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We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

news.nationalgeographic.com

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Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#131

Post by paganel »

rosser wrote: post #9

The Fine Article doesn't really go into how we're doing it wrong, beyond a passing mention of barefoot running, and some dissing of treadmills (which is hyperbolic and orthogonal to reality; you can run "correctly" or "badly" on a treadmill or on the street or trail). I used to run a bit. Did an informal "couch to 5k" over a couple of months, before I'd even discovered that was a thing. The single most effective thin…

> The "right" way is to land on the ball of the foot, with the knee slightly bent.

I always tell my gf that you can differentiate the people who have only started ahtletics- or sports-related things after the age of 20 by looking at the way they run. When you're a kid and you play football (soccer) or basketball all day long with your buddies on a hard pitch you learn how to run correctly, don't know if that happens by instinct or because the terrain forces you do to so.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#132

Post by maxmcorp »

I find it interresting that no one questions the "we are born to run" claim. I have seen very little evidence for that. We are able to run, but that does not mean that running is a good way for us to move in general.

Having reached 50+ my estimate is that only 1 in 20 of the people i have known and who has been running still do. Perhaps even less.

You simply get too many injuries. Your cortisol levels rise. You destroy your joints etc. etc.

I also find it very hard to imagine that running would have been better for some imaginable forefathers who had to run barefoot in nature with no roads.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#133

Post by donquichotte »

Barefoot running and even wearing thin soled shoes restricts you to a certain kind of terrain. I participated in an alpine marathon last weekend and the terrain was quite technical. Everybody was wearing trail running shoes. I have weak ankles which are prone to pronation (he he), so a good shoe is absolutely crucial to me for running in rugged terrain.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#134

Post by wyclif »

maxmcorp wrote: post #132

I find it interresting that no one questions the "we are born to run" claim. I have seen very little evidence for that. We are able to run, but that does not mean that running is a good way for us to move in general. Having reached 50+ my estimate is that only 1 in 20 of the people i have known and who has been running still do. Perhaps even less. You simply get too many injuries. Your cortisol levels rise. You destr…

I suspect that the cause of that is running on pavement. Doing that for decades is hard on the knees and joints. I wonder if there would be more people in the over-50 age group still running if they had spent their younger years running on grass or sand. I don't have any evidence that they would, but it's an interesting question.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#135

Post by adrianN »

Fordrus wrote: post #69
zzalpha wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TL;DR, the gist of the "wrong" is that we've been trained by "trainers" (over-padded athletic shoes) to run in a straight-legged, heel-lands-first manner. Any reputable running clinic will teach you to make contact with the ground at the middle of your foot with a slightly bent knee. That's just well understood, proper technique, regardless of footwear. The real problem is people hitting the pavement without learning…

Having been to a run clinic, I can absolutely call bull on the claim "Footwear is irrelevant, here.". At least the run clinic I went to assured me multiple times that my impression that wearing "trainers" specifically and greatly increases the difficulty of running "correctly" by striking with the middle of your foot with slightly bent knee. The large heel of virtually all training shoes makes landing in the middle o…

Vibrams Fivefingers are not the onle "barefoot" shoes, there is a wide variety on the market now.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#136

Post by freshhawk »

nostromo95 wrote: post #82
freshhawk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the barefoot/minimal part was not the focus of what we are doing wrong (I only run in Vibrams, it's plainly much better but you have to start incredibly slow and work up to it). His point about what we're doing wrong was treating it as a speed based sport or a chore to do to be healthy, with a bunch of gadgets to mediate the experience, when it should be a relaxing, fun meditative practice where you disconn…

>I only run in Vibrams, it's plainly much better Let me know the next time you see Asbel Kiprop, Eliud Kipchoge or Evan Jager wearing a pair of those.

Since an actual competitive runner responded I'll skip that part.

I'll just point out that I agree with Vybarr about what the reasons to run are and why one should do it. I really hated running until I tried those shoes (very minimal shoes in general, nothing special about Vibrams specifically unless you are out in nature on very uneven terrain and need separate toes to help balance), now it is a joyful experience that I look forward to. There is a reason that owners got so excited about those things that it started to annoy people. I'll stand by my statement, and if I ever feel the need to compete at long distance then I'll wear whatever shoes get that job done the best.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#137

Post by freshhawk »

rosser wrote: post #25
freshhawk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the barefoot/minimal part was not the focus of what we are doing wrong (I only run in Vibrams, it's plainly much better but you have to start incredibly slow and work up to it). His point about what we're doing wrong was treating it as a speed based sport or a chore to do to be healthy, with a bunch of gadgets to mediate the experience, when it should be a relaxing, fun meditative practice where you disconn…

I'll own having missed that as well, or at least overlooking it in my having read the "wrong" as being about the how , and not the why . I think the gadgets and accessories can be helpful, but absolutely: they're not the point. They, and the speed-sport or health-chore nature he decries aren't relevant to why I run (ran), so I paid them less mind. Thanks for the perspective!

I still mostly run with headphones playing an audiobook honestly. When I don't I really appreciate just how focused and serene the experience is. I guess it's just a habit I can't break, and that occasional bad run is much worse without a distraction.

Seems a lot of people missed it, so maybe I just caught it because it's so close to my opinion.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#139

Post by maxmcorp »

wyclif wrote: post #134
maxmcorp wrote: post #132

I find it interresting that no one questions the "we are born to run" claim. I have seen very little evidence for that. We are able to run, but that does not mean that running is a good way for us to move in general. Having reached 50+ my estimate is that only 1 in 20 of the people i have known and who has been running still do. Perhaps even less. You simply get too many injuries. Your cortisol levels rise. You destr…

I suspect that the cause of that is running on pavement. Doing that for decades is hard on the knees and joints. I wonder if there would be more people in the over-50 age group still running if they had spent their younger years running on grass or sand. I don't have any evidence that they would, but it's an interesting question.

But nature is hardly better for running than pavement. Stones, grass, roots, mud etc. There are a lot more ways to get injuries in nature than on a gravel path.

Re: We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong

#140

Post by johnny99 »

rosser wrote: post #9

The Fine Article doesn't really go into how we're doing it wrong, beyond a passing mention of barefoot running, and some dissing of treadmills (which is hyperbolic and orthogonal to reality; you can run "correctly" or "badly" on a treadmill or on the street or trail). I used to run a bit. Did an informal "couch to 5k" over a couple of months, before I'd even discovered that was a thing. The single most effective thin…

I've run consistently for the past 30 years, most often in the spirit of the article: long, slow, meditative runs. What my cross country coach in high school called Long Slow Distance ("limber up gentlemen, we'll be doing LSD today!"). Tried a fitbit for a while, found that reducing it to numbers took the joy out of it. I'm back to where I started: no accelerometers or earphones, outdoors, ideally on a trail. I don't go all that fast or do big miles, but it's pretty much where I'm happiest.

About bum knees: I've often been warned that running will ruin them, but I stopped running for two years in my mid-thirties due to work, and then blew out my knee in a frickin' coffee shop, of all places--because the muscles holding it together had weakened from not running. Major surgery, took forever to recover. Limped for well over a year and thought I might never run again. Got a new job and started biking to work--about 4 miles each way. Within a month the limp was gone, a month or so after that I was running again. Been six years and my knee feel great. If you haven't tried gentle cycling and it's an option, you may want to consider it. I think maybe the low-impact nature of cycling let the knee strengthen without being stressed, and once the strength was back, it could handle the stress.

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