Barefoot Running | Hacker News Reader

Barefoot Running

nature.com

44 pointsunignorant29 comments

Nature is one of the top scientific journals out there -- awesome to see them covering barefoot.

I've been wearing Vibram Five Fingers and running on the fore- and mid-foot for about two years.

Running barefoot and landing on your heel jars your entire body (knees in particular) and isn't sustainable for long distances. Cavemen certainly didn't run this way, and we haven't evolved fast enough for our optimal mechanism to be any different.

There's plenty of evidence that humans have evolved to be better long-distance runners than any other animal. The amount of impact energy returned by our tendons is highest, and human ultrarunners can go over 50 miles in one sitting.

For a couple weeks, my calves screamed and my feet were sore as they strengthened. Then after a month I started to get used to running on the balls of my feet. After two months, I felt totally comfortable with the new style.

Also, my trouble with Illiotibial Band Syndrome disappeared within two weeks of starting to run barefoot.

Not only is heel planting unsustainable for long distances, it is also extremely uncomfortable when running any distance. If you're planting poorly in forgiving, modern running shoes, you can get away with it. Switch to Five Fingers however, and you're immediately aware of a bad foot strike position. For me, this kind of feedback was exactly what I needed to improve my stride.

For the mountain bikers out there - think of a full suspension bike versus a hardtail. The full suspension is undeniably a smoother ride, but it's universally agreed that a hardtail forces you improve your technical riding, since you don't have all that squish to eat up your mistakes.

I just started last week and can I ever reiterate the calf-screaming bit.

I think that's fascinating though. Until just recently I never even touched on how weak my calves must be. Now I'm hoping to learn the depths of it.

I really want to start running in this barefoot style but I am having trouble knowing if I am using a proper technique. I know it is mostly about landing on your ball or just below it but that is about the extent of my understanding. Could you provide any resources?

to grannyg00se (author of dead sibling of this comment): you appear to have been put on some sort of HN shit-list where your posts are being autokilled. You should email pg and ask him to remove the ban.

A couple of recent HN threads about barefoot running:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1082153

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1056665

Since high school cross country in the 1970's, we were told the proper distance running form is rolling heal-to-toe, while for the short distance sprinters the form is to land on toes or the balls of the feet. This could be one of those shockers where something I've learned turns out to be false.

Still, I'm still finding it hard to imagine running, say, ten miles by landing on the front part of the foot and not the heal first. Maybe we humans aren't naturally evolved to run ten mile distances. I give it a try, but I suspect I'll be a heal-to-toe distance runner.

There is a great deal of evidence that humans not only can run long distances, but have evolved to do so. The idea is that before primitive weapons (bow and arrow or whatnot), this is how we caught food -- by simply running it down.

From other sources:

"Biomechanical research reveals a surprising key to the survival of our species: Humans are built to outrun nearly every other animal on the planet over long distances."

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us

Here's David Attenborough narrating a modern-day persistence hunt. It's fascinating stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpo_mA5RP8

Wow. That was amazing, thanks for the link.

Note that you can see (supposedly) how his feet land as he runs at 3:11

Yes, but it's also interesting that he's chosen to wear modern shoes.

Agreed. My guess is the shoes broaden his foot and make it easier to run on sandy and unstable surfaces.

In other words, we are the Terminators of the animal kingdom: we just keep on coming when any reasonable animal would be collapsing of exhaustion.

I really recommend that you check out the book Born to Run [1] which examines barefoot running and how we've evolved. It's been a while since I read it, but I believe it even includes a chapter about persistence hunting [2].

1. http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest...

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting

Strange. I can't image running heel-to-tow on any distance. While I usually walk heel-to-tow -- running this way just feels painful. By landing on the front part my muscles act like a spring upon impact. I find mid-foot strikes barely acceptable.

Edit: Re-read the article. I guess I just ran in cheap "minimal footwear" all my life. Now is this a good or a bad thing?

Until middle school I ran toe-first and also walked toe-first, or at least definitely not heel-first -- that changed when I joined the marching band.

Of all the primates, only humans have giant Achilles tendons and glutes, both of which are distance running adaptations. Ditto for our highly efficient sweat-cooling system.

You can get used to landing on your toes. It took me quite a while to get used to, but I managed to run a half-marathon six months after I started doing it.

How I Became a Barefoot Runner http://suburbiarebooted.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-i-became-ba...

I feel that there seems to be a, albeit perhaps weak, correlation between hackers/geeks and some kinds of physical activity. Mostly I'm thinking of running and mountain climbing.

While of course I'm biased and base my observations upon the plural of anecdote, I still find this observation to hold true.

I could of course hazard some kind of guess to why, but more interestingly, I think, would be if there was any kind of non-anecdotal data covering this.

Has anyone heard/read about any evidence for or against this?

I saw a study a few years ago across athletes in school, correlating cross-country running with a higher average GPA. In fact, cross-country was the only sport with a GPA higher than the student body as a whole. I realize this isn't exactly the same as "geeks," and I apologize for the lack of specifics, but yes, there is evidence for some sort of link.

This might be because at most schools there are no cuts to the cross country team.

No less anecdotal, but the classic "Real Programmers Don't Eat Quiche" includes:

"Real Programmers don't play tennis, or any other sport which requires a change of clothes. Mountain Climbing is acceptable. Real Programmers wear climbing boots to work in case a mountain should suddenly spring up in the middle of the machine room."

http://www.lib.ru/ANEKDOTY/quiche.txt

Not funny if intended as a joke, and ridiculous otherwise. More dumb stereotyping.

It's a riff on Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, and if it's in the same spirit, it's self-satirizing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Dont_Eat_Quiche

I wear mountain boots all the time for that exact reason!

Also anecdotal, but physicists and mathematicians are traditionally attracted to mountains. Tends to produce some notable deaths..

http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=355 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/science/20CLIM.html?pagewa...

I can best describe running barefoot as feeling very very fleet on your feet. running on the balls of your feet feels fast, very very fast.

edit: grammar.

It's not just the forefoot striking (also, Vibram != barefoot, call them minimal, if anything). When you run barefoot, you don't do anything stupid with your feet, like subjecting them to lots of impact, because it hurts!

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