FOOT PAIN ASSOCIATED WITH BAREFOOT RUNNING

We get a lot of question relating to Barefoot running and foot pain.  Ania Nowicki was the last to ask; she experiences foot pain after 2 years of running barefoot.  Her story was she had decided to challenge her self with a half marathon and a full marathon now that she was a confident barefoot runner.  It was after the half marathon she experienced acute pain in her feet.  

This is our response.

It is only poor running technique that produces injuries, not the type of shoe or even barefoot. However it must be understood that the modern shock absorbing motion controlled shoes and seated posture are the biggest causes to how we lose good running technique.

Running technique takes considerable strength, what I call ultimate strength because to be able to action good running form it takes complete relaxation.  Something that wont happen if you are not ultimately strong.  It also takes a life long practice to maintain it.

If we have lost form by long periods of not running, change in body posture and general lack of fitness then we have to make sure we coach it properly back into our system again.

85% of runners get injured yearly because they don’t coach good form back into themselves.  Getting back into running takes a series of timely leaps in protocols, adaptation and development of skill.

Sadly it is not as simple as just going running.  This can also be said about going minimalistic or barefoot running to. ‘Barefoot’ is not the magic pill that cures your running form.

It involves getting back into primal movements, reconfiguring our true centre of balance, re-tapping into our elastic energy and becoming aware of our spatial awareness (like how our centre of mass travels through space and our polarities that keep it balanced).

Foot pain that is associated with running or movement is more than likely the experience of too much force through the foot.  This is called an over active foot strike and excessive push off.  This will explain why it gets worse when you push your self out of your comfort zone either in speed or distance.

Over pronation problems will be experienced as a rule of thumb further up the chain in the calf as it tries to over compensate.

Simply put; if your biomechanics are not functioning properly it will lead to excessive force that produces an over load in isolated dominant muscular firing patterns that compensate for a faulty functioning kinetic chain. 

It is only through coaching and specific running strength training will you be able to truly change it.  Going it alone only gets you so far, as with many things in life.

So injury can be averted if a running strength program is adopted.  Drills that you should be practicing and adopting before even thinking of running are jumping with a skipping rope and running on the spot. 

At the BFPA Running Technique workshop we first get you to understand the biomechanics by videoing you, then we apply a Rehabilitation session to free your body, especially your foot, of any blockages and show you how to perfect the Barefoot Deep Squat.

This teaches you where your true centre of balance is whilst moving through your full range of motion.

Once that is programmed in then we start to show you the art of running.

Here are some of the sequencing we use in our program to give you an idea to the depth we go to get you running properly again:-

Big toe mobs

Ankle mobilisation (mobs), hip mobs, thoracic mobs

Ankle strength - Calf raise rebounds

Hip strength - Box drill multi planar lunge sequence

Thoracic - Table top

Big bang exercises

Frontal plane walk

Vertical walk

Barefoot deep squat

Running Skill

Posture, Rhythm, Relaxation drills


Running Specific Strength training
Plyometric box drills
Hamstring velocity drills
Jumping drills

For further information on when we run our Running Technique 1 day workshops, get in touch with rollo@corenergy.co.uk