Barefoot running has always held a certain mystic to it.
Seeing a runner on the international stage running barefoot has always
caught the public's attention.
When South African Zola Budd entered the Olympic stage running
effortless and barefoot the world watched. And who can forget when the
Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila set an Olympic record while
running barefoot?
If you think barefoot running is for the foreign sorts, you are wrong.
US marathoner Charlie Robbins ran barefoot and won two USA National
Marathon Championships.
Why
Barefoot Running?
According to Australian marathoner Michael Warburton, barefoot running
takes away the extra weight that running shoes add onto your feet. The
extra weight expends energy and can decrease your running speed. In
essence running barefoot is running the way nature intended.
You do a lot of steps in a marathon? Not carrying that weight around for all those steps can make a difference!
Some amateur runners feel that barefoot running forces your body to
adapt the natural gait; forcing runners to run on their forefeet. This
natural posture supposedly decreases the number and types of injuries
associated.
There is more and more scientific evidence becoming available stating that this is indeed the case.
Newton Running Shoe Company is specialised in shoes that help you adopt your natural gait, as if you were running barefoot.
Disadvantages
of Barefoot Running
Running surfaces are designed with running shoes in mind, not barefeet. Road races
offer level paved surfaces which can be extremely hard on the soles of
feet. Especially without the cushioning of shoes, barefoot running can be pretty
painful.
Sidewalks and roads may have broken glass and sharp pebbles and could
cause damage to the sole of your feet. The cuts can pick up bacteria
and lead to infections causing health problems.
The paved surfaces and rubberized track surfaces tend to absorb heat.
The hot road and track can be uncomfortable to run on.
Advantages
of Barefoot Running
There are people that run barefoot; there must be a reason why they do.
The runner feels the direct contact of the running surface and is not
encumbered by the weight of running shoes.
A good pair of running shoes is expensive, running shoes save you that
extra cost.
However, if you feel barefoot running is for you, experts recommend
starting slow. Start by walking around your house barefoot,
and then graduate to running on predictable surfaces like your backyard
or a neighborhood track.
Before you get out to running barefoot on the streets, start by
purchasing a pair of shoes that mimic barefoot running closely.
An example is the afore-mentioned Newton Running Shoe.
Expect to feel the bumps and bruises under your soles when you start
running barefoot. Barefoot runners say this phase passes and the body
adapts to the feel. Muscle soreness is expected as the body adjusts to
the natural posture.
Shoes, according to barefoot proponents, are
not designed to mimic the body's natural tendency and are seen to be the cause of the epidemic of running injuries about.
Barefoot running may remind some of us of the fun times we spent
running barefoot on the beach; carefree and fun filled.
The possibility of the dangers associated with broken glass or uneven
surfaces did not hinder us. Our eyes were ever vigilant to the surfaces
we ran on, avoiding all possibilities of harmful objects.
The truth according to barefoot runners is that the same applies for
adults and as a result fewer runners get hurt.
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