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Tarahumaras: The Men Who Live Forever

Tarahumara runner - http://www.allwedoisrun.com

The tarahumara are indigenous people of northern Mexico and renowed for their long-distance running ability. They run barefoot or wearing these huarache sandals. They are the best example of the benefits of minimalist/barefoot running: they barely experience running injuries, don’t know cancers and other western’s people diseases.

Tarahumara's huarache sandals - http://www.allwedoisrun.com

Originally inhabitants of much of the state of Chihuahua, the Tarahumara retreated to the Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre Occidental on the arrival of Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. The area of the Sierra Madre Occidental which they now inhabit is often called the Sierra Tarahumara because of their presence.

Current estimates put the population of the Tarahumara in 2006 at between 50,000 and 70,000 people. Most still practice a traditional lifestyle, inhabiting natural shelters such as caves or cliff overhangs, as well as small cabins of wood or stone. Staple crops are corn and beans; however, many of the Tarahumara still practice transhumance, raising cattle, sheep, and goats. Almost all Tarahumara migrate in some form or another in the course of the year.

The Tarahumaras’ word for themselves, Raramuri, means “runners on foot” in their native tongue according to some early ethnographers like Norwegian Carl Lumholtz, though this interpretation has not been fully agreed upon. With widely dispersed settlements, these people developed a tradition of long-distance running for intervillage communication and transportation. The long-distance running tradition also has ceremonial and competitive aspects. Often, male runners kick wooden balls as they run in “foot throwing” competitions, and females use a stick and hoop. The foot throwing races are relays where the balls are kicked by the runners and relayed to the next runner while teammates run ahead to the next relay point. These races can last anywhere from a few hours for a short race to a couple of days without a break. The Tarahumara also practice persistence hunting, using their ability to run extremely long distances (sometimes as far as 160km) to catch animals such as deer; the animals eventually tire and slow down, and the Tarahumara get close enough to the animal to kill it.

(part of the text from wikipedia.org)

Very interesting article related to “The Men Who Live Forever”: http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&category=motivation&conitem=3b4b1ca01e91c010VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=1

Are running shoes a waste of money?

Tarahumara runner Arnulfo Quimare runs alongside ultra-runner Scott Jurek in Mexico's Copper Canyons - Note how the shod runner strikes the ground with the heel when the Tarahurama strikes with the forefoot! - http://www.dailymail.co.uk

More and more articles related to the fact running shoes may be wrong…
And today a pretty interesting one from the Dailymail.

We learn that Stanford track athlete are training barefoot, how Bill Bewerman came out with the cushioning, and how running related injuries increased… We also learn how Nike came out with Nike free, and there is a pretty complete review of other articles related to the subject.

I let you enjoy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html

Coming up!

Coming up, some examples casual runners, professional athletes, and also in indigenous tribes that run barefoot/minimalist

Then i will pick up the most common running injuries (ie: knees and back pain, shin splints, plantar fasciis…) and show how minimalist footwear can help you to solve them.

Before, do not hesitate to comment my posts and to request some references or sources if you think it’s needed.

BSD

Heel running vs Forefoot-Midfoot running

As we saw in the last post, if most of us land on the heels while running (75% of shod runners, according to Hanz Joachim Rist & al. (1)) , natural barefoot running makes us run on the balls of our feet.

What is the difference between forefoot-midfoot and heel-toes running? How is the impact shock wave going through the body?

- Heel-Toes stride

Heel Strike - Picture from Newton Running

As you can see on the picture, the runner will land in his heel. The impact will start from the heel (calcaneum bone = heel bone) and go directly in the knees, then in the back, and so on.

Also the leg is stretched out in front of the runner which will slow down his whole body, before re-accelerating. The body is moving up and down (as shown on the “wave”). The energy consumption and the impact amplitude are pretty high as the runner lands heavily on the ground.

Why heel landing?

Most of runners think a greater amplitude helps to run faster. And with a high cushioning, heel landing seems comfortable. Also when your lower limbs are not developed enough, it’s much easier to land on the heel (cushioning, knees and back will absorb the impact) than on the forefoot (cushioning, foot and calves muscles will absorb the impact). The last point is that it’s pretty tough to land on the forefoot with 24mm EVA foam under the heel!

- Midfoot-Forefoot Stride

Forefoot Strike - Picture from Newton Running

As we saw on the previous post, barefoot running makes us naturally land on the ball of our feet (on the forefoot). The impact starts from the ball of the foot. The plantar fascia, achilles’ tendon and calf all stretch (the foot flattens, and the heel comes to the ground). The runner finally push off with the ball of his foot again.

If you go for a 5 minutes barefoot on the grass, you will feel that it activates all the bones, muscles and tendons of your feet (52 bones out of the 206 of your body are in your feet!). After running, you will especially feel your plantar fascia, achille’s tendon and calf muscles.

The forefoot striker has a shorter stride, he lands right below his center of gravity, and the pelvis is moving much less up and down than for the heel striker (see “wave” on the picture). It means there is much less energy loss than during heel-toes running. World class athletes usually run forefoot, like Haile Gebreselassie, world record holder of the marathon.

Haile Gebreselassie

Why forefoot landing?

While running barefoot on a hard surface, heel landing would be pretty painful. The impact would start from the calcaneum bone, connected to the shin bone, and would go directly in your body (knees, back..). Running on the ball of your foot, the system “foot-leg” is acting like a spring, and absorbs a part of the impact. The landing is much softer, which is the reason the body naturally tends to run forefoot.

As a conclusion, it looks like forefoot running generates much less stress than heel running, even if the system foot-leg needs to be trained and developped. The feet naturally have a very complex structure (25% of the bones of the body) which may just show how well designed our bodies are, as they have to support them. And it looks like overprotective footwear empeach the development of their muscles, plus modify the information received by their sensors, which leads to heel striking.

The weakness of the lower limbs due to the “over supportive” footwear may be a reason of some of the running injuries.

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(1) Hanz Joachim Rist & al. “Increased Frequency of Plantar Fasciosis in Forefoot Running”

Shod vs Barefoot

To get started, i simply would like to compare shod running and barefoot running.

Most of us land on the outside of the heel and then roll up to push off with the ball of the foot and the toes. But try to run barefoot: you will realize you naturally run on the forefoot and land on the ball of your foot. Dr. Marc Silberman of NJ Sports Medicine and Performance Center proposes a good video which shows the same person running shod and barefoot (with no instruction of course):

Question 1: do current running footwear force us to land on the heel?

Video from Dr. Marc Silberman of New Jersey Sports Medicine and Performance Center http://njsportsmed.com/

The Beginning…

adidas1: the most advanced shoe?

In 2007, i started my research in running biomechanics. And the first paper i got to read was called: “The Myth of Running Shoe Cushioning“.

This paper could be random if it wasn’t written by a former head of Nike Sport Research Laboratory, Martyn Shorten.

In a mean time, as a runner, i was experiencing very different feelings with my cushioned shoes and with my racing flats, especially during fast workouts (my only time using racing flats at this time). Much more freedom and lightness in my run using racing flats. Conversely, I was feeling heavier and even had the feeling to land heavily on my heels while using my cushioned training shoes. I didn’t really have injuries problems, but was experiencing chronic low back pain.

I decided to investigate what actually biomechanically happens, and realized there were not much proofs of the benefits of the current running shoes in the scientific literature.

Also many interrogations came to my mind: many athletes complain about shin splints, Achilles’ tendons inflammations, plantar fascia pain, (and so on…) which in my mind were linked overuse of racing flats/track and field spikes.

Let’s get started with this paper from Martyn Shorten. Here is the introduction, you can click on the link to his website to get the full version:

“The advent of the “Running Boom” in the late 1970’s coincided with the introduction of the first “technical” running shoe products incorporating cushioned soles and features intended to stabilize the foot during ground contact. The sensation
of comfort provided by cushioned running shoes appears to have facilitated the participation of many “joggers” who would otherwise not have taken up the sport.
The Running Boom also precipitated rapid growth in related scientific research. In both university and corporate laboratories, studies of the physiology of exercise, the biomechanics of running and the mechanics of running shoes became common. Numerous investigators sought to determine a link between running shoe cushioning and the impact loads experienced by the runner. The results of these experiments were generally inconclusive, however. Many researchers reported no differences in peak impact force among different cushioning systems and, in some instances, more compliant cushioning was found to increase impact force.
These equivocal results have lead others to hypothesise that running shoe cushioning offers little benefit to athletes. Very compliant cushioning may increase injury risk in some instances, since there is a correlation between cushioning compliance and excessive subtalar joint motion, which has been linked with common running injuries (Clement et al, 1981). Some (e.g. Robbins and Waked (1997)) have interpreted the available data less equivocally, stating bluntly that cushioned athletic shoes are dangerous and that shoe companies offering cushioning as a benefit are guilty of deception.
The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarise some of what is known about the mechanics of running shoe cushioning, in an attempt to determine why the expensively engineered shock attenuating systems built into athletic shoe soles apparently fail to attenuate shock. “

The Myth of Running Shoe Cushioning
Shorten, M.R. (2002)
Keynote Lecture; 4th International Conference on The Engineering of Sport, Kyoto, 3-6 September 2002

You can download the article from Martyn Shorten’s website: http://www.biomechanica.com/docs/publications/index.html

Martyn Shorten’s resume:

Martyn R. Shorten, PhD

Martyn Shorten received his Ph.D. from Loughborough University, UK, in 1984. Before starting his Research and Development business in 1992, he was employed as Director of the NIKE Sport Research Laboratory and as Director of Research Design and Product Development for PUMA AG.

Shorten has been an active member of the International Society of Biomechanics since 1983 and served on the Society’s Executive Council from 2001-2003. In 1993, he established the ISB’s Technical Section on Footwear Biomechanics, a international working group of academics, clinicians and industry researchers. Shorten is Chairman of ASTM Committee F08 on Sports Equipment and Facilities, Chairman of the Athletic Footwear subcommittee and a member of the Committee on Standards. He is active in the development of standards for footwear, artificial turf and playground surfacing. He is also a member of the International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA), and a Fellow of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers.

While Shorten’s basic and applied research has won international recognition, he is a self-styled “recovering academic”, preferring to using science and technology as tools for developing applications and products. He is a frequent author and invited speaker on topics related to the biomechanics of human performance and injury, and their links to athletic footwear and sports surface and protective equipment design. He is an R&D consultant to leading athletic shoe and sports surface manufacturers. His patented inventions form the basis of NIKE’s “Tuned Air” and “Footbridge” systems, Puma’s “Trinomic Plus” and “Cell” technologies, and the array of footwear, protective equipment and surfacing products that use Skydex cushioning materials.

BSD

Introduction

Barefoot Ethiopian Runner

“What about getting a rid of you Comfort for more Pleasure? What if your comfortable running shoes were taking off your pleasure, and bringing you more injuries?”

Some runners are going back to old style natural running, wearing “minimal footwear” or even running barefoot. Their motivation: it would solve injuries, and even prevent them! Are runners of the XXIth century getting crazy?

Unfortunately there is no scientific research about the fact “barely shod running” would be injury free. As there is no scientific research that prove our current running shoes really prevent injuries(!). I started to question the current cushionned running shoes in 2007 when i started my research project in running biomechanics.

I would like to use this blog to share my exerience and to understand scientifically (using easy examples) what happens. Are our padded running shoes really over supportive?

In a mean time, i will be trying the experience on myself, progressively switching to minimal footwear. Experience that i will share with you (see the tab “my experience” above).

To make it clear I don’t want everyone to run barefoot. I want to question current cushioned running shoes, and to explore scientifically the benefits of “running minimalist”.

On the right of the page, you will find some example of famous athletes running minimalist, and some newspaper articles related to the subject. I will post the ones i feel you should really read:-)

On the top of the page, don’t hesitate to use the tab “forum” to ask your questions, and the tab “my experience” will allow you to follow my experience switching from over supportive running shoes to “barely shod”…

Bare(ly)ShoD