On Running and Stupidity, guest post by Matt Brouse

A friend of mine in the fitness industry “underground” recently turned me onto an article in The Boston Globe by David Abel entitled “You’re Crazy.”

In it, Abel details his misguided and apparently failed experiment with the Vibram Five Fingers (V5F) shoes.  He starts by revealing either his ignorance or naivety by referring to wearing “minimal shoes” as “the latest running fad.”  Now, certainly this idea has become en vogue among runners and fitness enthusiasts alike in recent years but to refer to the body in its natural condition, as a fad, seems a bit imprudent.

This is akin to how kettle bells are new and exciting in the fitness industry, despite being used since the 1700’s.  Something is not new just because you’ve not been paying attention.  But I digress.  How many years did the human species and pre-human species spend walking, running and maneuvering on their bare feet on, probably, various terrain conditions?  And how long have we, as a species, worn shoes?  And what of the super-duper-awesomer-technological-solve your-problems-feed the world-shoes of today?  I think you’ll find this is a matter of millions versus hundreds.  Much like when the concept of “paleolithic nutrition” is referred to as a fad, in defense of the Food Guide Pyramid, which is representative of arguably around 10,000 years of dietary practices (or might we say indiscretions).  How obtuse.  But, I apologize, as I digress once again.

Abel first sites the manufacturer’s promotional material, as any responsible and clear thinking consumer would do, but, thankfully, some actual research to back his new adventure.  He states that he began running in V5F in “the summer” so let’s be generous and assume he started in May, while training for the 2010 Boston Half Marathon.  The Boston Half was held on 10-10-2010 so he may have trained in his V5F for right around 6 months.  He doesn’t say whether he had the sense to start walking or “doing stuff” in them before he began pounding the pavement but its safe to assume otherwise.  As he begins running, it becomes clear that the Harvard research he sited regarding the “more natural gait” one achieves while running barefoot, is apparently not something he actually read.  “On my first run, the FiveFingers sounded odd as my feet slapped the pavement in the thin rubber soles.” This brings me to, what you may have guessed to be, my views on the mass numbers of recreational runners and those running for fitness or weight loss or whatever.  I generally compare running to the bench press.  Everyone does it.  Most do it wrong.  Many are simply too embarrassing to watch.  This assumption that you can (or even should) run just because, well… you can, is a bit tiresome.  Any trainer or coach with a brain in their head would have read the above quotation and sounded off with a boisterous guffaw!  His feet “slapping the pavement” is likely proof that he has an unnatural, and likely problematic gait, and also that he’s completely missed the point of going barefoot or rocking the V5F to run “naturally.”  Either he’s insisting on heal striking (which should have been uncomfortable enough) and many “runners” do and thus his forefoot is “slapping” the pavement or, perhaps, he does not have an anterior tibialis.

Now, I feel its appropriate to back up here and note that Mr. Abel admits to trying several shoes “…each of which seemed to yield a different injury…” in his marathon pursuits and eludes to having a “litany of nattering hurts” prior to switching to V5F.  So, we might assume, he’s probably got poor technique and as a result has sustained many injuries already and frequently changes shoes and, though not deliberately, continues the trend.

He then goes on to quote Dr. Kevin Kirby, a biomechanics professor, as basically saying that the V5F are bad, causing injuries and should not be marketed to runners.  This is actually my favorite part of the article because, like so many other areas of the fitness industry and sport, we find ourselves wielding the durable old value of personal irresponsibility.  Much like guns killing people and fast food hamburgers chasing jovial gentlemen and ladies down the street these shoes not only forcibly attach themselves to runners feet but also force them to toss any and all logical thought regarding training progression and overload directly out the window.  Let’s put it in perspective.  If you never, ever, once in your life wore shoes and then one day decided to put a pair on and go about your business, do you think it would have a positive outcome?  Let me expand further.  If you never did a squat in your life, and I mean bar on the back or, at least, heals on the ground and butt down, squat.  If you never did one of those, would you load 405 on the bar for your first try?  Hmm?  “Of course not,” you’d vociferate, “what about your joints; your knees and back!?  And you’ve got to practice the technique first!”  And I would agree.  Squats done poorly can be harmful to the joints and just plain dangerous.  Squats done with structural weaknesses and little attention to progression can also be problematic.  But, I would ask, can the basics of exercise not be applied to all exercise?  Including running…

If the author was 30 years old for this race, his feet have been dependent on shoes (and the arch support, for example, that they provide) for probably, what, 28 of those years?  Think of the cute toddler toddling about in his miniature Air Force Ones.  From about our first step, and sometimes earlier our feet are crammed into shoes because they have to be as they are fundamentally flawed and unable to function without them. This is obviously preposterous but the fact probably remains that the authors shoes are not shaped like his feet, but his feet, rather, are shaped like is shoes.  They’ve been molded to fit his shoes and it seems only reasonable that the function simply has to have been affected.  For this same duration his arches have had a crutch to lean upon so as not to have to function as designed.  Given his feet have been wrapped in a warm, and probably moist, environment is it any kind of surprise that the surface of his feet would not be prepared for the various challenges he might face on the trail?  Essentially, we’ve got a guy that has very consistently developed certain weaknesses and dependencies for probably close to 30 years… and in a few months expected to be able to perform at a high level in an entirely new set of conditions.  I defer back to my previous statements about the simplest concepts of training progression and, specifically, overload.  From the most common sense view of this possible, does this not seem strange?

“So,” you may ask, “why do you care, Mr. Brouse?”

Because, I would reply, there is many a good idea that is essentially disregarded because, one, it goes against the status quo, which is a cliff we lemmings are quick to run upon and dive from, and two, personal irresponsibility or, dare I say, stupidity should not – however prominent in media figures – take the place of real honest evidence, intelligent practice and, personal experience based on common sense.  And, I believe that summarizes the problem here.  Furthermore, I care because this is an all to common trend in the fitness industry, an idea comes out and the public’s perception of that idea is shaped by either figures in the media or “celebrities” with no expertise on the subject, and often dismal efforts to put the ideas to practice.  I also see consistent trends in terrible training in recreational runners and “health seekers” who read articles like this and walk away with negative and often dangerous ideas of what “it” takes.

I’ve been wearing V5F and actively going barefoot for around a year and half as of this writing.

At first, I wore them for no more than 30 or 40 minutes at a time, and for nothing beyond walking and “doing stuff.”  I built, slowly from there.  The extent of the running I did in the first year was not beyond a few intervals on the track or 100 yard sprints on the local high school’s football field.  I chose my duration and surfaces carefully… I trained my body!  This is the same for my wife and many friends who have also chosen this path.  If there is no other point to my writing this, it is simply to argue that if the V5F or the barefoot concept have been given a bad wrap it seems to me to probably be the result of a few self-inflicted bad experiences and, unfortunately, the tale of our times – being so far removed from our natural environment.  I could probably amend many of my exercise recommendation this very same way, but I feel it gets the point across well, here.

Give the V5F a try – but don’t be stupid.