【important research】Grounding Brings Many Health Benefit 〜let's walk barefoot on natural surfaces〜

There are some very important research about why we need to contact with natural ground directly.

1 Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons.

2 Earthing (grounding) the human body reduces blood viscosity-a major factor in cardiovascular disease.

Basically research showed that contacting with ground will improve blood viscosity which should help to reduce cardio vascular disease and also possibly help you to sleep well and reduce pains in the body etc.

These are very simple studies but very important as well for humans. Some people saying about those  articles that it will be good to walk barefoot but not to run barefoot. Yes, I understand that if people run very hard on natural surface, people will dame their feet.  Please place your foot gently on the ground so you can run barefoot while getting those benefit!

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New Barefoot Star Explodes in Japan

Mr Ishikawa just won his age group during All Japan Triathlon Race, Strongman Miyakojima. This is one of the most competitive long distance triathlon races.

He did all barefoot during the running part.  and if you look at this pic carefully, you'll see his wife is running with vibram fivefingers.  What a great achievement. He finished 17th overall, and his wife finished 11th overall.  A Super couple!

Conglatulations to Mr and Ms Ishikawa!!!

p.s.  Mr Ishikawa actually ran a 100km race in 8hours59mins last year also all barefoot on asphalt.  The world record is set on running track, so you know this is worth record already. He even took a wrong way during the race so I lost about 10-15mins. So he's practically a world record holder. I cannot wait when we do a world record challenge in Atsugi, Japan in November.

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barefoot, minimal shoes, 0 drop blah blah blah

I'm often asked about the difference between barefoot running and running with minimal (or barefoot) shoes.  I would just say barefoot is barefoot, and minimal shoes are shoes that can mimic barefoot running.  Then people ask me, what about 0 drop?  0 drop shoes are just the ones that have same thinking of heel and forefoot cushion.

nothing less or more. but minimal shoes is tricky because it's supposed to be barefoot "feeling" shoes. what is "barefoot feeling" right?  what is the definition?

i don't think there is a definition for it. in general nike free is considered minimal. but if you take a closer look at it or if you actually wear it, you realize it's got quite a lot of cushion with some arch support.  mizuno and asics also made similar type of "natural running" shoes that are similar to nike free.  so that's why people started to use the word 0 drop. which has the same height over heel and forefoot. 

but then what about the thick cushion shoes that have 0 drop like hoka? that's a good example right? it's 0 drop but really thick. so it's not just about 0 drop. then it's a thickness? maybe i would say less than 5mm to be called minimal shoes?   then what about luna sandals and tarahumara's harache?  
these sandals are especially giving people the impression that they are barefoot feeling shoes/sandals. but they are kind of thick sole. harache were made from car tires.  

what about those fashion shoes that are thin and 0 drop? 

it can go endless. of course someone can define what minimal shoes are. but is it necessary? 

basically more you put on, less you use your own body.  so it's just about  how much can you cut the function of the shoes.  it all depends on the person. person's experience, the feet condition, etc. 

the one of the best benefit about running barefoot is to know about yourself. maybe you can do more, or you can do less.  there are small number of people who can adopt right away to running barefoot. i'm definitely not one of them.  and maybe that made me think more and being able to talk more about barefoot running. who knows.

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100km barefoot running world record challenge!

The current guiness world record holder is Wayne Botha from NZ with the time of 8:49:42 (2013). Does anyone wants to try to break this record?  In Japan, I know we have at least 10 people who can possible break the record, so we decided to do this event in Atsugi, Japan, about 1hour away from Tokyo.

Of course I'm going for this as well although I know it's going to be very difficult for me but at least I still have 7months to trai.

The course is all on the track 240 laps.

here are some problems with this event.

1 Because it's an official event and we need to do this chip timing in order to be qualified for the time,  we at least need 20 participants by Aug 1st.

2 Because we are using track and the time is very limited.  The maximum you can run is 10 hours.  So you have to run under 10 hours barefoot.   It's already difficult enough to find people who can run under 10hrs with shoes...

3 Whether this record gets admitted or not by guiness is unknown.  The race organizers will do the best they can to make it get admitted but in the end, guiness will decide whether this record is valid or not. so we have to see what happened.

anyway, we also have a 8hr barefoot relay as well, so if you think it's too difficult to do solo, yon can always do relay and cheer for the solos.

please click here for details and registration. It's only available in Japanese, so if you need any assistant, just let me know by face book or leave a comment on here.

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Is Running Barefoot Illegal During Races?

In Japan, running barefoot during running races are getting banned over the past few years. I think this is in a way good news because it means more people are trying to run barefoot.

Once I wrote about if running barefoot during track meets are legal or not.   IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) actually allows to run barefoot during the track meets. But in some cases, race organizers or the track itself do not allow to run barefoot. So in those cases, you cannot run barefoot.

The reason why these organizers are banning to compete barefoot is that it is way too dangerous because  a lot of athletes on track wear spikes.

I had an argument about this with people in the field.  I told them, what's dangerous is the spikes, not barefoot. so when both spikes and barefoot are allowed, and if you have to bann one of them because it's dangerous, why barefoot running gets banned?  It is spikes that harm people, so if anything, shouldn't spikes be banned?

the answer to that was so childish. they said, because everyone wears spikes...

so i guess the majority rule applies. nothing else to be added from them.

anyway, so outside of track meets like road races, OFFICIALLY it is allowed to run barefoot, but if race organizers ban barefoot running, then you cannot run barefoot. simple enough?

but we should all remember that sports always have restrictions on items so that people cannot cheat. and the LEAST cheating items which is barefoot is getting banned... and reality is that people cannot run without shoe support, so it means wearing shoes are cheating in a way. but should we take this as the flow of the times, so it cannot be helped?

i rarely run races and if i do, i wear vibrams if the distance is more than a half marathon so it doesn't really affect me. but for the people who wants to run barefoot, it does affect them.

i want to say that at least running barefoot is admitted by IAAF,  so all official races that are admitted by IAAF should allow people to run barefoot. this is not about barefoot running is good or bad, but it's about legal or not.

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running barefoot may increase injury risk in older, more experienced runners

this article is from new york times, "barefoot running may be harder for older runners"

basically what this is saying is that older people who have a lot of running experience have more difficult time to adapt to barefoot running, therefore, i crease the risk of injury for these people.

do we need this research? isn't this understood?  if you've been running with thick cushioned shoes for a long time, kept striking hard with heels depending on the cushion, of course it's gonna be more difficult to adapt.  and of course if you get older, it will make it more difficult to adapt.    that's why you need to start small.  but the problem is that those experienced runners tend to jump right into running 10km-20km with barefoot/barefoot shoes.

so many elite athletes came to my event as well, but it's difficult for them as well. they've been running 1000+ km per month. and if they've been doing it for 10-20 years...  it's almost impossible unless they gave up on running totally and start from 0! but who is going to do it?

anyway, this is why it is very important to start running or playing barefoot at  a younger age. and if you didn't grow up running barefoot, you can still start at an older age, but need to remember it's going to take time.  

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【shocking news】bunion healed in 90 mins

there is a karate master in okinawa that i met last year. he is so amazing that he treats almost everything. well i shouldn't use the term "treat" because he has no medical license. so he uses the term "instruct". with his instruction,  people with really bad join pains get so much better. even hospitals send their patients to him.  if the patients didn't wanna get surgery, doctors would tell them to go to him and if that doesn't help, they need to get surgery.  (and there hasn't been a single case that people ended up with surgery. so 100% people who were told to get surgery got better with his instruction)

anyway, most interesting part of what he does is that he just touches some parts and trying to find where the pain is coming from or where the problem come from. " maybe here, or maybe there. here it is" makes it look so easy.

anyway, this time he was asked to help with bunion.

if you want to believe it or not, i don't care. but at least this person's bunion got better right away. there are so many things that we don't know. and this is a great example.

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