Before it disappears too far into my browser history, I want to make some links to a couple of the YouTube videos that Matt showed us when he was home last month. It's very easy to find this stuff he is interested in by putting "barefoot running" in the YouTube search. With "gait analysis" you are apt to wander off into physical therapy videos of people who have major problems just walking, or with "barefoot" maybe the teenage foot porn. (I kid you not.) But what Matt was talking to us about is the way most of our shoes are constructed in a way that makes us walk with the heel striking the ground first, and hard. The bigger the heel pad on the running shoe, it seems, the greater this effect. He has some wacko five-toed shoes that simulate barefoot running, and he is full of good reasons and rants on why bare feet are healthier than shod. But I'll let the professor explain:
This kind of close analysis is usually just for athletes, but knowing how it works is cool, and if I can avoid disabling pain I'm all for that. This next Aussie is awfully long-winded, and has his own program to promote -- and he could use a better script and tighter editing -- but the moving pictures are worth many thousands of words.
the neighborhood: it's a mile from home to St Marys
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Another anti-shoe rant: Think about how much extra energy you expend while wearing shoes. What does a shoe weigh? 1 maybe 2 pounnds? But that's an extra few pounds you've got to lift thousands, maybe tens of thousands of times in a long bout of walking or running.
ReplyDeleteBetter than ankle weights? I know the newer lighter hiking boots are a darn sight easier to walk in than the antique ones.
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