Not Your (Great Great Great...) Granddaddy's Shoes

A new study came out recently suggesting the value in efficiency and reduced impact of running barefoot. The usual stuff about striking with the ball first like most barefoot runners do instead of the heel first like most shod runners do is there, but I found one of the most compelling points to be that modern surfaces like concrete don't have a worse effect than natural surfaces because the body (logically) adjusts its technique. Which will undoubtedly be tossed out the next time a person tells me they would give barefoot running a try on grass, but never concrete (and they tell me this a lot). Like, if you're worried about that, why the deuce would you be running on the most injury-inflicting material known to man in the first place? So goes the human mind.

On the flip side of that, the guys at www.sportsscientists.com (a great general athletics blog) make the argument that the shift from toe-heel to heel-toe run is the natural mechanical adaptation to the human body automatically makes to putting on a pair of sneaks (scroll down to the heading "An intelligent system - changes in mechanics serve a purpose"). Which sounds rather like the point that barefooters naturally alter their biomechanics for harder surfaces. I'm not sure that that justifies shoes, but it's point worthy of thought.

And finally, if you're reading this and thinking, "Man, what idiot would go shoeless?" and are on the paleo diet, Darwin is going to claw his way out of his grave and bitch slap you with a Nike Free.