With all the hype of late on barefoot running due largely to the popularity of the book Born To Run by Christopher McDougall I thought it appropriate to weigh in on this issue. The concept of barefoot running has been around for many years in many cultures all over the world, as McDougall describes in his book. A key concept for the modern day runner to recognize is that most of us have been raised to walk on manmade surfaces(roads and sidewalks) that have been evenly paved and smoothed out. Adding to which, we have spent our entire lives in built up shoes with cushioned soles and arch supports. Contrast this with tribes like the Tarahumara that McDougall highlights in his book, who have spent their entire lives walking and running barefoot on natural, uneven terrain, and do so injury free well into the later years of their lives. How can they do that? Why do we suffer so many running injuries despite expensive running shoes and years of engineering making these shoes better?
A lifetime of doing so has led them to develop a wider foot structure, with much stronger foot intrinsic muscles and much better balance and coordination of the foot, ankle and lower leg muscles. As such, we cannot expect someone who has spent their life walking and running on smooth surfaces and in shoes to just go cold turkey and hang up their running shoes.
The problem is that modern day runners do not possess enough strength, balance and coordination of the lower leg and foot intrinsic muscles that control the foot and ankle and also lack proper balance and coordination required to adjust to the ground as the foot strikes the ground during running. Therefore, if barefoot running is a goal, you must approach it in a way that slowly trains these muscles to adapt gradually to be able to run barefoot.
At Tri-Core Performance Therapy, we utilize a Movement Screen that was developed by Physical Therapist Gray Cook(Functional Movement Screen at www.functionalmovement.com). The movement screen evaluates 7 Major Movement Patterns essential to human performance.
Cook states with looking into barefoot running it is important to clear up the Big 3 movements: Deep squat, In line lunge, and hurdle step. All these movements look at mobility, stability and balance of the foot and ankle, knee, hip, lumbar spine and pelvis in relation to each other during the movement.
We then must evaluate single leg balance? We can also evaluate the effect of an orthotic on balance, if balance is better with an orthotic; we may need to use a corrective orthotic for a few months to re-pattern the arch of the foot.
- After e few months in the orthotic, we have re-patterned the arch, but you do not possess the motor control to own that new arch, the orthotic does.
- Now we can progress to one day a week training in Vibrams or Nike Free
- Jump rope will foster correct posture and gluteal activation and hip extension, as opposed to running on treadmill which is hip flexion dominant.
- Calf muscles will hurt due to intrinsic activation. After one month, you can progress to twice a week barefoot training.
