When you come to find that some of the basic things we're told culturally are wrong e.g. running shoes are good for you, it makes you wonder what else you should be questioning.
“There’s not a lot of evidence that running shoes have made people better off.” Daniel E. Lieberman, Harvard University, Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants (NYT)
Earlier this year, I began running and then eventually doing all my work outs in Vibram Five Fingers, a soft five toed rubber-soled shoe. Five Fingers provide basic protection against objects on the ground while providing a natural running experience.
When people at my gym see me wearing these shoes and I tell them that I run in them as well, they often ask incredulously "you can do that?" I usually reply, "it kinda worked before there were shoes!" It turns out, (surprise!) our bodies were designed to run this way.
While I took time to run short distances first and give my body time to adjust, stubborn knee issues and hip tightness from running slowly faded away. In my five fingers, I run faster, more comfortably and easily than I have in years.
If you want to read more about the benefits of barefoot running, check out Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants, a recent New York Times article about barefoot running and Christopher MacDougall's eye-opening book, Born to Run.
Mr. McDougall, the “Born to Run” author, ” said manufacturers, doctors and retailers were doing runners a disservice by pushing such shoes. “People are buying it thinking it’s going to do something for them, and it’s not,” he said.
Mr. McDougall’s book is centered on the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, known for epic 100-mile runs with nothing on their feet but strips of rubber. The book has become something of a manifesto for barefoot runners.
After suffering chronic foot pain and being advised by sports medicine doctors to give up running, Mr. McDougall tried thin-soled shoes. Now, he said, he runs long distances without shoes — or pain.
If you get cold, check out the Vibram Flow which offer additional insulation or Injinji five toed socks e.g. see image at right! If you decide to go this route, be sure to order a slightly larger pair of Five Fingers.
Note: You may want to follow Injinji and Vibram Five Fingers on Twitter as they often offer discounts and specials.
For me, running and working out barefooted has changed my body's relationship to the ground and my way of thinking. For one thing, I feel my feet, hips and skeleton more consciously as I move. But more importantly, what cultural assumptions are at work in my head that might not be based on empirical evidence?
I've very much appreciated Donna Farhi's Bringing Yoga to Life. My Yoga teacher read a passage from the book that caught me and convinced me to purchase it.
My copy is dog-eared with all the quotes that have resonated with me. I'll share a few below. Largely, it's helped me re-integrate my personal and professional growth and spiritual ideals into my renewed Yoga practice:
"Contemplating death will bring you to an honest assessment of what gives your life meaning. This will lead you to a choice: to fritter away your hours or to take charge of yourself and your life. ... Ask yourself what truly generates joy and satisfaction for you. If you take this contemplation seriously, you may find yourself questioning a great many things that you previously took for granted. ... Take into account how you spend your time, your money and your sexual energy. Notice if you associate such a contemplation with a threat to all the things you currently enjoy and a life of vacant austerity and piousness. This association is a misinterpretation of the spiritual path as leading to an inert peacefulnes rather than a vibrant peacefuness, which is the lumimnous matrix behind all creative work and play."
"We can also make the practice of the yamas or 'outer restraints' and niyamas or 'inner restraints,' a source of deep contemplation on our thoughts, words and actions. The practices of not harming (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), not-stealing (asteya) using our energy wisely (brahmacharya) and not-grasping (aparigraha) can help us to determine right action in the world. We can take any one of the yamas as Gandhi did with his vow of nonviolence and plumb it deeply, making it the central source of our meditation or commitment in our life. When we take the practice of even one of these precepts to heart, it will lead us into an understanding of the others."
"This text exemplifies many nondualistic viewpoints. My leaning in the direction of nondualistic traditions and teaching comes from recognizing the trap that so many of us fall into on the spiritual path; exchanging our material striving for a spiritual one. Having experienced the results of such striving in the early years of my Yoga practice (characterized as it was by self-coercion and covert self-aggression), I recognize the danger in believing that our happiness lies somewhere else and that we can gain that happiness only by being someone else. Having come through to the other side, I can wholeheartedly conclude with my Vedantic colleagues that accptance is not born from nonacceptance any more than peace comes through the practice of violence."
