Episode 580 : Lee Saxby joins Vinnie in this 1 on 1 edition of the Celebrity Fitness trainer podcast to discuss the art of injury-free barefoot running, and how everyone is born to run.
LEE SAXBY
- The Godfather of Barefoot Running
- Check out his website hereÂ
- Pursues injury free, barefoot running
BAREFOOT RUNNING
- Jogging book from the 70s
- Jogging is the same thing as race-walking
- When you are barefoot, your brain KNOWS when to break into a run due to force
- When you have rubber (heel) under your foot, your body doesn’t know when to run vs. jog, which can hurt you
- Lee’s epiphany came in the year 2000, in Kenya
- He saw lots of kids running barefoot and he saw how everyone had the same running technique
- Biomechanically, running barefoot forced them to
- Lower impact for them!
- The best runners come out of East Africa, so there Lee saw a correlation
- Biomechanically, running barefoot forced them to
- He saw lots of kids running barefoot and he saw how everyone had the same running technique
- Lee saw that there was a definite difference in running depending on where they ran (endurance running)
- Forefoot on hard ground
- Heel-strike on grass
- They didn’t realize what they were doing — instincts and biomechanics kicked in
- Your foot is constantly trying to find the ground — it cannot do that if you have tennis shoes on
- Lee will film people with shoes vs no shoes
- The more padding in the shoe, the longer their feet stick to the ground
- This is an issue and can cause extra strain
- The more padding in the shoe, the longer their feet stick to the ground
CORRECTING A BAD RUNNER
- Many people never heel-strike which causes lots of pain to achilles and other tendons
- Lee tries to educate people simply
- Educating trainers to what good running looks like
- To do this he has a certification program
- Educating trainers to what good running looks like
BORN TO RUN
- People looked at Chris McDougall’s book as a bible which wasn’t the best idea
- Both do love the book, though
- McDougall had plantar fasciitis in 2010 and Lee Saxby helped fix that by changing his running style
- Those toe-shoes are not the cure-all, good running technique is
- Both Vinnie and Lee owned these Vibrum’s before realizing they weren’t the right move
- The 5 finger can hurt those with broad feet, cause knee injuries, etc
- They were more of a fashion statement than a functional shoe
- Vinnie had issues with them on long runs
- Your running style has to be good for these to work
- You’re better off going actually barefoot if you are able
