Bare Foot and Running

The post today is thanks to my dear friend and training partner Runner Susan. Susan purchased some new shoes and they are called Newtons. The angle that the company uses to set their shoes apart from other running shoes is that they are designed to keep you running on your forefoot versus your heels. Check out this page of the Newton Running website and you will see what I am talking about. Scroll down so that you can see the stick figures running. I tried to think of it in terms of how you run with your shoes off. You will naturally run on your forefoot and more in a tip toe position instead of with the heel striking first.

I tried this whole stick figure running idea this morning. I was running on the Dreadmill treadmill and I started out running my usual way with lots of heel striking and pain in my knees. I then started to just try to come up more on my toes and the front of my foot and a magical thing happened! NO pain in the knees. I immediately felt less stress in my legs from the heel up to my hip! Hallelujah! I could not believe what was happening. I was running and had no pain in my knees. Let me add that I don't have any of the fancy pants Newton Running shoes. I just adjusted my run in my trusty ol' ASICS. The down side to all of this is that with any adjustments like these will come a little discomfort in the form of soreness. I am already feeling a little pain in both of my calf muscles. My arches and the balls of my feet feel a little sore as well. I am hopeful though that this just might be what was needed to get me back running without so much pain!

I know that some of you run and I wanted to share this information with you. You might give it a try and just see how it feels. I would love to hear your feedback as well.

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