Ad for Merrill training shoe. I really like the idea of nature's gym. We weren't born with shoes. Nature provides the most natural workout for our feet. But it sounds like technology is catching up.
Showing posts with label barefooted running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barefooted running. Show all posts
Friday, April 6, 2018
Take advantage of nature’s gym
"Take advantage of nature’s gym. Let the terrain and conditions dictate movement, making you stronger, healthier and more able to enjoy your time outside when nature’s call comes. Learn more at Merrell.com today. #TrainSoICan"
Ad for Merrill training shoe. I really like the idea of nature's gym. We weren't born with shoes. Nature provides the most natural workout for our feet. But it sounds like technology is catching up.
Ad for Merrill training shoe. I really like the idea of nature's gym. We weren't born with shoes. Nature provides the most natural workout for our feet. But it sounds like technology is catching up.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Are We Disconnected and No Longer Feel the Earth?
I know I am footcentric and see the world from the other end of the telescope. But there are a lot of other voices starting to say somewhat the same thing- we are disconnected from our soles of our feet. There are two books that talk about how we may be recking havoc with our health because of this disconnection with what is under our feet.
The first voice comes from a book a friend of mine insisted that I should check out. It is called Born to Run, A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has ever seen by Christopher McDougall. (Here is a pretty good review.)
Well I didn't buy getting sidetracked by other things. But then there was a very interesting article in Parade Magazine about barefooted running and how it had grown by leaps and bounds (admit it- good pun). So I finally bought the book.
While this is an amazing book about ultra-athletes who can run for incredible distances it had some real insight into the human foot and it's impact on the body.
1) Feet are self correcting and will avoid injury if unencumbered by the modern running shoe.
2) "The feet are like a minnow bucket full of sensory neurons all wiggling around in search of sensation Stimulate those nerves just a little and the impulse rockets through out your entire nervous system..."
3) Shoes will block the pain but not the impact.
4) Pain will help you to run comfortably. You sense the ground underneath you and build ground awareness. Shoes that are meant to lessen impact may actually be creating less ground awareness.
5) Running shoes may be evil in that they make our feet weak and the rest of our body vulnerable to injury. Knees, hips. low backs and so forth are in the line of fire for repeated injury.
The second voice is about more than our physical disconnection. It is about our electrical disconnection with the earth. Called "Earthing- The Most Important Health Discovery?", it is a book about our electrical disconnection with the Mother Earth. This book has quickly gathered followers- barefooted followers.
What is interesting to me is the question mark at the end of the title. Most publisher would steer you away from any uncertainty in regard to what is referred to in the book publishing industry as "the promise." But this truly a reflection of the sincerity of the authors. They are trying very hard to be as real as possible and not to mislead the public. They have research but it is not at a level that would please the scientific community and they admit it.
What really interests me is that we are again back to the question of insulation of the feet from their natural environment. but this time unlike Born to Run and the physical disconnect caused by the shoe but this is the electrical disconnect. We are meant to be plugged into the earth and to be stimulate by the energies coming up from the earth according to the authors.
Here is what I find interesting :
1) The authors point out that the foot has more nerve endings than any other part of the body.
2) The moment your foot touches the Earth our physiology changes. A normalization process begins that is triggered by us plugging back into the electrical grounding of the earth.
3) The authors theorize that the grounding effects are acting on inflammation, a hidden culprit in a lot of diseases such as cardiovascular disease.
4) The Earth is charged and it's interaction electrically with our bodies is self- correcting to our health. Our bodies are meant to interact with energetically with these forces. However, we are insulated by shoes and modern surfaces from interacting with Earth and our nervous system suffers needlessly because of this.
I love walking around barefooted on the earth. It is soothing and some how comforting. Will it play out that the most important health discovery ever? May be that we need to spend at least part of the time reconnecting with Mother Earth, both for our physical selves and our energetic selves.
Kevin Kunz
The first voice comes from a book a friend of mine insisted that I should check out. It is called Born to Run, A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has ever seen by Christopher McDougall. (Here is a pretty good review.)
Well I didn't buy getting sidetracked by other things. But then there was a very interesting article in Parade Magazine about barefooted running and how it had grown by leaps and bounds (admit it- good pun). So I finally bought the book.
While this is an amazing book about ultra-athletes who can run for incredible distances it had some real insight into the human foot and it's impact on the body.
1) Feet are self correcting and will avoid injury if unencumbered by the modern running shoe.
2) "The feet are like a minnow bucket full of sensory neurons all wiggling around in search of sensation Stimulate those nerves just a little and the impulse rockets through out your entire nervous system..."
3) Shoes will block the pain but not the impact.
4) Pain will help you to run comfortably. You sense the ground underneath you and build ground awareness. Shoes that are meant to lessen impact may actually be creating less ground awareness.
5) Running shoes may be evil in that they make our feet weak and the rest of our body vulnerable to injury. Knees, hips. low backs and so forth are in the line of fire for repeated injury.
The second voice is about more than our physical disconnection. It is about our electrical disconnection with the earth. Called "Earthing- The Most Important Health Discovery?", it is a book about our electrical disconnection with the Mother Earth. This book has quickly gathered followers- barefooted followers.
What is interesting to me is the question mark at the end of the title. Most publisher would steer you away from any uncertainty in regard to what is referred to in the book publishing industry as "the promise." But this truly a reflection of the sincerity of the authors. They are trying very hard to be as real as possible and not to mislead the public. They have research but it is not at a level that would please the scientific community and they admit it.
What really interests me is that we are again back to the question of insulation of the feet from their natural environment. but this time unlike Born to Run and the physical disconnect caused by the shoe but this is the electrical disconnect. We are meant to be plugged into the earth and to be stimulate by the energies coming up from the earth according to the authors.
Here is what I find interesting :
1) The authors point out that the foot has more nerve endings than any other part of the body.
2) The moment your foot touches the Earth our physiology changes. A normalization process begins that is triggered by us plugging back into the electrical grounding of the earth.
3) The authors theorize that the grounding effects are acting on inflammation, a hidden culprit in a lot of diseases such as cardiovascular disease.
4) The Earth is charged and it's interaction electrically with our bodies is self- correcting to our health. Our bodies are meant to interact with energetically with these forces. However, we are insulated by shoes and modern surfaces from interacting with Earth and our nervous system suffers needlessly because of this.
I love walking around barefooted on the earth. It is soothing and some how comforting. Will it play out that the most important health discovery ever? May be that we need to spend at least part of the time reconnecting with Mother Earth, both for our physical selves and our energetic selves.
Kevin Kunz
Monday, January 4, 2010
Barefoot Running and Ground Awareness
Barefoot Running | Parade.com
This is a great article on barefoot running by Christopher McDougall. Well worth you giving it a perusal.
What struck me about this article are two things. First the article talks about "ground awareness". We talk about body awareness but we don't really talk about our body's awareness of the ground. Yet this is a critical element in survival. It requires an integrated responses from our whole body. Or we fall down. With the elderly as I have said in other blogs this can have devastating consequences.
What struck me about this article are two things. First the article talks about "ground awareness". We talk about body awareness but we don't really talk about our body's awareness of the ground. Yet this is a critical element in survival. It requires an integrated responses from our whole body. Or we fall down. With the elderly as I have said in other blogs this can have devastating consequences.
Ground awareness is a really great concept and points out the importance of pressure to the bottom of the feet.
Next the article talks about the elasticity of our legs and their reflexive response to changing surface.
"Our legs are thickly woven with rubbery, elastic tendons that absorb shock and also use it as free energy, like a rubber ball ricocheting off pavement. "If you encase the foot in thick shoes, you not only lose ground awareness, you limit natural elasticity," says Robert Schleip of the Fascia Research Center at Germany's University of Ulm. According to a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness in March, barefoot runners experienced significantly less impact than runners in shoes."
Are our receptors "jammed" because of shoe wear? Can we unjam these sensors? Barefoot running seems to be able to do it in about 30 minutes so that running on any surface is not only possible but a pleasure to do.
Kevin Kunz
http://www.reflexology-research.com
http://www.dk.com/reflexology
Tweet me @twitter.com/kevinkunz
Facebook www.facebook.com/kevin.kunz
Kevin Kunz
http://www.reflexology-research.com
http://www.dk.com/reflexology
Tweet me @twitter.com/kevinkunz
Facebook www.facebook.com/kevin.kunz
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