Welcome to the Natural Running Center. Our overall message is simple: Learn, Evolve, Run! With the information, education, and expert advice you will find on this site, it’s our hope and mission that all runners, beginners or veterans, fast or slow, the formerly injured or those hoping to get back in the game, will learn…
Category: Blog
Grassroots Revolution in Natural Running Has Taken Off
As a family physician who has worked in primary care clinics for 20 years, I entered the field of medicine since it seemed to be the area where one can have the most influence and impact on healthy lifestyles. I offer the prescription of daily exercise to almost every patient who sees me. I ask…
Saucony: “Stepping Into Minimalism – What To Know”
If someone asks you, “please define minimalism,” then Zero Drop highly recommends that you point them in this direction of this two-minute video by Spencer White, who is the director of the Biomechanics Lab at Saucony. He expertly explains minimalist footwear and some of the things you should think about before taking the less-is-more leap….
Merrell: Barefoot Running Technique
One might ask, and with good reason, why would a footwear company promote “barefoot running?” Isn’t it in the business of selling running and walking shoes? But Merrell has taken a progressive approach with both footwear and form, a marriage made widely evident with its new Barefoot Running line. Exaggerated heel-striking,slow leg turnover, and over-striding…
Newton Running: Transitioning to Natural Running Form and Shoes
Danny Abshire is the author of “Natural Running” (VeloPress, 2010) and the co-founder of Newton Running, a Boulder, Colorado-based company that makes shoes that promote an efficient midfoot/forefoot running gait. He has been making advanced footwear solutions for runners and triathletes for more than 20 years. The following article by Danny will help you safely…
New Balance and Playmakers: Good Form Running
Along with the introduction of its new Minimus footwear line, New Balance has partnered with Playmakers running and apparel store in southern Michigan that created “Good Form Running“. This simple, easy-to follow program will help more people make running a less-painful, more enjoyable, part of their lives. In the video below this chart, Good Form…
Altra Running: The Learn to Run Initiative
Give credit where credit is due. Newcomer to the running shoe sector, Altra Running, coined the term “zero drop,” which describes the ideal barefoot-running style shoe. There is no height difference between heel and toebox area. Your foot can function like nature intended, and that means landing properly on the midfoot or forefoot, and making…
Minimalism on the Run: Interview with Tony Post, Vibram’s U.S. President
The March 28, 2011 issue of the running and triathlon industry trade magazine, SGB, featured a splendid interview with Tony Post president and CEO Vibram USA, who has led Vibram USA since 2001. “Answering the old chicken and the egg question, Vibram FiveFingers first appeared at the Boston Marathon in 2006. Christopher McDougall’s book ‘Born…
The Track Shoes That Broke the 4:00-Minute Mile
These spikes are the real deal– the actual track shoes used by Britain’s Sir Roger Bannister when he ran the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954. Bannister was a 25-year-old Oxford University medical student when he recorded a time of 3:59:40 seconds for the mile on May 6, 1954. Interestingly enough, he was 17 when he seriously…
Why Does the Modern Foot Look the Way It Does?
You were born with perfect feet. So what happened along the way? The human foot is designed such that the toes are spread and extended. This allows for optimal balance and stride. In societies where mainly flip-flops or sandals are used, foot integrity is maintained through life and foot problems are avoided. In industrialized societies however, the foot’s…
Effective Fat Burning for Energy Will Lower Your Times and Shed Weight
by Mark Cucuzzella, M.D. There is a scene from “The Matrix” where Morpheus shows Neo two pills. “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red…
Elastic Recoil
A key difference between walking and proper (mid- and forefoot) running is how the foot muscles work, and, in particular, the energy used for propulsion. The walking body acts more like an inverted pendulum, swinging along step-by-step, literally vaulting over stiff legs with locked knees. Muscles use the body’s metabolic energy created by conversion of…
Cadence
Humans move in an incredibly similar fashion regarding cadence or tempo. It may be hard to believe, but most of us all run about 180 steps per minute. Anyone who is healthy normally walks at a basic pace of about 120 steps per minute. Even during our daily activity has been shown to have a…
VivoBarefoot: All About Proprioception (the “Sixth Sense'”)
Free downloadable eBook from VIVOBarefoot and written by world-renowned U.K. barefoot running coach Lee Saxby.With forewords from Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run and Harvard University’s “Barefoot Professor” Daniel Lieberman. The eBook delivers step-by-step guide to reducing injury and reawakening the innate skill of running, and demystifies proprioception, the secret to optimum performance. Topics covered: 1. We Have Forgotten…
12 Visualization Cues to Help You Run More Efficiently
by Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Dan Kuland, U.S. Air Force Chief of Health Promotion. I spent many years as a high-jumper battling gravity. The world record holder at the time was Valery Brumel from Siberia. Brumel combined physical ability, sound training, and mental imagery to jump seven feet six inches. My coach took special note of…
Pronation and Supination
During walking and running, pronation and supination normally occur in the foot. Pronation is important for optimal movement and shock absorption. During foot strike, many changes take place—the foot begins to roll inward, everting slightly, and the arch flattens. This is called pronation. It is a normal action—one that occurs in every step in every…
New National Barefoot Run Series Sponsored by Merrell (Of Course You Can Race in Shoes!)
The Merrell Naked Foot 5K is the first race of its kind in the country- participants bring a pair of shoes to donate and then run the race barefoot or in minimalist footwear. Here are the cities and dates: Santa Barbara, CA; May 21; Boulder, CO: June 18 ; Minneapolis, MN: August 20; Grand Rapids, MI:…
Inov-8’s Approach to Injury-Free Minimalist Footwear
Inov-8, a favorite footwear among billy-goating trail runners, was born on the other side of the pond. This British company recently published a detailed info page on its website summarizing some of the ongoing research concerning barefoot and minimalist running. Another smart innovative touch is its decision to come out with a “transition booklet” to help…
Nike Free Design — An “Evolution” in Thinking
Tobie Hatfield (Nike Innovation Kitchen Director) and Jeff Pisciotta (Nike Sports Research Lab Director) discuss Nike Free Design in this just-released video (March 2011.) As Hatfield says, it’s been an evolving process of learning ever since the Frees were first introduced in 2004, as Nike continues its research and study of “barefoot in motion.”
Will It Blend?–Two Nike Running Shoes and the Free’s Sole Get Pulverized in a Blender
Mad kitchen-scientist Tom Dickson has delighted millions of YouTube viewers with the all-powerful blender called the Blendtec. The whirling blades have destroyed golf balls, light bulbs, iPhones and iPads, and much more. In this video, the diabolical Dickson makes a foul-tasting, unSmoothie out of a Nike Air Max 90 from the early 90s, a sole from the…
Barefoot Persistence Hunting on the Sea Floor
Man first emerged from the depths of sea as a fish with fins-turned-shortened limbs that over hundreds of millions of years evolved into legs. From these humble ancestral origins emerged bipedalism, and in the blink of a cosmic eye, humans have gone from Stone Age hunters and gatherers to rulers of the planet. So it’s…
Running Relaxed and Efficient with Lee Saxby: Short Tutorial
Looking to improve your running form in just 80 seconds! This new gait and form video by U.K. barefoot running coach Lee Saxby, who closely works with VivoBarefoot, will help. Watch and learn, as Saxby offers a jazz musician’s rhythmic tempo-touch to a runner’s cadence on the treadmill: “1,2,1,2,1,2,3,4…” According to Saxby, “As…
Brooks Banks on “Float or Feel” for Launch of New Pure Running Shoes
Come this Fall, specialty running shoe stores will be selling a new line of Brooks footwear called the Pures. Deliberately eschewing the minimalist tag, these shoes still have a lot of minimalist features: lightweight, flexible soles, very little heel-to-toe drop. Citing extensive market research, Brooks claims that runners aren’t looking for “less” in a shoe;…
Desert Running in Vibram FiveFingers Improved My Cadence and Gait
By Coralee Thompson, M.D. I’ve been working out for much of my adult life, and since first meeting Dr.Phil Maffetone in 1997, running always included wearing very flat shoes. The past few years while living in the mountains of southern Arizona, we sometimes combine three activities that might include hiking, running, walking, biking and swimming….
How Do I Transition My Running to Minimalist Shoes?
by Mark Cucuzzella, M.D. This is a great question and one I get asked frequently. There isn’t a set formula that can be applied to all situations. There is a big difference between transitioning to a Newton shoe, a pair of FiveFingers, or completely barefoot. Newton shoes have more protection than your bare feet and…