All footwear including running shoes are binding or motion altering devices!
Period!
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Therefore these devices weaken the spring suspension system and absolutely weaken both the human spring ability to protect the body from the forces of the landings of walking and running.
The only natural way to run is barefoot. Therefore running with footwear should be considered unnatural running and should be considered an activity, which accelerates the aging process and puts at risk your ability to run for life.
The reason why I say this lies in the perspective of looking at running or walking or anything that involves ambulation and anything that is connected to or affecting the human body for that matter. Anytime you attach anything to the human body that alters the movement pattern then you’re creating an abnormal movement pattern. Anytime you ingest a pill or a food in the body it alters the body. So natureal is barefoot. If you put any shoe on the human body that is abnormal.
Some people live to run. We all should be running – to live, for life.
The running shoe was developed in the 70s, yet man has been running without it for millions of years. There was more of a necessity for running in prehistoric times as man had to hunt his food every few hours by running or walking softly across rock and uneven unpaved dangerous ground to get his next meal. It was either that or run to avoid being some other meat eaters next meal.
In those days man and animal were more evenly matched as man did not have a gun to use to pick off their meal or prey from a distance like we do now. We had to run to get close enough to the prey to get within the killing range to accomplish the goal of acquiring the next meal. Man was undoubtedly far more fit then than now as they were forced to keep moving or starve or be eaten.
You need to move your body with all joints moving according to the way they were designed. Binding devices including all forms of footwear inhibit natural motion. Inhibiting natural movement will create weak points for weaknesses to take root there. Weaknesses are the root cause of 95% of chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Dr. James Stoxen DC
Why footwear makes natural and normal walking and running impossible
Every year we hear the ads for the walking or running shoe that promises to normalize your foot mechanics to normalize human walking. William A. Rossi D.P.M stated “Natural walking is mechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person. Natural walking and footwear are mechanically incompatible because shoes convert the natural foot into the unnatural which doctors consider normal.” What is normal about a body part that has been mechanically altered by a binding device? No additional binding device can re-alter the mechanics of an already mechanically altered body part back to normal or natural.
Why do you think that babies kick their shoes off?
Why is it so difficult to walk with your first pair of flip-flops or sandals?
It’s because you have to alter natural movement to accommodate these un-natural altering binding and spring revering devices.
Rossi further went on to state “The difference between normal, abnormal and natural is between what it is and what it ought to be!“
Walking with shoes that bind or change natural patterns of movement first change your natural motion to unnatural or normal which is really abnormal and therefore the longer you wear shoes the more abnormal your walking motion becomes.
Furthermore when you wear a specific style of footwear your foot goes to war with the shoe deforming it to the path it is currently moving. What’s more is the shoe deforms the foot forcing it into a motion it wants to go. Each deformity of the shoe brings the shoe closer to a state where it is so deformed that it is non functional. Each change in the path of the foot causes a new batch of silent and sometimes painful inflammation that lays down scar tissue, which stiffens and eventually locks the human spring at its foundation. When your shoe is deformed beyond its usefulness you discard it yet you are stuck with your deformed human spring for life.
The brain stores the memory of the last movement pattern that the foot moves through. Each time the brain has to learn and restore a new memory pattern it soon replaces the one before. Memory patterns of motion should remain constant for the brain to embrace them so that balance, coordination, agility and other reflex patterns can be built around this complex pattern. Therefore with changing styles of footwear the brain is in constant confusion and learning rendering the balance agility and coordination reflexes weak. This is why runners who are loyal to one style of running shoe last longer.
Since the bare foot offers no alteration of mechanics with regards to that experienced with changing footwear it is the perfect training medium to develop mature reflexes of balance coordination and agility.
For instance, you could almost rationalize to someone that when they work out they should wrap their feet, ankles, knees, back, elbows, and wrists to prevent them from becoming injured. We could almost rationalize the necessity of wearing a brace on the neck and a helmet when bench pressing. “You could drop the weight on your head!” The bracing of these joints wont allow the normal healthy stress to stimulate growth of strength through positive adaptation and within a few months they will come in with foot and ankle pain and weakness, wrist pain, elbow pain, knee pain and neck pain from the sustained contraction of the neck muscles from holding up that helmet through the entire workout.
Perhaps they will come into the doctor’s office and he might rationalizes and say “Well maybe we need stronger braces” Sounds rationale?
This is what the footwear industry did until recently. They told us we needed more support, more cushion to prevent the poundings, high tops to support the ankles, arch supports in the shoes and when the arches dropped more then we needed a permanent support jammed into the already restricted binding device to support the weakened arch spring. When the foot-spring binding device (shoe) made the muscles which control the natural shock absorbing gentle rolling from supination to pronation they decided we needed a motion control shoe to prevent that too.
More research should be done on barefoot running:
The popularity of barefoot running has exploded in 2010. This is primarily a result of the Harvard barefoot running study published in Nature, the book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and the invention of the Vibram, Five Fingers, minimalist shoe’s.
Since then there has been enthusiasm about barefoot running from those who have been able to regain the freedom to run barefoot again as they did as a child and skepticism from those who are fearful of whether barefoot running is safe or not.
I could write a long post to discuss this but for now I think this article entitled, Barefoot Running by Michael Warburton in SportscienceSportsci.org tells it all.
I agree that more research needs to be done in this area. The research that should be done is on the affect that different running shoe styles, modifications and so called high tech advancements have to reduce the effectiveness of the natural spring mechanism that you were born with.
Research needs to be done to substantiate these claims made by shoe companies that claim to improve the safety of running.
Orthotic Arch Support which inhibits the arch of the foot
In my opinion a shoe is a binding device that reduces the potential of the natural human spring you were born with that allows you to easily absorb these impacts.
The cushions, shock absorbers and other high tech imperfect padded devices meant to help you absorb impacts are what footwear companies give you to help you absorb these impacts because they took away the natural spring mechanism that you were born with that performed this function perfectly for you.
Dr James Stoxen DC
The Barefoot Running Doctor
This video tutorial was taken from the lecture:
Run For Life! Barefoot
Presented by Dr James Stoxen DC
The 8th Annual Malaysian Conference And Exhibition On Anti-Aging, Aesthetic And Regenerative Medicine
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
April 30 — May 2, 2011
