1. | Aug 5, 2014

9yHIDN Great article.Thanks Again. Want more.

2. | Mar 17, 2014

Excellent article. I have been in the miailtry for 8 years and have done a considerable amount of running both with and without a pack on. At about year 5-6 i started getting knee pain after running about 3-4 and eventually as little as 1-2 miles. It continued until I got a profile restricting me from running due to this. I also began having the symptoms of Periformis Syndrome (pain down right leg, soreness to the right of my tailbone, lower back pain on the right side) and was eventually diagnosed with it. I am not a fan of the recommended pain medications, shots or surgery to dull the pain and began looking for alternate methods to deal with it. I am glad I have found your articles as they explain more than doctors have been able to about how it can be caused, treatment options, and root problems. I lead a fairly active lifestyle and have been looking at ways of being able to run again and am going to begin your barefoot walk/running program. I have been doing quite a bit of walking barefoot and in five fingers and have noticed a drastic change in how I walk as well as how long I can walk without pain in my back or knees. I have seen several injuries of others due to transitioning too fast to barefoot running so have been cautious on that aspect, not being sure what a good transition program should look like. Now I have a good starting point between this and your other informative articles. I do have one question. On the soles of my combat boots and running shoes i have noticed that my soles wear very atypical of the soles of other people I have checked. Where the soles of many people wear evenly across the back of the heal, mine wear considerably more on the outside corner of the heal. Is this indicative of a bad walking/running posture? (aside from the obvious heel to toe approach I previously ran with)

3. | Mar 16, 2014

Well since I put my story on here before, I thouhgt I would come back and give an update. I have recently in the last month switched back to heel first in walking. However, I don't heel strike anymore. What I mean is that in the several months I spent walking forefoot first, I learned how to put my heel down without slamming it or shearing it sideways. I figured out I can now do this before putting my forefoot down. I touch my heel down without transferring my weight, feel how hard the ground is, and then land on my forefoot which really means I am spreading the weight across my arch. To keep the weight from going into my heel, I keep it on my back leg as long as possible. The other thing I realized was that when I used to heel strike, I wasn't just putting my heel down, I was also pushing it back at the same time, resulting in a sideways force in my heel, which I think was the real cause of the bruises. Now I just put my foot down and lift it up (stepping), instead of trying to roll through it like a wheel, which is the habit I think I learned in shoes. I switched back to heel first touching because forefoot first walking was causing me tendinitis in my achilles tendon, which has gone away now. I also find this is easier than walking forefoot first (feels more efficient and I can walk faster this way) and I am also using more muscles in the backs of my legs and glutes in walking. I find that for this to work for me, I have to be able to feel how hard the ground is so that means walking barefoot or in very thin flexible shoes with no cushion (I have vivobarefoot with the insole removed). I still land forefoot first when running, but I don't have to try to do it and it is very close to flat footed (mid foot?). I feel that I am basically walking very similar to how I learned from forefoot first which means not overstriding, I just am touching my heel first without striking and this has been much better for my achilles. I feel that I couldn't have got to this point without walking forefoot first for a while.