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On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:53, Thomas Bridgeland wrote:

>
>> We can walk for a long time with very little fatigue.
>> But, running presents many problems, particularly in the
>> knees.  Our knees are not made for the percussion effect
>> of fast movements.  If we look at endurance runners,
>> their leg movements are short  so as to minimize shock
>> on the leg joints.
>
>This is just what the article argues. We are slow runners, not fast.
>For myself, I jog almost everywhere. I find walking boring and tiring,
>so I only do it when with people who don't run.
>
I discussed this article with my son Huw.  He's 22, a graduate in
biological anthropology and a qualified personal trainer.  He'll begin
medical training in a couple of months.  He's also an evolutionary fitness
exponent.

He has gone barefoot almost exclusively for the past eleven months and now
regularly walks 10-15 kilometres over bushtracks barefoot.  He reckons it
took him around six months before he walked or ran like someone who
naturally walked/ran barefoot.  The Nature article claimed we don't use
our Achilles tendon in walking.  Huw says he began to notice that he was
using his Achilles, but only after six months, when he left behind his
previously accustomed walking motions.  His suggestion is that the
biomechanics which underlie the nature article should - if they can be
validly extrapolated from - should be the result of analysis of hunter-
gatherer locomotion and not walking that you or I or any other Westerner
would do, especially in a lab.

(Here's Huw: http://www.evfit.com/kettlebells3.htm)

Keith

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