Feel The Ground You Walk On

Our feet have over 100 muscles that are being put to sleep by the very shoes we wear everyday. I've heard of training barefoot before and I can across this interesting article while researching this topic. Here's an excerpt:

“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.
Here's the entire article: You Walk Wrong

A lot of people suffer or will suffer from some type of foot pain in their lives. Walking can be painful so what do we usually do? Buy heavily padded shoes or invest in some arch supports or heel pads to cushion the foot. Granted, there is some pain relief from wearing these "supports" (trust me, having played many years of competitive basketball, I've had my share of foot pains), but what results is a reliance on them every single day. The muscles of the feet that are supposed to help you move and stabilize naturally have been put to sleep from non-use. Another common problem for women is foot pain from wearing high heels. Don't get me wrong, heels on a woman are sexy as hell, but cause undo pain since having their heels elevated shortens the achilles tendon and tightens the calf muscles making it very painful to walk around barefoot. To sum it up from the article:
"This is the shoe paradox: We’ve come to believe that shoes, not bare feet, are natural and comfortable, when in fact wearing shoes simply creates the need for wearing shoes."

So, what are we to do to correct this problem? The simple answer is to start walking around barefoot or in low-heeled shoes or flip flops. Again, speaking from experience, in the beginning, this can be very painful, since our feet are so reliant on artificial cushioning. I've suffered for years with achilles and arch pain from playing so much basketball. I would do what everyone else did, buy ankle/arch supports, buy the most cushioned basketball shoes, and walk around the house with padded sandals to ease the pain (which it did, somewhat). However, since I became a trainer and through constant information gathering/reading, I've seemed to put my foot pains behind me. With anything, gradual progress is the key. Start walking around the house barefoot, massage the bottom of your feet everyday with a tennis ball (do it standing, really dig in there, it'll be painful, but this is the good type of pain, like deep tissue massage), buy low-heeled shoes (I train in the Nike Free's or Converse Chuck Taylors), and if you must, try keeping the high heels or basketball shoe-wearing to a minimum.

The F Word

By now, most of you know the benefits of eating fish or taking fish oil supplements but how many of you actually do it? Just type in fish oil as a search on Pubmed (a database for medical research articles) and there are literally thousands of research studies conducted supporting taking fish oil. Fish oil contains Omega 3 fatty acids which is a healthy fat that is important in many biological functions. There are 3 types of omega 3s: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). EPA and DHA, in particular, have shown to reduce blood pressure and inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease, arthiritis as well as many other "itisis". Research has also shown taking fish oil improves brain function and reduces the symptoms of depression, bi-polar disorder and psychosis. Omega-3s can also help reduce the risk of certain caners as well as improve body composition. Research is still being conducted on how much omega 3 one should take, however, from my readings, we should try and shoot for 3-6 grams of EPA and DHA per day. Eating cold water fish (salmon, trout, tuna, halibut, makerel, etc.) everyday would be an ideal, but unrealistic endeavor. The next best option would be fish oil capsules. A word of caution, however, all fish oil caps are not equal. Most fish oils you find at your supermarket or drug store do not contain enough EPA and DHA to make any difference (unless you take 10-20 caps a day!!!). I personally take Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega fish caps which are tested by a third party to ensure quality and potency. It's more pricey than your drug store brands, but usually you get what you pay for. For more information on the benefits of fish oil, check out this link:
Fish Oil Info-JPFitness Forum