(from Angel’s Fitness Tips, Channel 10 News)
Today’s challenge: grab a heavy club, pick your three favorite 2-handed club movements.
movement A: 1 minute
movement B: 1 minute
movement C: 1 minute
REST: 1 minute
Repeat 5 times.
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FEET
Ya know we’re fans of as little clothing as possible at Bodytribe, and this includes shoes. Here’s a bunch of folks repeating what we’ve been preaching for years. Gems like:
“A lot of foot and knee injuries currently plaguing us are caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to over-pronate (ankle rotation) and give us knee problems.”
or
“Despite all their marketing suggestions to the contrary, no manufacturer has ever invented a shoe that is any help at all in injury prevention.
If anything, the injury rates have actually ebbed up since the Seventies – Achilles tendon blowouts have seen a ten per cent increase. (It’s not only shoes that can create the problem: research in Hawaii found runners who stretched before exercise were 33 per cent more likely to get hurt.)
In a paper for the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Dr Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one.”
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Bodytribe Fundraising (and DVD pre-sale)
We’re looking to do bigger things. We want to increase wellness and health awareness to the community. From creating a non-profit branch of the Tribe to increasing our equipment and in-house programs, we’re trying to grow. To asist this, we’re having a little online fundraiser. We’re asking for your help. From donations to training packages to pre-ordering our upcoming DVD (yep, that is correct, you can order it now and it will ship out on May 1st, if not sooner), if Bodytribe has been helpful on your quest to self-empowerment, then help us create even greater community awareness! The deals on this website will only last until May 3rd, so get ‘em while you can.
You’ve got ‘exclusive’ rights to this website. Use it in good health. It disappears May 3rd.
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SQUATS: This weekend’s Saturday Tune Up
Let’s get ‘em deeper and heavier. We’ll nail the basics and play with a host of variations. Often considered the King of all exercises, it is the foundation of so much of what we do. Let’s go over a handful of varieties, from intense bodyweight versions to being able to squat anything you can get your hands on.
And afterwards…
Our Yoga buddies at Zuda are hosting a hand balancing workshop. I’ll be there.
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Bodytribe YouTube Video Classic:
To share with others I got my “Vivo barefoot aqua” shoes today. A shoe that is actually made correctly. These shoes rock ! You can see my review here…..http://chrisbutner2.blogspot.com/
Great video! How about “side-step” pushups?
Side step works. Someone called them ‘archer’ pushups. I like that too.
Whenever I try to tell people running shoes are actually terrible for running, I get the feeling that they think I’m some sort of retard.
I learned of those Vivo Barefoot shoes from a similar article. I’m curious how they feel, but not curious enough to drop $150 on a pair. For now, some cheapy Asics matflex wrestling shoes are good enough for me.
Can we save packaging materials and shipping costs (which I assume don’t help you any) and get the presale price but pick it up at the Tribe?
Never heard of the Vivo’s but I absolutely love these
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/
Great article here Chip.
http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/
Now that I put this out there, I am thinking about how it is probably a logistics nightmare for you, so feel free to ignore me!
Looking forward to the DVD! (and thanks for today’s squat workshop!)
I feel the vibram five fingers, and the Vivo barefoot line are the only two correctly made foot wear. I suppose you could add a slipper to the list, but that is home wear mostly. I’m not a fan of how the five fingers look with the individual toes, but they do allow you to walk as nature intended. The Vivo barefoot line to me looks more like a regular shoe so that is what attracted me to those. The sole is only 3 mm thick. With no heel, and lots of flexibility in the sole. Great shoe although I can understand folks not wanting to spend that much money on them. Freedom comes at a price. As far as I’m concerned every other shoe on the market is designed improperly. The most basic shoe has a heel, and a thick sole along with little flexibility. If you try a fibram or vivo on one foot. Then put on a regular basic shoe on the other foot. The difference is very obvious. Even a Nike free has a very obvious heel. If Nike got rid of that heel on the frees it would be a much better shoe. Properly made shoes are definitely lacking on the market. I’m even considering a second different style vivo barefoot. One for work, and one for personal time. I’ve been working out a lot more lately without shoes on at all. Barefoot at the gym is very reasonable, but not so much on the streets. It’s good to have some protection under your sole on the streets, and stores, etc.
I’m stoked for the DVD even though its going to leave me wishing I’d already made it out to BodyTribe for a Strength Camp. Someday…
Chris
Chris, sounds like you would also like the Sidewalk Surfer line by a company called Sanuk. I wear them every day at work, flat, thin soul and many styles to choose from
Cool Dean. Thanks. I’m always on the lookout for other brands to choose from. I’d like to see the sole in person. I’ll be at the tribal gym next weekend.
Any good stores in town that sell a good variety of the Sanuk SS original line ?
That New York Times article is the one that I had previously read and learned of Vivo Bearfoot footwear.
I would estimate that the soles of the matflex shoes are no more than a 1cm thick, and probably a little less actually, and they are extremely flexible. If the heel is any thicker than the rest of sole, I don’t notice it. There is a bit of arch support I could do without, but it’s not a deal breaker. As a bonus, I find them plenty fashionable for shoes that aren’t really intended to be general purpose shoes.
While the price of a pair Vivos is an affront to my penny-pinching mentality, if I could go to a store in my area and try them on, see how they feel and determine the correct size, I might cave and get a pair. I don’t want to have to deal with sizing issues on ordered shoes.
Craig. vivo barefoot is made by Terra Plana, and they are based out of New York. They do not have any retailers in CA. Terra Plana direct online assured me I could return or exchange if needed. As long as I did not wear them outside. I was a 10.5 regular shoe size. I ordered a 11 in aqua style. I am sure a normal size 10 would fit in the aqua size 11 as well. The Dharma style they suggested I actually get a size 12. My aqua style fits great. I have medium width feet. Return was not needed. Got my eye on the Dharma’s still though.
I’m really glad to see the running injuries getting some more mainstream coverage.
Just a few weeks ago some grad students in a class I’m taking gave a long presentation on running injuries. They thought the key to everything was stretching routines and to get better shoes.
When I asked one if she was aware of any differences in injury rates between running styles I received a confused look in response.
Apparently the answer is more padding, more support, more symptomatic relief – not addressing the root of the problem.
Wonderful. I bet those grad students even got a good grade for the presentation. I certainly don’t blame the students, but they are just going with the info they find.
As far as I am concerned passive stretching really is not as safe for you as what we learned in grade school. This type of stretching can even increase injury. That is due to a neurological effect that takes place on stretching the muscle in that manner. Anchoring a muscle, and stretching it is no good in my book. That can be a controversial topic.
Some of these articles we read discuss shoes being bad for running. Although you can’t just go running with no foot support if you have been running with support for many years. You’ve got to ease your way into a new way of thinking, and allow your body time to adjust if you choose to reduce/eliminate your foot support. You would have to re teach yourself how to run without foot support. Start with short distance, and increase your distance over time.
What I see with many runners is all they do is run. They don’t cross train with weights, or other activities. Hence……injury occurs. No doubt the shoe industry plays into the injury factor as well. I’m sure many runners are also injury free for the, but look at the factors of what they do to achieve that. They are probably including other activities/practices out side the box that minimize injury.
We should all remember back in the day. When shoes did not exist. Humans lived 24/7 with no shoes in a natural environment. Callouses were created to toughen up the skin. Muscles, tendons, etc learned from birth how to function properly without shoes. As nature intended.
Now we have cement, asphalt, etc. A regular old civilization of shoes being proper to wear. For safety and so called comfort.
It’s up to us as individuals to decide what we want. Long term a bad shoe can have effect on the rest of our muscle chain. Sometimes a deactivated muscle issue you may have is simply from you wearing the wrong shoes. For me I want to walk as natural as possible, but have protection for my feet for the different social environments we walk on. In those terms the shoe market is very small. Little to choose from, but some choices does exist. The value of that choice is generally higher though. Funny less material in the shoe makes it a more expensive product to buy. Kind of like these new flat screen TV’s. They are cheaper to manufacture, but the retail value is much more then the old tube style.
Our silly little society. We’ve just have to educate ourselves, and make what we feel individually are safe decisions for our little place on this earth……
Hey Chris, not too sure where to get Sanuks out there. Your best bet is the local surf shop or Zappos online
Anyone else freaked out by the sudden spike in activity?
Word.
One thing I realized is that when it comes to feet & running, there’s a difference between health and performance. (Studying Gray Cook & CK-FMS / RKC also reminds me of this.)
Modern shoes help us perform better (we can run faster, longer overall) but don’t make our feet or bodies healthier!
While I do like being barefoot as much as I can, I also realize that being barefoot on hard surfaces (concrete) isn’t a sustainable strategy if I’m loading my feet with cleated running on the field (team sports), one-legged squat, jump rope, and Kettlebell practice the rest of the time.
So, Nike Frees are sort of a compromise that I think of as simulating a little bit of grass beneath my feet when I go for a parkour practice run on campus. Sometimes, it’s also nice to deload and let the feet soften up, since after all, you can’t load your lower chain and expect it to get stronger day after day.
Anybody who’s seen me train at Bodytribe knows I almost never wear shoes. I regularly pull 600 + in the deadlift, squat in the upper 500s, strict overhead press in the mid-to-upper 200s, bench 400+ and even skip rope and flip tires shoeless. Of course I can’t really credit sports science research toward this decision – I just hate carrying extra shit on my motorcycle, and Chuck Taylors are not a good choice on my bike. Besides, dragging me feet across the concrete floor curbs excessive callous buildup … works for my knuckles, too!