This week is a video blog with how to instructions for temporary relief from common running/walking pains.
For the best results with this quick do it yourself-massage therapy, spend 3-5 minutes massaging the areas described.
It is important to follow up with full body foam rolling techniques as outlined in my blog.
http://youtu.be/Kwoy1DTMM2M
Why you lose it
One of the reasons your body is so special is its ability to heal itself. Within your fascial tissueare cells that create fascial adhesions around an injury to provide extra stability and restrict painful movement while the damaged tissue is repaired. The restricted movement is just enough to facilitate the healing process while at the same time allowing you some freedom to move. In the ancient world where the human body was forged, this healing process took place over the course of a few days or weeks. Movement was a necessary and key factor in the healing process. Early man did not have the luxury to spend a few days in bed to fully recover. He had to move to survive, and so he had to heal while moving, which is why this process of building fascial adhesions is so special. Movement works in unison with the circulatory system as a secondary mechanical pump and flushes the injured tissue with fresh blood. This flush of blood flow removes waste by-products, brings in fresh nutrients and speeds up the healing process dramatically. As the injured area recovers, the body once again is able to utilize full, pain free, movement patterns that completely break down the fascial adhesions.
Today we have a problem: we no longer live in that ancient world. Our cultural landscape has dramatically changed our lifestyle over the past 100 years – especially in the last 20. Instead of hunting, gathering, and harvesting our food, utilizing our body in daily acts of survival, we spend most of our time sitting, in front of a computer or in a car. Compared to a mere couple hundred years ago, the lifestyle of even the most active person in any industrialized country today would be considered relatively sedentary.
When you do not get adequate functional movement, you no longer put your mechanical pump to use. This slows down the healing process as restrictive adhesionsdo not get broken down. Instead, lack of movement communicates to your body that you are still injured and so it continues to build up even more adhesions to further stabilize and restrict motion around the supposedly injured areas. Over time, thesefascial adhesions become so thick and strong that you permanently lose your full range of motion and function. Examples are: losing the ability to fully turn your head in one or both directions to see behind yourself while walking or driving; the ability to raise your arms fully over your head while maintaining a stable spine and scapula; the ability to do a deep squat with your feet flat on the floor; the ability to walk, run or sprint without pain. Without enough functional movement your body assumes you are in a continual state of injury. Eventually this becomes a full-time reality. This is the primary reason that I find deep tissue massage therapy, such as myofascial release, to be so important. I can manually break down fascial adhesions and increase functional range of motion. I can prime the mechanical pump, facilitating waste product removal and nutrient delivery back into the tissue. In essence this removes years of fascial buildup and facilitates a speedy return to functional movement.
Not Just Any Movement, What you need is Functional Movement
A sedentary lifestyle means we do not use our bodies the way a human body was designed to move. This has become the reality of our lives. On a daily basis, we fail to utilize the vast array of movement patterns that are possible. Plus the intensity of our movements has softened. All kinds of technologies have made our lives much easier in most regards. This means that we must go out of our way to move our body the way it must functionally move.
Functional movement training is vital. You cannot not get the movement your body needs to maintain pain-free health and vitality by sitting in front of a computer. You must move. I am not talking about the traditional types of exercises that are likely coming to your mind. I’m not talking about running for hours on end on pavement in a straight line. I’m not talking about lifting weights while sitting on a nice cushioned bench or using a machine. Your body needs functional movement. It needs to move the way it was designed to move. Running and traditional weight training are small portion of functional training and tend to be overly repetitious in very specific movement patterns. They do not utilize the postural stabilization and functional movement patterns your body craves. To your body not using a functional movement pattern is almost the same as not moving. And as I said earlier, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Even if you run or lift weights 7 days a week, if you do not lift your arm over your head, over time you will lose the ability to do so. Your body recognizes this as an injury and begins the healing process discussed above, but now to your detriment.
What is Functional Movement?
My definition is simple. You have a body for a reason. Functional movement is what happens when you use your body to meet all of its designed purposes: flexing, extending, pulling, pushing, rotating, changing directions, running, walking, jumping, sprinting and climbing. If you are designed to do it, then use your body to do it. If you don’t, you will eventually lose your ability to do it, which will lead to a higher risk ofchronic pain and injury in your life.
As a personal trainer and deep tissue massage therapist, my entire focus is on functional movement – no exceptions. From the start we make sure you have pain free, functional range of motion with a stable posture. We make use of deep tissue massage, flexibility and corrective exercises (you can see examples of corrective exercises here, here and here) to open up your neck, chest, and shoulders so you can turn your neck to check your blind spot, or lift a box overhead without pain or injury. We increase flexibility in your hips so you can easily squat deeply without knee or back pain. We get you to walk and run comfortably again – no more dread of a painful trip up the stairs, to the mailbox, or to the car.
Once your functional range of motion and postural stability are improved you get to start having some real fun. In these workouts you fine tune this high performance machine that is your body by working it to meet all of its designed purposes. You will sweat, burn calories, build muscle, get stronger, move better, have more energy, become more capable and productive in your life, look better, reduce body fat, reduce stress, pain and injury, and most importantly: you will feel better in your body.
This is the final installment of my series on Posture. A few weeks ago, I describedposture as the absolute need for stability.
“It is from stability that all healthy movement is derived.”
I keyed in on the feet as the foundation and the hips as the ballast of the body. Today I will discuss the body’s most mobile joint: the shoulder, and more specifically: the scapula – otherwise called the shoulder blade. The scapula is the mast and sails of the body. Where the scapula goes, the head and torso will follow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-1dOuIUi9s&feature=player_embedded
As I said a few weeks ago, “stability is king.” When it comes to the shoulder the scapula is the King of stability. The scapula is the anchoring point for the postural muscles of the shoulder; it provides the stability necessary for a huge combination of movements. This large range of motion is something that distinguishes us from all other species on the planet. The shoulder is designed to provide for the movements of climbing, crawling, lifting, throwing, pushing, and pulling; and aids in the movements of running and jumping. None of these movements would be possible without the scapula’s amazing ability to stabilize.
At home and in the workplace we do not regularly engage our shoulders to meet their designed movement patterns, and what you don’t use, you lose. Instead we sit for 8-12 hours each day in front of a computer, TV or in our cars – and most of us sit with our head and shoulders forward. This posture pulls the scapula out of a position of leverage, where it is capable of providing the greatest amount of stabilization to the body. Over time, the postural muscles that are responsible for scapular stability are shut off (just like the postural muscles of the lower core and hips that I addressed in What is Postureand The Hips). Once the postural muscles are shut off, the body must recruit stabilityfrom mobility muscles such as the biceps, pecs, and trapezius. As these muscles take over, they lock the scapula in an upward rotation, and prevent the body from packing them down where they function most effectively. When the scapula are stuck in upward rotation, they lose their functional range of motion and true stabilization of the shoulder becomes difficult. And remember, where your scapula goes, your head will follow. Once the stability of the scapula is lost, the shoulder, neck, and lower back are put in a position of stress with a greater risk of pain and injury.
Keys to Regaining Shoulder Function
Scapular stability is vital to reducing pain, preventing injury, and improving your overall postural health. Here are the keys to regaining scapular stability and function:
The first and most important step to increasing the functional range of motion of the shoulder joint is through myofascial massage therapy. And deep tissue massage therapy(such as myofascial release and self-myofascial release), when paired with foam roller therapy, will help break down restrictions in the fascial tissue. These often overlooked steps will improve tissue health, reduce chronic pain, increase functional joint range of motion, and prevent injury.
Immediately following a series of deep tissue massage treatments with a full body flexibility or stretching program will help to permanently establish the newly regained range of motion. Yoga, Pilates, Egoscue and Active Release Technique are just a few examples of effective flexibility programs you can try. I highly recommend hiring an experienced and qualified coach or therapist to ensure proper form and the best approach to a flexibility program that will meet your individual needs.
As range of motion improves, the next step is corrective exercise. The goal of corrective exercise for the shoulder is to train the shoulder’s postural muscles to maintain proper position and stability and, as demonstrated in the video above, the ability to pack the scapula down.
Spend between 3-5 minutes on each side. It is very important that you spend an equal amount of time on both sides and that you work through each of the areas listed to gain the most out of self-myofascial release.
Lie on your side, your arm overhead and foam roller beneath your lats. Massage from the top of the arm to below the shoulder blade. Do not massage in the arm pit area.
Lie on your side, your arm overhead and foam roller beneath the chest. Do not massage in the arm pit area.
Lie on your side, your arm overhead and foam roller beneath the bicep. Do not massage in the arm pit area.
Corrective Exercises for the Shoulder
The following exercises will help regain functional range of motion of the scapula and shoulder.
Scapular Squeeze on Foam Roller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDyWyH86h64&feature=player_embedded
Press and squeeze the scapula around the foam roller then reach and extend toward the ceiling. Repeat 20 times.
Reverse Fly on Foam Roller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CHBOSPy98E&feature=player_embedded
Squeeze the scapula around the foam roller as you slowly drop your arms down. Continue to squeeze scapula into the foam roller as you return your arms to the starting position. Repeat 20 times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3SQyKiXVuo&feature=player_embedded
Get in push-up or plank position (on feet or knees depending on ability level) with your hands directly beneath your chest. Make sure your body is in alignment with your hips level to your shoulders. Without bending your elbows and maintaining plank position, squeeze your shoulder blades together and press back out. Focus on squeezing together at the base of your scapula and not shrugging at your ears.
Last week I demonstrated that the foot is the foundation of your posture (see: Injury Prevention Begins at your Foot). In the article I discussed the role of the feet in providing stability and mobility for the body and gave examples of corrective exercises to build strength, stabilization, and mobility in the foot. Today I will talk about the hips.
If the foot is the foundation of your posture, the hips are the ballast. The hips provide stabilization, counterbalance, and mobility with an incredible range of movements such as squatting, lunging, jumping, running, walking and climbing stairs.
I discussed a couple of weeks ago that we no longer move the way we were designed to move. We spend hours and hours each week sitting: in front of the computer, in our cars, and in front of the television. The position of sitting places the hips in flexion, or a forward bend, and effectively turns off the postural muscles of the lower core. When the postural muscles turn off they no longer provide stabilization of the hips and low back.
Again, going back to a few weeks ago: When it comes to movement and injury prevention, stability is king. Since stability is so important to movement, when your postural muscles lose their ability to function, your body MUST do something about it. When it comes to the hips, your body recruits stability from the gluteals and hip flexors, both movement muscles. The hip flexors and gluteals take over stability control of the pelvis. In doing so, they are weakened, atrophy and lose functional ability as mobile muscles placing greater stress on the hamstrings and low back. This leads to significant reductions in the range of motion of the hips and secondarily to the shoulders, knees, and feet. It also leads to the saggy bottom phenomena which plagues both men and women. Reduced range of motion causes imbalances throughout the body, which ultimately leads to dysfunction, pain, and injury.
The gluteals are especially important when it comes to posture. Remember, the hips are the ballast of the body, with most of the stability and counterbalance generated through the gluteals, and more specifically the gluteus maximus. The gluteus maximus is the most powerful muscle in the body providing the necessary leverage that sets our species apart from all others – the ability to stand up-right. As I mentioned above, sitting causes the gluteals to lose functional ability, which affects our ability to stand with a well developed up-right posture. Turning the gluteals back on is vital to re-establishing a strong stable posture and developing a nice powerfully round bubble butt.
In order to balance your hips, it is important to flip the switch back on in the postural muscles around your pelvis to remind them to provide for stabilization, and to recruit the mobile muscles to do less stabilization and more mobilization. This can be accomplished through the use of deep tissue massage therapy with a focus on the fascial system, self-massage using a foam roller, flexibility training, corrective exercise, functional strength training, and barefoot or minimalist walking and running.
Below are examples of corrective exercises to help establish functional range of motion, stability and mobility of the hips. I recommend performing these (in combination with the exercises in Injury Prevention Begins at your Foot and next weeks blog on the shoulder) 2-3 times a week for 4-8 weeks. This will establish a balanced and stable posture preparing your body for more functional exercise.
Self Myofascial Release Using a Foam Roller
The goal of self-myofascial release is to speed up the healing and recovery process, reduce pain, improve joint range of motion, balance the body, and prevent injury.
Three Point Toe Taps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRlH2xt4Po
Balancing on one foot, tap your toe in three spots for one minute on each leg.
Hip Bridge
Lie on your back. Drive your elbows and shoulders into the floor, with your heels pulled up close to your glutes.
With your feet flat on the ground, press through your heels, lift your hips up towards the ceiling, and engage your glutes at the top. Hold for 30-60 seconds.
Single Leg Hip Bridge
This is a more challenging progression to the hip bridge.
Bridge or Plank
Lie on your stomach. Place your elbows directly under your shoulders. Push yourself off the floor keeping your hips straight. Focus on keeping your spine lengthened through the top of your head. Beginners: lift your feet up towards the ceiling with your knees on the floor. Intermediate: Lift your knees off the ground with weight through your toes. Hold as long as you can beginning with 10 or 15 and working towards a minute.
Lie on your stomach. Place your elbows directly under your shoulders. Push yourself off the floor keeping your hips straight. Focus on keeping your spine lengthened through the top of your head. Beginners: lift your feet up towards the ceiling with your knees on the floor. Intermediate: Lift your knees off the ground with weight through your toes. Hold as long as you can beginning with 10 or 15 and working towards a minute.
Side Bridge or Plank
Lie on your side, with your elbow directly beneath your shoulder, and feet stacked. Lift your hip off the ground keeping your spine lengthened through the top of your head. Beginners: bend and hold plank position from your knees. Hold as long as you can beginning with 10 or 15 and working towards a minute. Repeat on opposite side.
Lie on your side, with your elbow directly beneath your shoulder, and feet stacked. Lift your hip off the ground keeping your spine lengthened through the top of your head. Beginners: bend and hold plank position from your knees. Hold as long as you can beginning with 10 or 15 and working towards a minute. Repeat on opposite side.
Hip Press
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9HZ6gZpfiY&feature=related
Same starting position as the hip bridge. Instead of holding the position, you will do presses, raising and lowing your hips off the ground. Make sure to press through the heels of your feet (keeping feet flat), and squeeze through the glutes at the top. 20 repetitions.
Single Leg Hip Press
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7-SU-qGTA&feature=related
This is a more challenging progression to the hip press.
Over the past couple of weeks, I talked about What is Posture - the fundamental need for stabilization to provide healthy movement; and You Cannot Control Your Posture - postural control does not come from conscious thought. This brings up an obvious question. How do you train postural control? The answer is by integrating a full body, holistic approach to health and fitness. The program I use with my clients involves deep tissue massage therapy with a focus on the fascial system, self-massage using a foam roller, flexibility training, corrective exercise, functional strength training, and barefoot or minimalist walking and running. In today’s post, I will take you through the first steps (pun intended) of this process.
The feet are your connection to the Earth. They are the foundation of your posture and the platform from which you move. In Architecture, the foundation of a building provides a base of stabilization that supports the entire structure. A weak foundation leads to collapse. The same is true for your feet, with a very significant difference… you move! Your feet have thechallenging responsibility of providingstrength and stability while maintaining flexibility and mobility to aid in themovement of the entire body structure. Not a simple task!
With a strong healthy posture, the body aligns over the feet. This is what provides the incredible stability from which healthy movement is derived. Just like the foundation of a building must be stable to support walls and a roof, the feet must be stable to support the legs, torso, spine and head. If your feet are weak, they are unstable. This is equivalent to building a house upon a bed of sand. The feet become misaligned and the ankles, knees, hips, back, and shoulders follow. Misalignment creates dysfunctional movement which causes pain and injury. A healthy foot is fundamental to good posture.
What should you do if your goal is healthy feet and good posture? Focus on developingstrength, stability and mobility while staying grounded and connected to the Earth. A great way to do this is to take your shoes off. You can read more on why I am an advocate of making the transition to barefoot or minimalist footwear in Free Your Feet, and how shoes affect running and walking gait patterns. But before you toss your shoes and fully convert to a barefoot lifestyle there is an important step you must take. It is vital that you rebuild the strength and stabilization of the muscles of your lower leg and feet – they are likely weak from decades of neglect.
Remember: the feet you walk on are the very foundation of your posture. The healthier your foot care is the better your body will move and feel. Below are exercises to build strength, balance and stability in your feet and lower legs.
The following exercises will help strengthen the intrinsic muscles of your foot and leg, challenge postural muscles, and train your foot and lower leg to stabilize providing healthy movement for your entire body. I recommend doing these exercises two to three times a week for eight to twelve weeks. As your foot gets stronger you can continue to perform these exercises for maintenance on a weekly basis.
By performing self-myofascial release techniques using a foam roller or ball, you canreduce trigger points, decrease tissue tension, and break down scar tissue adhesions in injured myofascial tissue (muscle and fascia) formed by a combination of acute trauma, poor posture, repetitive movement, over-training, or inadequate sleep. The goal of self-myofascial release is to speed up the healing and recovery process, reduce pain, improve joint range of motion, balance the body, and prevent injury.
Stand on each foot for one minute. Try to keep the inside ball, outside ball, and heel of the foot in contact with the ground for the entire minute. Do not stabilize with your opposite leg.
Stand on a stability disc with each foot for one minute. Do not stabilize with your opposite leg.
From a seated or standing position, lay a towel on the floor beneath your foot. Using your toes, grab the towel and hold it for a few seconds and release. Repeat 20 times on each foot.
Standing with your forefoot on a platform, press through the ball of your foot lifting your heel as high as you can
Drop our heel. Make sure as you press, you don’t roll to the outside of the foot. Do 2-3 sets of 12-15.
How did we get here?
The human body is awe-inspiring. It is capable of moving with speed, power, agility, stamina, and grace — in an amazingly wide range of motions. It is also capable of adapting to the demands that are placed upon it. Unfortunately, most of us no longer move the way our body was designed to move. We weren’t trained to. The training grounds that once shaped The Human Body no longer exist. What we have instead are cars, couches, computers and ergonomic chairs. These are the new “training grounds” and our body has adapted to them well. For many, it has adapted too well.
In this training we sit for long hours each day. We do not utilize movement that engages our postural system the way it was designed to be engaged. Over time, these muscles become weak. They atrophy. They fall asleep and quit functioning. They no longer provide the essential stabilization that is so important to movement. In time, our body adapts to this new environment and develops bad habits. The most prominent example is the recruitment of mobile muscles to provide stability. Let’s revisit the analogy of driving your car with the brakes and the gas pedals pressed down at the same time. How well would your car move? Not well at all. Driving like this is extremely damaging to the car. The same is true for your body. The pain you feel in your body is the indicator light telling you “stop driving and visit a mechanic.” A mechanic in this sense would be a “body” mechanic, a deep tissue massage therapist, postural movement coach, or physical therapist. I recommend somebody with advanced knowledge and experience with the fascial system and how it relates to pain.
What is next?
Before you can sit up straight or intentionally hold your body “in good posture,” you must re-teach your body to stabilize, but how is this accomplished?
You have heard the phrase, “stand up straight and pull your shoulders back.” For most of us this is our cue to establish “good” posture. There is something inherently wrong with this method and it lies in a concept that we have conscious control over our posture, when in fact we do not.
Regardless of this natural ability, we are taught to think or be mindful about our posture. We are told to hold our heads up, have our shoulders pulled down and back, and our abs pulled in tight. But since we do not have conscious control over our postural muscles, the act of consciously engaging our muscles to provide postural support activates the mobile muscles that we do have conscious control over. Over time, these movement muscles become neurologically trained to function as stabilizing postural muscles. This is not what they were designed to do. As our movement muscles are re-programed to provide postural stability, they become less efficient at providing movement. All this happens and our postural muscles remain inept. The result is the significant loss of range of motion which will lead to dysfunction, pain and injury…
Compared to five or ten years ago, how well can you fully open up your hips and chest; reach your hand behind your back as if to scratch an itch between your shoulder blades with both hands; or bend over at the waist to touch your toes?
What does this mean?
It means you have to stop thinking and move. Your body needs to be retrained to move healthy. It means, on a regular basis, moving your body the way it is designed to move, every muscle, every joint, with full range of motion, in every direction, at all speeds, performed with agility, power and grace. You don’t want movement where you have to think about your posture. You must challenge and train your body to once again think for itself.
It is from stability that all healthy movement is derived.
As a deep tissue massage therapist, fitness coach, and barefoot running coach, I have treated a number of very common running injuries, such asplantar fasciitis, shin splints, and IT band pain. Over the years, I have noticed that the majority of clients suffering from these injuries were not runners. They were walkers.
This brought up a question: if the combination of running in shoes with a heel strike leads to dysfunctional gait patterns — and ultimately chronic pain and injury— what does it do when walking, such as speed walking or walking with a purpose?
During this time, I began exploring barefoot/minimalist running. As an experienced fitness coach, I knew that if I wanted to transition to minimalist running, I should not attempt to do so overnight. If I attempted to do too much too fast, before my body was conditioned for the task, I would be setting myself up for injury. Seems like a simple concept to grasp, but I, like so many other people, had a tendency to learn the hard way — but that is a topic for another blog.
The combination of my personal experimentation in running and what I was feeling during my deep tissue massage sessions brought about a realization: The musculature of the arches and calves has been weakened from years of wearing shoes. For just about anybody, the idea of running on weak unstable feet would spell disaster. In order to build up strength in the arches and calves, you literally have to relearn to walk before you can relearn to run. This changed my focus from being primarily on running gait mechanics to both running and walking gait mechanics and brought me to develop a theory.
I believe that our bodies are designed to have nearly identical walking and running gait patterns. If you were to engineer a mechanical structure to move at varying speeds, would you design it to perform two completely different movement patterns? Wouldn’t it be simpler and more beneficial to design the structure to perform a single movement pattern that can be maintained through variations in speed? Transitioning from running with a forefoot strike to walking with a heel strike is a major shift in movement patterns, balance and stabilization, and impact loads through the skeletal system.
My theory is that the proper form for both walking and running indicates four things: a forward lean of the body, a forefoot or mid-foot strike which lands directly beneath the body’s center of gravity, short stride length, and fast cadence. There are areas of obvious difference between the two activities, such as length of stride, the actual speed of cadence (number of foot strikes per minute — around 180 steps per minute for running), and how intense the impact forces are at footfall and lift off.
This is a theory that goes against much of today’s popular wisdom. Most of the articles on barefoot or minimalist running suggest that our natural barefoot running gait should be a forefoot or mid-foot strike, but that our walking gait should be a heel strike. This does not make much sense to me. Current research is showing the positive benefits of barefoot running with forefoot or mid-foot strike. It seems to me that walking with a forefoot or mid-foot strike would result in the same benefits since it is utilizing the exact same architecture.
When I perform deep tissue massageon both runners and walkers with painful injuries, I can feel how impact forces move throughout the fascial tissue of their body causing dysfunction. I feel adhesions and a buildup of tissue from repetitive trauma around the heel, achilles tendon, and calf; around the inside and outside of the knee from excessive inward and outward rotation of the knee; at the head of the femur (thigh bone)and the front and back of the pelvis; and around the shoulders, neck and head. This tissue tends to be intensely painful to the touch and has a direct relationship to the pain or injury for which the client sought treatment — and to their walking and/or running mechanics.
Walking and running with heel strike has an impact force that is greater than body weight and creates the same rotational forces at the foot, knee, and hip, all of which I discussed in last week’s blog.
If both walkers and runners are suffering from the same injuries, then wouldn’t the same remedy for one work for the other?
The arches of the foot are designed to absorb impact. They do this equally well for walking as they do for running — when they are fully engaged. The heel of the foot does not absorb impact any better for walking than it does for running. Over miles of repetition, the heel strike of a walker will develop the same fascial tissue dysfunctions as that of a runner. This is why so many of the “running injuries” I treat are with non-runners.
“The heel cushions and arch supports within modern shoes have made our feet weaker, the foot has so much support in these shoes that the muscles don’t need to work as much as they would otherwise and have grown weaker … If you transition to barefoot running slowly and run correctly, so you build up to it, you could decrease the risk of injury over the long term.”Science News
I want to return to the discussion of minimalist or barefoot walking and running to stress a point that I may not have made strongly enough about the transition to minimalist or barefoot shoes and the process of changing one’s walking and/or running form.
Please be aware that changing your walking/running mechanics will place new demands upon muscles, joints, and tendons that are weak and unstable due to under use. If you are a habitual barefoot runner or walker, then your body is more prepared to make this transition. For everyone else, plan for the transition away from shod running/walking into minimalist or barefoot running/walking to be very slow.
I definitely do not recommend that you throw your shoes away and go run the same way you have been up until now. Until you develop strength and stabilization in the foot and leg, even half a mile of barefoot running can cause a serious injury which can take months of recovery.
My suggestion is to plan to take between six months up to three years to fully transition into barefoot/minimalist running/walking safely. A very small few can make the transition quicker, but they are taking a very big risk. Far too many people who attempt a quick transition end up injured. Spend the extra time now; it will pay off the rest of your life.
Good indicators that you are doing too much too fast: extreme soreness in the calves, achilles tendon(s), and/or arches; pain on top or beneath the foot; and/or knee and hip pain after you run.
No Pain = Your Gain
My number one goal with my clients is pain-free movement. The feeling ofpain is an indicator of a problem; it is the body’s way of communicating that something is wrong. It is important to listen to this 911 call. Stop what you are doing and utilize the appropriate treatment for the issue before returning to the activity in which you were participating.
By not doing this, you are placing yourself at an increased risk of significant pain and injury. I cannot stress this enough; I consistently see it each week with new clients. Ignoring pain leads to even greater pain.
I have studied the mechanics of walking and running and have myself been a full time barefoot/minimalist runner for several years. In my closet are a few pairs of these minimalist shoes, including vibram five finger shoes and soft star shoes. In studying walking and running mechanics, I have noticed that most articles about gait pattern, both shod and barefoot specific, examine the body in linear movement, or a straight line. This view is very limiting in the fact that there are multiple forces taking place in the body at all times, especially during running and walking.
The movement forces I notice most often in my massage and coaching work are rotation and compression. It is the combination of these two forces that are most destructive to the soft tissue of the hip, knee, ankle, and foot. It is my belief that the combination of structural support in shoes and a heel strike gait pattern reinforce poor walking and running mechanics, leading to an increase in rotational and compressive forces in the leg which ultimately contribute to chronic pain and injury throughout the body. The design of the foot is such that with a forefoot strike gait pattern rotational forces are lessened through the upper leg which will lead to lower incidence of chronic pain and injury over one’s lifespan.
The following is my theory on both walking and running gait patterns of forefoot strike compared to heelstrike and how it relates to pain and injury.
The Bare Foot and Forefoot Strike
There are 28 bones and more than 30 joints in the foot. Bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascial tissue create the three arches of your foot (medial, longitudinal, and transverse) which aid in weight bearing, stabilization, and propulsion. When engaged, the arches of the foot act like a loaded spring. As the forefoot comes in contact with the ground, impact force is loaded into the natural spring mechanism of the arches. As the foot leaves contact with the ground, the energy absorbed by the arches is released through the ground providing additional mechanical advantage. “This kind of collision produces a very low rise in force. There is essentially no impact.“ Daniel Lieberman et al.
When walking or running, as the forefoot comes into contact with the ground it flattens and creates an agile, flexible base platform. Rotational forces transfer through the arches from the outside to the inside of the forefoot (little toe to big toe), followed by push off through the big toe. This rotational force is absorbed fully into the arches which stabilizes the foot, knee and hip with each footfall. By absorbing rotational forces at the foot, rotation is prevented in the knee and hips.
Everything changes once you put shoes on your feet. The combination of a heel wedge, structural arch support, and cushioning, in the majority of shoes on the market today, promotes an unnatural gait pattern… heel strike.
“We have seen the height as well as the cushion gradually increase which inadvertently hassles many runners to adopt a “heel to toe” gait or “heel strike” when running. This design encourages an unnatural gait resulting in the heel hitting the ground first, followed by a rapid “slapping” of the forefoot.” Dr. Nicholas A Campitelli
What Happens in Your Shoes with Heel Strike
The heel of the foot is the hardest bone in the body. It is not cushioned and does not absorb impact well. The 
impact force at the foot combined with the downward gravitational force of the body creates compression throughout the joints of the skeletal system. When you heel strike, your foot comes to a sudden, violent stop–it is the equivalent of slamming on the brakes with every single step. Impact forces between 1.5 up to 3 times your body weight go through the heel, leg, hip, shoulder, and neck. This kind of collision leads to a high impact and is the equivalent of being hit on the heel with a hammer using 1.5 to 3 times your body weight between 1000-1500 times per mile.
“We have found that even on hard surfaces (a steel force plate) runners who forefoot strike have impact forces that are 7 times lower than shod runners who heel strike. Rates of loading are equal to or less than rates of loading for shod runners.” Daniel Lieberman et al.
The bone of the heel is round, making it an unstable surface which is susceptible to roll either along the inside or outside edge of the foot; imagine walking on a log in the water. The direction the foot rolls after heel strike is dependent upon the muscular imbalances in the upper leg. Most runners and walkers have muscular dominance on the outside of their leg, causing the foot to roll along the outside edge – supination – when the heel strikes the ground. With shoes, the added height of the cushioning and heel wedge places the foot in an unstable position and at an increased risk of twisting the ankle.
As a deep tissue massage therapist and movement coach, I specialize in treating chronic pain and injury. Over the years I have successfully treated injuries such as plantar fasciitis, sciatic or piriformis pain, frozen shoulder, back pain, and more. In all of these painful conditions, I have found a strong connection between the occurrence of injury, and the rotation and compression forces caused by heel strike and shoes, with runners and non-runners alike.
It is my opinion that if you strengthen your feet, legs, and hips; slowly transition to minimalist shoes (click here to read more about how I define minimalist shoes); and re-train your body to walk, run, and move with a forefoot strike gait pattern, you will prevent long term chronic pain and injury throughout your life. I recommend beginning a self care program of self-myofascial release using a foam roller; receiving regulardeep tissue massage from a highly qualified and experienced licenced massage therapist who understands the fascial system’s connection to pain and injury; and receiving personal coaching from a barefoot/minimalist running/walking coach.
Happy Feet
As a fitness coach and deep tissue massage therapist, I specialize in chronic pain and injury management. In the majority of clients that I treat, I have seen a connection between their chronic pain and the health of their feet, including the shoes they wear. Painful conditions of the knees, hips, low back, shoulders, and neck can all be traced through the fascial tissue down to the feet. I believe that foot health is one of, if not the biggest, determining factor of pain, injury, disease, overall health, wellness, and vitality.
Your feet are your connection to the Earth.
The sole of your foot is one of the most sensory nerve-rich parts of your body, comparable with the palms of your hands, mouth, and genitals. Sensory nerves receive stimuli from the environment, such as texture, temperature, and traction.
“Sensory information from the foot is used to protect the foot itself from injury, but it’s also used by the brain to make subtle adjustments in your gait to protect bones and joints all the way up your body and to maximize the efficiency of your movements.”— Dr. Daniel Howell, the barefoot professor
Imagine that, from the moment you start to crawl and explore the world, thick cushioned gloves were placed on your hands for eight to 16 hours each day. How would the world look and feel now? You would lose finger dexterity and the ability to grip. Without grip strength, your body would look much different. The muscles of your chest, back, shoulders, and arms would be dysfunctional, weak and atrophied, affecting functional movement of your entire body. Your life also would look considerably different. More than likely you would feel a physical, emotional, and spiritual disconnect from friends, family, and environment. This is what has already happened with your feet.
They may look happy
But they really are not happy
Great marketing, but definitely not happy feet
For most of us, shoes are on our feet from the time we take our first baby steps — shoes with hard, thick rubber soles. These shoes lift your foot an inch or more off the ground and block the sensory nerves from receiving external stimuli. This weakens the intrinsic muscles that make up the arch of the foot, changing the way you walk and run and undermining the development of the core muscles that make up your posture. After decades of wearing shoes, many peoples’ arches have partially or fully collapsed, creating muscular and postural dysfunction, wreaking havoc, and causing considerable pain throughout the body.
I am an advocate of minimalist shoes. The least amount of shoe on your foot that you can manage pain-free, the stronger your body will be.
Here is the best definition of minimalism and minimalist shoes I have found. It is borrowed from Dr. Mark Cucuzzelas.
What is minimalism?
• frees the foot to develop naturally
• looks for the least amount of shoe you can safely wear now
• works toward reducing the amount of shoe necessary through strengthening the foot and improving your stride
• practices running as a natural movement of the body, rather than an unnatural act requiring artificial support to perform safely
• embraces the notion that the beefier the shoe, the more a runner’s natural stride is inhibited
What is a minimalist shoe?
• complements natural foot function
• has very low heel-to-toe drop
• is constructed with thin material under the foot, allowing maximum ground feel
• has a soft and flexible upper
• is light and flexible
Not minimalist shoes and very unhappy feet
The most common question I hear about minimalist shoes and my response
Don’t I need arch support?
You have the most advanced arch support design system in the history of bipedal locomotion, and it is already built into your foot. There is nothing that man can create that will be superior to God.
The structure of an arch is a phenomenal piece of engineering. The Romans perfected the use of arches in their architecture. Why? The arch is the strongest shape in natural architecture and becomes more structurally stable with more weight pushing down. Your arches actually get stronger with weight on them. If you were to apply upward pressure from underneath, you would collapse the arch, which is exactly what arch supports in your shoes do, whether they are built into the shoe or insertable orthotics.
Arch supports are designed to immobilize or limit the motion of your arches. While immobilizing may be appropriate to aid the healing process of a broken bone or a torn ligament, permanently immobilizing any part of the body will lead to loss of function.
Yeah happy feet!
The foot is not only the foundation of your postural body, it is your connection to the planet. Every step you make in life begins with the foot. If you utilize the natural engineering and design of your foot, you will build a solid support structure that will be more capable to carry you pain and injury free throughout life. The more contact between the earth and your foot, the better you will feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
By performing self-myofascial release techniques using a foam roller or ball, you can reduce trigger points, decrease tissue tension, and break down scar tissue adhesions in injured myofascial tissue (muscle and fascia) formed by a combination of acute trauma, poor posture, repetitive movement, over-training, or inadequate sleep. The goal of self-myofascial release is to speed up the healing and recovery process, reduce pain, improve joint range of motion, balance the body, and prevent injury.
How does self-myofascial release work?
Fascia is a three-dimensional fibrous matrix interconnected throughout the body from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. Fascia surrounds muscles, bones, and joints providing the body structural integrity and strength. Dysfunctional fascia is a leading cause of chronic pain, reduced flexibility, and decreased athletic performance.
Located within the muscle and tendon tissue are two sensory receptors called the muscle spindle and the golgi tendon organ. These sensory receptors monitor muscular and tendon tension from the surrounding tissue and relates it to your nervous system. They are highly sensitive to changes in muscle tension and rate of change. Stimulation of the golgi tendon organ leads to a decrease in soft tissue tension.
Placing pressure directly on tight or overly toned muscle tissue using deep tissue massage therapy or self-myofascial release techniques stimulates the golgi tendon organ to relax tension in the soft tissue. Decreases in soft tissue tension will help break down scar tissue adhesions, increase joint mobility, reduce pain, and improve overall function.
BENEFITS OF SELF-MYOFASCIAL RELEASE
Self Myofascial Release Instructions
Self-myfascial techniques are very simple to learn. To perform self-myofascial release you will need a foam roller and a small ball (such as a golf ball, tennis ball, lacrosse ball, or softball).
In this article I will go over self myofascial release for beginners. This is a shorter session that should take between 30-45 minutes to complete. The goal of this session is to begin to unlock the hips and shoulders. After you have spent a few weeks and feel more comfortable with self-myofascial release therapy, there is an intermediate and advanced session that I teach.
Following the directions in the pictures below, place your body weight on the foam roller over taut bands of muscle tissue that need to be released. For the best results, begin near the center of the body and slowly work away from the center of the body.
Relax your body, breathe, and slowly roll through the length of the muscle. Your muscles will naturally tense up, especially when you hit a trigger point. Ease into it and allow yourself to relax.
If you find a painful spot, stop and visualize the soft tissue as melting butter and the foam roller as a hot knife. Allow pressure into the tissue and within 30-60 seconds you will notice a significant reduction in pain. Once the pain reduces significantly (20-30%), move on to the next painful spot and repeat.
Spend between 3-5 minutes on each side. It is very important that you spend an equal amount of time on both sides and that you work through each of the areas listed to gain the most out of self-myofascial release.
Beginners Session Pictures
Arches
Use a small ball, such as a golf ball.
Place roller length-wise to your body. Bend your knee to 90 degrees with your inner thigh on the roller.
Slowly massage out to the knee seeking out the most painful spots.
Tensor Fascia Latte
Place roller beneath the top of the hip bone. Lie with one hip on the roller. Opposite hip is off the roller.
Massage from the hip bone to the top of the thigh. Slowly rotate your opposite hip up towards the ceiling.
Sit on the roller. Turn your body to one side. Massage through the entire gluteal area from the crack of your butt to the outside of your hip, top of the pelvis to the top of the thigh.
Lie on your side with your arm overhead. Slowly massage from the top of the arm to below the shoulder blade. Do not massage in the arm pit area.
Massage from the top of the shoulders to the bottom of the rib cage. Roll your body 10 degrees to massage the spinal erectors (muscles that run parallel to the spine).
Changing arm position will expose different muscles around the shoulder blade.
Other areas you can roll out are the calves, IT band (outside of thigh), quads (front of thigh), chest, and shoulders.
The first couple of weeks of foam roller therapy will be painful. It is important to be diligent and commit to doing it every day for two weeks, because the payoff is well worth it. If you use the foam roller every day, within a couple of weeks you will begin to notice not only does the exercise not hurt as much, it will begin to feel good and you will be on the path to feeling great. Over time the muscle and fascial tissues heal, improving flexibility, function, and performance providing chronic pain relief and injury prevention.
When to self-myofascial release?
Self-myofascial release on a foam roller offers an effective, inexpensive, and convenient way to reduce muscle tension and reduce scar tissue adhesion. Self-myofascial release can help you get relief and recovery from chronic pain and injury, improve athletic and work performance, and help you reach your health and fitness goals.
Jesse James Retherford is a certified personal trainer and licensed massage therapist. For over 12 years, Jesse has been passionate about helping his clients reach their fitness and health goals.
Jesse specializes in chronic pain and injury management, movement assessment, corrective exercise, and advanced sports conditioning.
Jesse offers personalized programs designed to improve performance and efficiency, reduce chances of injury, and allow you to move pain free so you can re-engage fully with your life.
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