korviev wrote:
After seeing more than one friend get a stress fracture after switching to barefoot or those monkey vibram thingies, I gotta say BS on the barefoot running theory.
Runners get injured these days so frequently because we are running on asphalt most of the time.
The fact that your friends have weak bones from spending most of their lives in a sedentary environment instead of an active physical environment is forcing you to call BS on the theory that humans ran for thousands upon thousands of years barefoot? My, you're a smart one.
The fact that your friends got stress fractures from running in minimalist shoes isn't proof that minimalism is BS, it's proof that your friends have spent too much of their lives sitting around on their asses and not enough time on their feet. Your bones internally adapt themselves and re-arrange their cellular make-up to account for whatever stresses are frequently placed upon them. Spend alot of your time on your feet moving around and your internal bone structure will adapt. Spend alot of your time sitting around watching TV and your bone structure will go to hell.
The fact that obese people destroy their feet with their excessive rolls of flab and poundage isn't proof that feet aren't suited for running, it's proof that people aren't suited to being so fat and lazy.
The fact that people have achilles problems when switching from high-heeled high-cushioned nikes to flats/vibrams/barefeet isn't proof that our achilles can't handle it and need the elevated heel, it's proof that wearing shoes with elevated heels for our whole lives artificially shortens the achilles and makes people prone to achilles injuries when they don't wear them. The Brooks Addiction is the most appropriately named shoe I've ever heard of - You know what addiction implies? Physical dependency.
As my co-worker put it today, probably only about 2% of the population is suited to actually run. Everyone else is too fat and too weak. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, just don't act like you're the victim of shoes/asphalt/genetics/etc and don't claim that barefoot running is BS just because you're too weak/fat/out of shape to handle it.
The fact that old people have joint problems isn't proof that running is bad for your joints, it's proof that old people didn't really exist for most of human evolution and that they only do now because of modern medicine.
Additionally, the whole "running is bad for your joints, therefor we aren't adapted to run" argument is hilariously flawed because what do the people who have joint problems typically run in? The shoe with the latest and greatest Patented-MoGo-Progrid-Zoom-Air-Midfoot-Hydroflow-Enhanced-Adiprene-Reinforced-Trusstic-Guidance-Dual-Density-Stabilicore-Posting-DRB-Variable-Wave-Plate-With-A-Decoupled-Gel-Caterpillar-Crash-Pad* technology that allows people to run with sloppy ass form and come smashing down on their heel as hard as they'd like. And somehow people use the enormous glut of injuries sustained by people running in these shoes as an argument against the idea of running barefoot with proper form? How is that exactly? I don't get it.
*Yes, those are all actual patended and trademarked names of shoe technologies used by Nike, Adidas, Saucony, New Balance, Asics, Mizuno, Brooks etc... WBut whatever you do don't run in the Nike Shox, because remember, gimmicks are baaaaaad... ;)