This past weekend I was out in the yard playing with my kids, and I was encouraging my older son to try to get my 18 month old son to run with him. My younger boy has just started to run within the past few months, and on occasion he gets to the point where […]
On Human Variability, Running Shoes, and Running Form: The Importance of an Individualized Approach
October 15, 2011 By 23 Comments
I open this post with an illustration of the Galapagos Finches and their variable beak anatomy (illustration by John Gould) – my reason is to emphasize a point. As an evolutionary biologist, I’ve spent much of my life studying anatomical variation, and I think it’s sometimes easy to forget that we humans are animals just […]
Moses Mosop Bounces on his Forefeet and Floats Through the Air to Win the Chicago Marathon!
October 11, 2011 By 17 Comments
I’ve received a few comments regarding Chicago Marathon winner Moses Mosop’s unique running style – the race was held on Sunday, and Mosop won with a course-record time of 2:05:37. Last night I received an email from Amby Burfoot, who had forwarded a photo of Mosop taken near the finish line at Chicago. The photo […]
Vibram Fivefingers, Barefoot Running, Shoes, Heel Strikes, Loading Rates, and Injury Risk: My Giant Brain Dump
September 29, 2011 By 56 Comments
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) has been taking the shoe industry to task recently. Several months ago they put toning shoes to the test, finding that claims of increased muscle usage and calorie burn are not substantiated when tested in the laboratory. Here’s an excerpt from the ACE toning shoe study: “Across the board, […]
Slow Motion Video: Barefoot and Shod Running Form from the NYC Barefoot Run
September 27, 2011 By 23 Comments
Yesterday I posted a few still shots captured from a video I took at the NYC Barefoot Run. Today I add a a few video clips showing a sample of runners from the event – mixture of barefoot and several Vibram Fivefingers runners (as well as a few other things). Once again, it’s hard to […]
Foot Strike Photos from the NYC Barefoot Run
September 26, 2011 By 41 Comments
As part of my whirlwind trip to New York City, on Sunday morning I attended the NYC Barefoot Run. Rather than starting the race with the other runners, I opted to set up shop about a quarter mile from the starting line with my trusty high-speed video camera in tow. Managed to film all of […]
More On Running Cadence: Comparative Data from Amby Burfoot and Alex Hutchinson
September 16, 2011 By 27 Comments
In my previous post I provided some data on how my own stride rate and stride length vary with running speed. In that post I referenced another article on running cadence by Alex Hutchinson – I sent Alex my data, and he went ahead and added it to a graph that he had compiled showing […]
Running Speed: Human Variability and The Importance of Both Cadence and Stride Length
September 12, 2011 By 76 Comments
Over the past week a few posts have popped up on blogs that I frequent regarding the topic of running cadence/stride rate. First, Alex Hutchinson at Sweat Science put up a post titled “The problem with 180 strides per minute: some personal data.” In his post Alex shares some personal data on cadence, and emphasizes […]
Heel Lifts and Postural Adaptation: Fun Video by Patton Gleason
September 10, 2011 By 53 Comments
Below is a cool video put together by Patton Gleason, mastermind behind the Natural Running Store and fellow Shepherdstown Running Injury course alum. In the video, Patton uses a stack of wooden blocks to show why a heel lift necessitates postural changes. Great visual, and very clever!
Why a majority of runners, even among international elites, are heel strikers by Blaise Dubois
August 19, 2011 By 56 Comments
Below is the text of a newsletter that my friend Blaise Dubois, a physiotherapist from Quebec City, just sent out regarding the topic of heel striking. If you don’t subscribe to Blaise’s newsletter, I recommend that you do – he sends out a lot of interesting information, and posts like this one are great for […]
Barefoot Running Form in My Kids: Photos of Foot Strikes
July 26, 2011 By 6 Comments
Sometimes a picture speaks volumes. Below on the left is a photo I grabbed from a video that I shot of my 7 year-old son running down the road barefoot in front of my house last weekend (he spends most of the summer either barefoot or in Crocs). On the right is a picture of […]
Acclimation to Running in Minimalist or Barefoot-Style Shoes: Is Form Change Instantaneous, or Does it Adapt Over Time?
July 21, 2011 By 8 Comments
One of my biggest complaints about many of the scientific studies of barefoot and/or minimalist running is that they far too often fail to account for the possibility that form change is a prolonged process. They might take a habitually shod runner, ask them to remove their shoes, and have them run without any prolonged […]
Proprioreception: Additional Thoughts on Balance, Stability, and Running from Jay Dicharry
July 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia Quick post here. Based on the number of questions that Jay Dicharry and I received regarding his 3 criteria for a safe transition to barefoot/minimalist running, Jay decided to write a follow up post explaining in greater detail the elements of balance, and why they are important for runners. He also provides […]
Running Form in Recreational 5K Runners: Slow Motion Video
July 7, 2011 By 31 Comments
In my previous post I shared some slow motion video of runners from the 2010 Boston Marathon, highlighting a bit of the variation that can be seen among fairly high level marathon runners. In this post I wanted to share similar video from a recreational level 5K race. These videos were all shot at roughly […]
Running Form at the 2010 Boston Marathon: Slow Motion Video of Barefoot, Minimalist, and Traditionally Shod Runners at sub-3:00 Pace
July 5, 2011 By 25 Comments
Earlier today I was going through some video I have from the 2010 Boston Marathon with a goal of finding a clip of a barefoot runner (I knew I had one, but hadn’t put in the effort to sift through long stretches of video to find him). After a bit of searching, I found the […]
