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I also wanted to mention something about my experience with running.
Running is something I have done off and on, with no great results of
late.  I started doing some reading on running mechanics, and now things
have come together.

From an evolutionary fitness perspective, it is easy to argue that our
bodies were made to run in bare feet.  Of course, that may not work on
modern surfaces (concrete, etc.), but running barefoot in grass or dirt is
surely part of our hunter-gatherer history.

If you run barefoot, you will notice that you land on your forefoot, or the
midfoot, but not the heel first.  If you land heel-first with a straight
leg, there is some heavy impact to the body.  However, modern running shoes
are designed with thick heel padding, allowing a perso
n to land heel-first
without receiving the full impact of the shock.

I videotaped myself last month, and sure enough, I was landing heel-first
when I was running.  For the last few weeks, I've spent some time running
barefoot, and then tried to mimic that when I run with shoes.  I also
bought some shoes with thinner soles.  The results have been fantastic -
I'm running MUCH faster and don't feel "beat-up" anymore.

I sincerely believe the shoe industry is crippling people with these thick,
padded shoes.  The foot just doesn't need that much help.  There is a guy
out there running marathons in his bare feet even: www.runningbarefoot.org

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