Our trusted friends and sharers of natural movement wisdom, Sarah Young and Jenn Pilotti, who created the three-part video series on glute exercises for runners, are back with the second installment of “Breathing Exercises for Runners.” *** Breathing Exercises for Runners, Part One by Jenn Pilotti and Sarah Young Humans can go about a month…
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Was Footwear Justice Served When Vibram Recently Settled Its $3.75 Million Class Action Lawsuit?
Several weeks ago, Vibram USA, which is the parent company that produces and distributes FiveFingers running shoes, agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company made “false and unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits” of its toe-glove footwear. According to the court filings, Vibram will deposit $3.75 million into an escrow account and those…
Interview with Gait and Exercise Experts Drs. Kevin and Heather Vincent
It is a privilege to share additional insight and expertise from Drs. Kevin and Heather Vincent on the process (and outcome) of their position paper, “Selecting Running Shoes,” for the American College of Sports Medicine’s (http://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/running-shoes.pdf ) The published document was big news for all runners and walkers, as it represented a dramatic change in…
Reflections on Boston
April 21 was my twenty-first running of the Boston Marathon. The week before, I wrote a Dr. Mark’s Desk’s piece challenging runners to be fearless on race day just as the bombing victims have been fearless in their journey back to health. At last year’s marathon, I had already finished the race and was with…
Run Fearless in Boston
April 21 will be my twenty-first running of the Boston Marathon. That’s a pleasing symmetry, but I also know that I will be experiencing unpredictable emotions. At last year’s marathon, I had already finished the race and was with my family, safe in a nearby hotel a block away, when the terrorism attack occurred. The bombings…
Selecting Running Shoes
On the last day of March, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) released a groundbreaking position paper called “Selecting Running Shoes.” To those who came across the paper the following day, they might have mistakenly thought this was some kind of April Fools’ joke. It wasn’t! After a generation of sports medicine doctors, podiatrists, coaches,…
The Race to Build a Better (“Healthier”) Shoe
Getting published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Pulse Magazine is a great honor for scientists, engineers, technologists, and biomedical researchers. A comparison would be a health or medical research team having its study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In the current issue of IDEE Pulse that feature articles…
Learn Run Form, Rhythm and Balance on Motorless Treadmill
All movement, whether it is walking, running, dancing, or lifting, requires balance and symmetry to do it safely. What we measure in gait labs looks at things the eye cannot see. These include specific forces, timing of phases of gait which are fractions of seconds, and the gait differences from right to left. One of…
Max’ed Out On Thickly Cushioned “Maximalist” Running Shoes?
by Bill Katovsky. By rudely pushing aside lean-’n-mean minimalist shoes in running stores, those beefy bullies known as maximalist shoes might one day be remembered as a shoe-category killer. We hope not. But consider all these brands boasting super-thick foam styles: Hoka One One, Brooks, Skechers, Puma, Vasque, New Balance and Altra. Other shoes like…
Exercise and Health ‘Round the World
A common currency in the world is running and physical activity. A simple pair of shoes can set you free and take you on great adventures, meet new people, and share in the joy of simple movement and health. I recently spent two weeks traveling 25,000 miles and visiting three continents to teach healthy running,…
How You Can Stop Worrying About Injury and Learn to Love Minimalist Running Shoes: A Short FAQ Guide
by Jim Hixson. Q. What is the basic difference between minimalist and traditional running shoes? A. A lot, and it’s not simply a matter of philosophical differences. Minimalist shoes fit the anatomy of the foot, allow the foot to move through its natural range of motion without restriction, and enable the sole of the…
Danny Dreyer, Chi Running: “Be a Minimalist Walker or Runner, Regardless of the Shoes You Wear”
For tips on how to make 2014 a better running year, let’s turn to my friend Danny Dreyer, the founder of Chi Running. Running shoes have gone from thick to thin to thick and to everything in between since 2006, several years after Danny first started writing and teaching that the keys to healthy, enjoyable…
What Next for Running Shoes and Minimalism?
by Bill Katovsky. Depending on how frequently runners read magazines like Outside or Competitor, or check Runner’s World’s blog, they can be excused for thinking that minimalism is gone, departed, yesterday’s news. The sporting goods and fitness media abhor a news vacuum; they constantly seek out the latest trend, often on the heels of announcing…
“Healthy Running” Conferences and Courses in 2014
Join Jay Dicharry, Ian Adamson and myself for one of our “Healthy Running” conferences and courses in 2014. Our courses are now approved for 16 hours AMA Cat 1 Continuing Medical Education (CME) hours. The three of us have been leading these medical-education courses for two years now. We have refined the content to create a two-day experience…
Tips for Treadmill Running and Other Biomechanical Benefits
We are pleased to repost this essay from Dr. Casey Kerrigan on treadmills. It originally appeared on the blog for OESH Shoes where Dr. Kerrigan is founder and chairman. Citing studies, she dispels one very popular myth that because “it’s a tiny bit easier to run on a treadmill, many will tell you that to…
Headed to the Gym? You Might Save Money, Not with a Membership but Paying Per Visit
by Bill Katovsky. Gyms have replaced bars as America’s favorite gathering places. But depending on time of day and year, health clubs are typically agog with lycra-spun exhibitionism, squadrons of Spinners and Cross-fitters, or quieter than a Trappist monastery. Now gyms are moving outside with boot camps and paleo-style workouts leading the fitness charge. The…
Barefoot Farm and the Tarahumara
Thousands of miles from the Copper Canyon region of Northern Mexico is a small organic farm that’s located on the western outskirts of North Carolina adjacent to the Pisgah National Forest. Co-founded by Will Harlan and Emily Diznoff in 2005, Barefoot Farm is partially modeled on the self-sufficiency farming methods practiced by the Tarahumara for…
You Have a Foot Size, Not Shoe Size
The Latin expression, nihil novi sub sole, which translated means “there is nothing new under the sun,” came to mind when I first come across Dr. Phil Hoffman’s study of feet from the Philippines and Pygmies of Central Africa from the early 1900s. Neither group ever wore shoes. Their feet were healthy. As for the…
Ask Sock Doc: Avoid Overtraining, Moving Past Plantar Fasciitis, and When to Start HIIT
Which guidelines are those to know when you have a sufficient base to start HIIT {High-Intensity Interval Training} workouts? Sock Doc: You’re okay to start HIIT training such as intervals, hills, and other high-intensity activities once your aerobic fitness test no longer improves. Say you’re able to run two miles in 16 minutes at a…
New 2014 Running Shoes:Wild Colors and Innovative Features!
Nick Pang, our shoe review editor and co-founder of Natural Running Center, recently attended The Running Event trade expo in Austin, TX. There, for three consecutive days, he happily stalked the carpeted exhibit hall where he checked out the new crop of 2014 running shoes. Many footwear companies were only showing demo models, so Nick…
Vivobarefoot Kids Shoe Free Giveaway 2013
Thank you to our friends at VivoBarefoot for supporting the return of the Minimalist Kids Shoe FREE giveaway at Two Rivers Treads in Shepherdstown, WV. The giveaway was held last month and like in years past, we were overwhelmed by parents and their kids who loooooove the minimal shoes and reject all others. Two Rivers…
“1-2-3 Run” Form Skills
I recently posted a Dr. Mark’s desk piece outlining “5 Tips on How To Improve Your Running Form.” As a followup to that instructional article, here is a short, helpful video as part of the United States Air Force Efficient Running Project. As you focus on form, not speed, here are 3 steps to get…
Running with Tarahumara Women
by Charlotte Clews. The Tarahumara people are renowned for their long-distance, trail-running skills and while much has been written about their top male runners who consistently win international ultra-marathon races, little has been said about the remarkable Tarahumara women. In addition to honing their agility and stamina on the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madres…
Global Walkabout: 21,000 Miles, Seven Years in “Out of Eden Walk”
by Bill Katovsky. National Geographic Magazine contributor and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has turned his back on time through a very old-fashioned way: by walking. His pre-modern goal is to walk across seven continents (21,000 Miles) in a bipedal attempt to cover the same ground as the early humans who first began…
Topo Athletic “Splits” Difference with New Line of Minimalist Running Shoes without Split Toe
Going with a more traditional shoe design, Topo Athletic, which introduced split-toe or Japanese tabi-style models last summer, recently announced the addition of two new models to its expanding running shoe portfolio: the zero-drop Speed Trainer (ST) and 2mm drop Mountain Trainer (MT). Natural Running Center shoe review editor Nick Pang got an early look at the…