21
Mar

Barefoot Running

I didn’t always start out using trainers. When I was a kid, I ran barefoot. So I’m used to ploughing rough terrain with my plays and games with my friends.

I never recalled being ever injured back then, I kept on going like an energizer bunny.

It was during high school time, as I began to foray into running that I need something more durable for my feet. Only when my family can afford such luxury, did I buy some sort of flats. It had little soles, no heels, no cushioning. I never got injured.

Then I proceed to college before going to varsity level, still doing my running. I was supporting myself by now, and have extra income for buying trainers. I was finally ecstatic I could finally own a running shoe.

This was when my injuries began. Of course I’ve no evidence if it’s the start of using the trainers, or the increase in my workout load that attribute to my injuries, but as I reached my 30′s, I felt it’s about time that I find ways and try out new alternatives to reduce oneself of getting injured.

Thus my new initiative of training barefoot. Well not literally barefoot, but using Vibram Five Fingers.

I’ll blog again in the new few months of the outcome from using VFF, the short-form for Vibram Five Fingers.

I believe we humans over thousands of years evolving, our running mechanics has always been barefoort running, landing on our forefoot, rather than our heel, which is a product of using trainers.

Of course landing on the forefoot over long distance can be a killer, I’m not saying you should be doing a marathon with such running form, but getting back to our ancestral roots of nomads hunters, barefoot hunting over short distances in the reserves.

I’ll don’t want to influence you, so I’ll leave it to you on how you should go about choosing your shoes. So I’ll leave a couple of barefoot running articles for your reading below.