Running Barefoot Back to Our Roots

Root Whole Body pain-free living

This fall, The New York Times published an article that may cause us to not only rethink running, but everything we’ve been told by shoe manufacturers for the last forty years.  In his article, The Once and Future Way to Run Christopher McDougall discusses the reemergence of running on the ball of the foot, the way humans had run for millions of years before padded shoes came into being.  Could ditching padded shoes and taking on a new gait be the solution to injuries that seem to plague runners?  A current study at Wake Forrest suggests that each year 79% of runners are injured.  McDougall even describes himself as a “broken-down, middle-aged, ex-runner,” before he visited the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico that is, and learned a new (for him) ancient (for humans) way of running.  “Nine months later,” he says, “I was transformed.”  It looks like it’s time to get back to our roots and run the way we were meant to run.