training for longer distances’ than 13.1 miles!? But while I’m half way there now I’ll stick to my Asics (Kyanos- the most supportive stability shoe!!!) as I’m sure going from one extreme to the other is no good either. A thought to consider, a colleague (podiatrist) pointed out, we were made to walk in barefoot, but we weren’t made to walk on concrete…