Ben Wang reported on March 4th that for most people, taking shoes off and undressing in public are just as embarrassing. Because most people's feet are not very good-looking, they also emit unpleasant odors. But now there are a group of people who not only take off their shoes in public but also run barefoot because the latest research shows that running barefoot has a lot of benefits for the human body.
Barefoot running healthy
British Opens "Barefoot Running Course"
The Englishman John Woodward probably is the originator of barefoot running. Woodward has been running barefoot for 25 years on the wilderness, rocks, and lakes. For the first time he ran barefoot for "a kind of hippy-style freedom," but since then he hasn't put shoes on his feet when he runs. Woodward said: "When humans first appeared in the world, they ran barefoot. They had to run barefoot to catch lunch or avoid lunch for other species."
Woodward found himself as the originator of the barefoot running trend. Although he never directly let anyone take off their running shoes, he invited people to participate in his "barefoot running course" on weekends.
The first choice for them to run barefoot is the turf near Silver Valley Bay, where the turf is quite soft and was once laid on Wembley Stadium.
Woodward said that people's feet can go anywhere. After completing his courses, students can run barefoot for four or five miles, through meadows and beaches, until they reach the estuary of Silver Valley Bay. But Woodward cares more about the quality of running than about quantity. The first stage of the course was "play time". Take off your shoes. The students ran around soft turf, squeaky mud and solid sand, and the ground was splashing around. Woodward said: "It reminds you of the joy of taking off your shoes and socks as a child and running around." He was right. People quickly jumped from a bush to another grass and played a pitching game. Pray for good luck.
Shoes hurt a lot
The principle of barefoot running is: modern running shoes are harmful to the human body and can make people's steps deform. Wearing shoes, people will use the heel to the ground, the legs will be pressed directly on the heel, exerting great pressure on the joints. If you don't wear shoes, the person's location is the ball of the big toe or the middle of the foot. The leg will bend slightly and will not press the weight of the entire body onto the joint. Those who do not wear shoes will naturally curl from the outside to the inside slightly, the steps will be smaller, the steps will be lighter, and the walking posture will be more standard.
Gerald Hartman, an Irish physiotherapist, said that he claimed a few years ago that the limitation of shoes on the feet was the greatest damage to the muscles of the feet. He found that the heavier and tighter the shoe, the greater the damage to his feet.
Hartman once served more than 100 world-class African athletes. He said: "Most African athletes never walked through shoes before adulthood. As a result, their feet are almost flawless."
Research by evolution biologists at Harvard University seems to prove this. Professor Daniel Lieberman said: "When you walk in your shoes, when your heels are on the ground, it's like someone is holding a hammer and has hammered your heel with 3 times your weight." But he also Issue a warning: walking barefoot must be slower and be careful. And if you are a diabetic, you must seek medical advice before attempting to walk barefoot.
Most of the students were injured
Woodward's method of training people is "from head to toe" and "from the inside out." He tries to restore those already inert muscles to their natural vitality.
One to two hours after the foot touched the ground, a student’s toes turned dark brown and had hail from the pond on his feet, but he did not feel a biting cold. Walking accelerates his blood circulation. In Woodward's studio, the students began to practice "wake up the feet." One student was told that his feet had been injured by stiff shoes for 40 years. The main purpose of the exercise was to restore people's body to a natural bent posture.
Skilled bare-foot runners lift their toes and place their ball on the ball of the great toe, which is naturally arched when landing. In this way, the pace of the person will become smaller, the frequency of steps will increase, and it will look like a sharp point, and will go all the way. To allow students to do this, Woodward photographed their running posture. Some students thought that their posture was like an antelope; after watching the video, they found out that they were actually clumsy rhinos.
Most of the students who came to the Woodward course were injured and they want to be able to return to health. Woodward recently helped a 18-year-old with a broken leg into the army and also let an 86-year-old grandfather like to walk. Among the students in the course was Loren Slaughter, the head of the British Youth Ballet. He injured his foot and was told that he could no longer return to the stage. After deciding to undergo surgery again, he began training in barefoot running. After 18 months, he miraculously returned to the stage. He said: "Barefooted gave me a second artistic life."
Some people also participated in this course for fun. They were bored with the regular schedule and the fixed running route, and they withdrew from the course on the grounds of injury.
Can't start faster
Some students will forget to rush to barefoot on frosty turf. This is a very dangerous move. Every expert will suggest that they start slowly and gradually, otherwise there will be danger of fractures and strains. In addition, barefoot running on a treadmill is absolutely safe. Woodward said: "Compared with the gradual deterioration of the natural athletic ability of the foot for decades, the speed of recovery is very fast." He estimated that if you run barefoot for 4-6 weeks, your feet's natural athletic ability Can restore 80%.
Some trainees said that after running for only 5 miles, his calf was almost on his death. Barefoot running is mainly on the ball of the great toe. Most of the muscles that are not commonly used at the time are mobilized. The feet are nothing more.
Sports shoe makers respond quickly
After knowing that there was such a barefoot running group, the sports shoe manufacturers responded in a timely manner. The shoes they designed were more lean and fit, suitable for running on uneven roads or at night.
For safety, some beginner barefoot runners like to wear this kind of shoes to make the transition. But even in big cities, there are very few who have heard that someone has stepped on a bark or was scratched by a glass because of barefoot running. Anna Toms, a sports physiotherapist in London, has barefooted her in this city for nearly a year. She said: “People exaggerate the danger. No one does not have long eyes.†In addition, there is no straight line. Benefits, in addition to avoiding obstacles, can also be exercised in muscles that are not exercised during repetitive exercise.
For some students, shyness is the biggest problem because it's weird to wear shoes. "You will feel very uncomfortable when you run barefoot from a group of teenagers," Woodward said. Some people will put pairs of shoes in their bags when they participate in training so that they can wear them when they go home by car, lest they attract people's attention.