Learn to Run Part 8: Dismissing the Dismissive | iNform Health and ...

I have a real problem with so-called ?experts? who use their standing in the Academic and Health Communities to shoot down emerging concepts and practices in their field of expertise. Dismissive attitudes towards barefoot running, labelling it as a mere fad is an insult to their contemporaries and advertises either a closed-mindedness or sheer ignorance on their own behalf.

Barefoot running suffers from a lack of credibility largely because there is no scientific evidence of any real quality to prove that when applied to a population group, it will reduce injury rates or improve performance. I have two poblems with this argument:

1. There is no conclusive proof that wearing supportive shoes reduces injury rates or improves performance either.
2. Anyone who is prescribing barefoot running in a broad-brush manner to a large group of individuals doesn?t understand the role of barefoot running anyway.

Let me make this clear- barefoot running IS NOT the cure for all running injuries nor is it simply a fitness industry fad like Zumba or Tae-Bo. It is a tool, that if applied correctly by a qualified health professional to the appropriate client, can help to improve the mobility, strength and neural sensitivity of our feet.

It is my belief that a fundamental requirement for efficient running is really awesome feet. By that I mean that the joints move well, the muscles are healthy and strong and the connective tissue is taught but also elastic in nature.

In my experience very few adults have such feet. Rather their feet are like adhesed bags of bone, twisted and mashed together. Muscles are weak with tightness, or have given up the ghost and have allowed the arch to collapse in ruin. The connective tissue is canvassy and dotted with land-mine trigger points, and the ?feel? for the ground through the nerves is akin to playing a piano with boxing gloves on.

If your feet are like this, you should consider bike riding. Or you could start to improve the health of you feet. Healthy feet provide a great first line of shock-absorption for the runner and also communicate with fibre-optic speed a cascade of neural information to the rest of the system to guide appropriate responses.

Now for a disclaimer:

I practice one-on-one with clients, and am able to tailor my advise specific to what I am seeing in my assessments. The following is NOT a step-by-step guide for improving foot health, rather it is a progressive list of some of the tools I employ to help clients improve foot health.

• See a podiatrist with a strong background in biomechanics. They can provide a detailed analysis of specific joint blockages and misalignments and help correct them.
• Massage the sole of your foot by standing on a tennis ball and rolling back and forth.
• Seated cross-legged, gently mobilise the joints of the foot by fixing the heel and twisting the forefoot side-to-side; stretch the transverse arch (between the base of the big toe and little toe) back and forth; manipulate your toes up and down and side-to-side.
• Walk around your house barefoot, or start doing some home strengthening exercises like squats and lunges in bare feet.
• Walk on difference textures in bare feet, like grass, concrete, asphalt, stones and sand to improve the ?feel? of your feet on the ground.
• Do some skipping and then some hopping in bare feet.
• Run short distance in bare feet until comfort is lost.

Hopefully one or some of those proves helpful, but I do stress that strengthening of the feet should be guided by a qualified Health Professional.

Barefoot running is not a fad. It is a TOOL. And as one former colleague ?once told me, ?their is no such thing as a bad tool, just bad prescription. I reckon we should apply a dismissive response whenever we encounter the dismissive ?expert?.

Source: http://informhealth.com/learn-to-run-part-8-dismissing-the-dismissive/

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