10 Simple Things for 2016 Happy New Year from the Natural Running Center. We hope you have achieved a goal and learned something new about how your mind and body works in 2015. Here are 10 simple and safe things to try in 2016 with the goal not to be more “fit” in the terms…
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Take Off Your Shoes and Walk
In 1961 Simon J. Wikler, D.S.C. (Doctor of Surgical Chiropody) published Take Off Your Shoes and Walk, a successful attempt to explain how modern shoes gradually acquired the characteristics that now prevent the foot from functioning naturally. Despite the persuasiveness of his argument, he is realistic about the difficulty of convincing his opponents that being…
Low Carb Revolution Comes to West Virginia
Why were nearly 100 citizens including the wives of two NFL Hall of Famers gathered at Sam Michael’s Rec Center on a weeknight in October? Over 150 showed up at meeting #2 in November where we shared a low carb dinner at the Clarion. My friend Melanie Miller was igniting the social media world and…
The Running Trifecta
By Dr. Phil Maffetone Train better, race more and get faster — it’s all about energy, and it comes with a big bonus. Most competitive runners have at least three goals that include better training, more racing and getting faster. This trifecta may be the dream of most runners. But training harder and farther won’t…
And now, for your reading pleasure:
Shoes as they are usually worn, not only deform but interfere with the functions of the foot by restricting the movement of its many small joints. Their action is more or less that of a splint.
Getting Back to Basics
Runners who are attempting to remain healthy and run more efficiently should learn the basics of good running tedchnique.
Bill Katovsky 1957-2015 Long May You Run
We are deeply saddened at the recent passing of our friend and co-founder of the Natural Running Center Bill Katovsky. Yes, life can be short when you cannot get good help. Together with Minimalist Shoe aficionado and hi tech wizard Nicholas Pang we created the Natural Running Center site and FB pages http://naturalrunningcenter.com/ https://www.facebook.com/naturalrunningcenter Our…
Cushionism is a Faulty Belief System
by Jim Hixson and Bill Katovsky As most readers who are already familiar with the Natural Running Center know, we have run several articles critical of running with “more shoe,” which in recent years has meant maximalist or hyper-cushioned shoes. We certainly don’t profit from our stance, especially since it’s difficult to find other sites…
Cushionism: A Definition for Runners
by Bill Katovsky Cush·ion-ism ˈko͝o SHən izəm: Belief system by runners who prefer running in shoes with built-up footbed support, yet health claims and injury prevention remain unsupported due to the absence of scientific evidence. Cushionism first entered the vocabulary of runners in late 2010, when two Frenchmen, Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, both…
No Pain, More Fun!
I like to share this letter/email I recently received from my friend Alex Speed.– Dr. Mark Thanks again for your visit here to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, and for the clear voice you have raised on training and footwear for so many years. In the spring of this year I did a…
Dietary Guidelines for America Under Review
Dear Medical Colleagues, The current version of the Dietary Guidelines for America now being proposed is being challenged in Congress. There is still much room for improvement to be consistent with the evidence and clinical experience. This is a call to action sparked by Nina Teicholz’s recent British Medical Journal Article “The scientific report guiding…
Shoe vs. Shoe: Minimalist and Conventional Running Shoes
You think the running shoe debate is over? That minimalist and barefoot running had its feet crushed by “fee-fi-fo-fum” footwear giants? Just wait, and the pendulum will some day swing back to less shoe. How long the wait? Five, ten years? Which isn’t that long considering that the modern running shoe is a half-century old….
Celebrating Small Business at Two Rivers Treads in Shepherdstown, WV
It’s with great honor to alert NRC readers that Two Rivers Treads has been selected as a top 100 small business by the Small Business Revolution (SBR), which is a year-long documentary project that showcases the stories of 100 small businesses across the country. Powered by the Deluxe Corporation of Minnesota, SBR tells 12 mini-documentaries…
Kids Don’t Need to Sit All Day in School: It’s Bad for Their Health
Bernadine Somers and Morgan Academy will be the first school of our region in West Virginia, maybe even the entire East Coast, to experiment with stand-up desks for kids. Most adults and children spend their days engaged in a damaging and unhealthful activity: sitting. Parking ourselves in chairs for long periods results in a chronic…
Run On Sentencing: New Column
by Bill Katovsky Thoughts on the Just-Completed World Track and Field Championships in Beijing…American track sprinters don’t just have a doping problem; they have a dropping problem. Well, the botched baton hand-off in the men’s 4×100 was actually due to illegal passing outside the restricted zone. But in years past, especially in the Olympics and…
Slow Jogging: “Run with Smile, Midfoot Strike”
One of the most inspiring scientists and self-experimenting athletes is my good friend, Japanese running guru Dr. Hiro Tanaka. I had the privilege of first meeting Dr. Tanaka, a Professor at Fukuoka University, Japan, at the Boston Marathon in 2011 after giving a talk on minimal running and the benefits of “easy.” Dr. Tanaka showed…
Live Life With More “Vigah”!
Take The JFK/Freedom’s Run Challenge And Help Recharge The Change That JFK Envisioned For Our Country 70 Runners have completed the JFK/FR Challenge in 2015 and 2016. Are you up for the challenge this year? Challenge Shirt Logo Design for Completers In the late 1950’s a warning sounded. Almost 58 percent of American children were unable…
Why We Run: “Born to Fly”
What is special about running? Why not just walk, cycle, swim, do some elliptical or maybe the “Gazelle”, or just squat repeated times through the day? My cousin Meaghan Cusack explained it all when she spoke to a group of physicians at a recent Healthy Running conference in Chicago. Meaghan is a self-addicted 5K runner…
Running Shoe-Fit Process Properly Explained
A week ago I received an email from a colleague in running retail, Eric Johnson, who is the general manager at Ultramax Sports, a “Top 50 Best Running Store in America.” Eric is really smart and gets it. He wrote, “This is by far the best video on prescribing running shoes I’ve run across.” This…
Adidas Early Track Shoes
Adidas (it’s actually spelled with a lower-case “a”) has a long, storied history dating back to the 1920s. Two German brothers, Adi and Rudi Dassler, had started making sports shoes called Dassler in their mother’s laundry room. As sales steadily increased, they eventually expanded operations to a small factory in their home town of Herzogenaurach….
Why Minimalism Went Flat, Part III
by Jim Hixson, CSCS It’s clear that minimalism is alive and well. Less shoe is thriving far beyond what naysayers and running magazines want us to believe. While mega-cushiony running shoes have taken over shoe walls at many independently owned stores (don’t get me started on big-box or running-chain stores), there’s still plenty of choices…
Join Us On Facebook
Discover newsworthy stories from all over the world on running –inspirational profiles, cool things and people, the weird and useful, injury prevention, diet, shoe reviews, videos, and a lot more. Just head over to the Natural Running Center Facebook page. Here are 15 of our more popular FB posts since the beginning of the year….
Triathlon’s Tuesday Run: 20-Year San Diego Tradition
In the 80’s and 90’s, if you were serious about triathlon, you moved to one of the small, sleepy beachfront towns north of San Diego. Like surfers looking for the best swells, you wanted to be on the home turf of the world’s best triathletes, seeking out the steepest competition, for training, and then more…
Free Range Running
by Bill Katovsky “Free range” is one of those terms that’s been in the news recently, and refers to parents’ dropping an over-protective, helicoptering approach to raising their children, and replacing it with much less restrictive control. It’s how childhood used to be. That was how it was with me and my brothers growing…
Tarahumara Documentary: GOSHEN
The new feature documentary, GOSHEN, reveals how the Tarahumara tribe’s ancient diet and active lifestyle can not only transform your personal health and fitness, but may be the key to preserving Tarahumara culture as well. Watch here via Vimeo. Own the DVD! GOSHEN is a powerful documentary depicting the diet and active lifestyle of the indigenous…