Category Archives: running

running

Despite that Army Study, I Still Like Barefoot Running

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Irene Davis took off her sandal for me last week. She wriggled her toes. We were in the press room of the American College of Sports Medicine, and she wanted to show me a “doming” exercise you can use to prevent injuries if you run barefoot.

A Doming Video by Richard Blake

Researchers like Davis, the director of the Spaulding National Running Center at Harvard are exploring the pros and cons of running this way.

Most recently, as I reported Monday, a big new U.S. Army study cast doubt on the theory that running barefoot or in minimal shoes might prevent injury by getting people to land on the fronts or middles of their feet instead of the heels.

But I’m not ready to hang up my Vibram FiveFingers, and neither is Davis. Continue reading Despite that Army Study, I Still Like Barefoot Running →

running

How I Cured Runner’s Knee in 220,233 Steps

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If you keep doing sports long enough, you discover your Achilles’ heel: the injury that keeps coming back no matter how long you rest, ice the pain and dose yourself with ibuprofen.

Finally, I think I’ve solved mine. And I want to help solve yours, too.

Runner’s knee (patellofemoral syndrome) first hit me when I was playing soccer in college. One game it was so bad I had to crawl off the field.

Taking a seven-year break from soccer helped my right knee, but when I started up again, so did the pain just below my left kneecap. Sometimes a change of shoes helped, but only for a while. A physical therapist prescribed exercises, but they didn’t make much difference.

Gradually, I gave up running. I rested all week for a weekend pickup soccer game. But as I got into my 40s, I had to cut back to two or three times a month, then twice a month and sometimes take a year off when things got really bad. Continue reading How I Cured Runner’s Knee in 220,233 Steps →