How Barefoot Running Works

I’d like to highlight an interesting video. It is of Lee Saxby of the Vivobarefoot Training Center at the Barefoot Connections Conference.

What I found fascinating about the video is its explanations of the kinetics and the kinematics of running. As Lee explains it, “kinetics” studies the forces involved while “kinematics” studies how we shape our bodies as we move.

He also talked about a study from last year.

This bit of research just came out from Harvard. I think it was January, 2012. It sort of slipped under the radar. I thought it was going to be groundbreaking research, because nothing as powerful as this has come out in 20 years on running barefoot.

The study he is referring to is Foot Strike and Injury Rates in Endurance Runners: A Retrospective Study, by Daoud, Geissler, Wang, Saretsky, Daoud, and Lieberman. I blogged about it in February in A New Running Study Looking at Injury Rates.

While it is not a barefoot study, Saxby points out why it is so important:

If you’re a heel striker you’re twice as likely to get injured than if you’re a forefoot striker.

And then Saxby tells us why.

Interestingly, just as horses have 4 gaits, humans have three gaits.

Three Gaits

[Slides are from the talk.]

And how does the brain figure out how to change between gaits?

Feedback

It is heavily dependent on proprioception, and an awful lot of that proprioception comes from feedback from a bare plantar surface. Of course, running shoes (and “barefoot” shoes) turn that off.

So, because your body isn’t getting the right signals, you end up with some sort of weird injury-prone hybrid: jogging.

There’s a Reason They Call It “Jogging”

But “unskilled” barefoot running can be just as bad. Folks who just take off their shoes don’t naturally lose their bad habits. This next slide says it all.

Running Comparison

Unskilled barefoot running still has that force spike. Since most folks didn’t grow up running barefoot, they don’t get it right.

The first thing I though of when I saw that picture on the right of “skilled” barefoot running was Ken Bob Saxton. That’s exactly what he continuously stresses: keeping the body weight over the feet and not reaching out to thud to a landing.

Watch the whole video—it’s well worth your time.

 

(H/T: Barefoot Runners Society)