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Showing posts from September, 2011

how padding can be evil

I swear I'm going to fork the 30 bucks for the online article from Nature that discusses this but for now I will just cite the book Born to Run and my own experience in this matter. In the book McDougall describes research detailing how the padding in our running shows doesn't actually absorb any of the force of the impact with the ground, that all such force is transferred through the heel and into/across the rest of the body just as if the padding wasn't there. In actual fact the only thing cushioning does is deaden our sensitivity to impact the force of impact and in some cases padding has even been shown to augment the transfer of these mechanical energies. In essence the padding keeps us from feeling what is happening and as far as the forces at work padding does nothing to diminish them. One of the things I'm finding true lately of the barefoot style is that it is actually more efficient. Now that I've rebuilt my arches my feet and legs are doing the wo

top five barefoot running shoes

1. Luna Sandals 2. Merrell Trial Gloves 3. Vibram Five Fingers 4. Brooks Green Silence 5. New Balance Minimus

eating raw and running raw

I am still in the midst of reading the book Born to Run and continue to find I am discovering things on my own that a decade of revolution has also discovered: That with healthy running also comes healthy living. Over my almost two years of barefoot-style running I have dropped some 30 pounds and have done so without dieting. Having seen my parents yo-yo 40-50 pounds a year crucifying their bodies with Weight Watchers I vowed that while I wanted to shed some pounds I only wanted to do it in a sustainable fashion. I would rather weigh 205 and stay there the rest of my life than yo-yo. Actually over the last 4 years I've lost about 40 pounds. But it began with a class on Spirituality at a graduate program at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. The class was called Christian Spirituality and the lesson that began my long journey of healthier eating was the lesson on Sabbath. Based on some of the ideas of Abraham Heschel in his book titled The Sabbath our class

barefoot and religious

Running in cushy modern running shoes is like joining up with a mega-church. It's new, stylish, involves lots of money and modern ideas but may in the end be bad for us. Maybe it's time to ditch emergent evangelicalism and learn to run and worship as the caveman did. Maybe the new cutting edge coffee sippin Mars Hill Church isn't what we need. Maybe it's time to get down and dirty. Maybe it's time to drink lots of beer and experience the sensual pleasures of this good earth. Maybe it's time to tread lightly and with grace, to conserve energy and not waste it. Maybe the custom orthotics and preacher man are hurting us with their rigid dogmatic ways. Maybe the pain we tried to avoid and bury with layers of EVA foam was trying to tell us something we needed to hear: Stop. Heal. Grow. Love.