Running Wild

The press has been going crazy on barefoot running following the publication of research by Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman (watch the video summarising the research here, or read about it in The Times, The Express or Business Week). At last it is out, and now almost undisputed that running shoes hinder running, and that running with no, or minimal foot-wear, is the way forward. BUT you need coaching otherwise you can get all sorts of new injuries if your running style has adjusted too much to shoe clad technique. See below for the logic we have always taught behind barefoot running and some practical tips on how to begin.

The logic behind it

Evolutionary

Shoes are a very recent addition to our feet. For thousands of years we ran (our natural form of locomotion) barefoot. You don’t see cats and dogs limping with sore knees and backs and they run barefoot always.

Scientific

Science shows that the forces on your joints when you run are much greater if you heel strike (which happens with shoes) than if you land on your mid foot (which should happen if you Wild run).

Observational

When we film our clients on our Wildfitness courses in Kenya, we can predict from their running style exactly what injuries they have suffered from or are likely to suffer from. If we coach our clients to ‘Wild run’ or to run with flat soles or no shoes, these injuries clear up. We have also seen how efficiently Kenyan barefoot runners run and how their instance of chronic injury is very low.

Why Wild run?

Injury

85% of runners stop running due to injury. This is crazy! It shows that running, in the way that most people run with shoes leads almost inevitably to injury. Learning how to barefoot / Wild run is therefore vital.

Efficiency (speed)

After an initial transition phase, because it is more efficient, wild running is faster.

Nature buzz

It is wonderful to feel the earth with your feet!

The realities of learning barefoot running:

Footwear

You will need a transition shoe to run in before you can run injury free, barefoot or even with the specialist barefoot shoes that offer no padding. We recommend you start with commonly available gym shoes that don’t have excessive padding on the heel. E.g. Dunlop Volleys or some Adidas / Puma non-running shoes that have a flat heel. Once you have mastered the skill of running with them then you can move on to more specialist barefoot footwear like Vibram Five-fingers or Feelmax or Terra Plana’s Vivo Barefoot.

Coaching

If you want to run injury-free for the rest of your life barefoot running really is best! But it is not as simple as chucking out your trainers and going for it. This may work for some but many of us will retain poor habits from our previous running style and won’t realise how we need to change our posture and technique when going barefoot. Particularly as a result of sitting down at a desk all day, many of us don’t instinctively have the natural posture and body strength to run correctly.

At Wildfitness all our coaches have been trained by Lee Saxby, the UK’s foremost barefoot running coach, so whether you want an introduction to barefoot running or to improve your technique, our holiday courses are an ideal place to learn.

Conditioning

There is an element to conditioning as you transition from running shoes to minimal shoes. Your calves may hurt when you first start but as they adjust this should go away (after about 3 weeks of regular drills).

So hopefully you have an idea now of why to barefoot run and how to begin. Enjoy your journey back to barefeet!