Matt Metzgar

Primitive Patterns

I saw an article about NBA player Pau Gasol using "primitive patterns" in Sports Illustrated.  The idea is to use rolling and infant-like moves to strengthen the core.  I know Gray Cook has a video, "Secrets of Primitive Patterns" available on the subject, though I've never seen it.

I think this area is ripe with potential. I am always amazed at the core strength of my young children who, of course, have never done a crunch or a sit-up, but roll, crawl, and climb all over the place.

Totally Geared Out

I was running through my nearby trail yesterday when some mountain bikers passed by.  One guy seemed to be pretty serious about the whole thing.  He had on all this custom bike gear - custom pants, shirt, helmet, glasses, gloves, etc.  It seemed like a lot of purchases just to go bike riding, but then again, I don't know much about the sport.

In general, I think people have to guard against trying to "buy" fitness.  I'm sure this happens in almost any sport or physical activity, not just biking.  Sometimes you see people who have no idea what they're doing, but they made sure to buy all the top gear.  I feel their efforts would have been better spent on trying to get in tune with the exercise or activity.

Looking back, I don't think I've spent any money in the last five years on running gear.  I just run in soccer shorts and a beat-up pair of Puma H Streets.

I also remember reading about what Arnold wore when he worked out in the seventies.  He had a couple pairs of shorts and some cheap shirts, and that's it.

The gear industry pushes all equipment and being necessary and beneficial.  In some cases yes, but in many cases I think not.  The whole running shoe industry is slowly crumbling as people figure out all they need is a minimal shoe.

The gear doesn't make the man (or woman)!

Natural Running Center

I am probably late in seeing this link, but a good resource I've come across is the Natural Running Center.  It was developed by longtime runner Dr. Mark Cucuzzella.  It has a number of good articles and other features such as reviews of minimal shoes.

The Hunting Mentality Versus The Racing Mentality

I was out running on the trail the other day, and 1/3 of the way into it, I felt sluggish.  I stopped to analyze things and realized I was overstriding.  So I slowed the pace down and went back to short, quick steps.

After thinking about it more, I realized that the mentality behind a run can really effect the running style. 

For hunter-gatherers, running was obviously not "exercise" but was pursuit of prey.  Given the literature on endurance hunting, a run would have an unknown length and outcome.  There was no way for a hunter to know when he set out how long he would have to run in total.  I would think this mindset would then lead to low-level aerobic-type running and not necessarily hard running.

This is in comparison to modern runs where the net distance is a known factor.  When I went out to run the other day, I planned on running a 3 mile loop.  So maybe subconsciously I pushed the pace because I knew it was only 3 miles.  In a hunter-gatherer environment, it wold have been counter-productive to run fast early and wear yourself out.

A hunter's pace would be largely aerobic, always leaving something left in the tank, because the duration of the hunt was unpredictable.  There was also the possibility that the hunt would be unsuccessful.  So this gives further incentive to guard against exhaustion.  If one hunt wasn't successful, maybe the group would switch gears and move after different prey.  Again, it would pay to have some energy left to do this.  Conversely, being exhausted with no food while being away from camp is not an optimal state in evolutionary terms.

I will try to keep the hunter's mentality on future runs, and make sure that when I finish I could still run more if needed.

I will say one stumbling block to this is the ego.  I honestly think exhuasting-type runs give more ego satisfaction for some reason.  I don't know if this is cultural or not - the idea of "a good workout".   

Running on Empty

I've noticed a couple curious things lately in regard to eating and exercise.  First, I've noticed that if I ocassionally skip dinner, or just have some carbs like potatoes but no meat for dinner, that I actually feel better upon waking the next morning.  Of course, I'm not doing this every day, but if I do this once or twice a week, then I am virtually guaranteed to feel better the next morning.  This points to how occassionally restricting calories in the evening, or perhaps restricting protein in the evening seems to yield benefits.

Today, I noticed how this carried over into exercise.  I have been exercising fasted in the morning, going for an intermittent run on the nearby trail.  Last night, I just had some potatoes instead of dinner, and this morning I ran before eating anything.  This combination seemed to really prime my body for running.  I don't know if it put me in "fat-burning" mode or something, but I was just really cruising on the trails today.

It's amazing how good you can run on an empty fuel tank.  I wish someone would have told me about this 15 years ago.  I remember reading Runner's World for a few years straight back in my twenties.  Never once did I see an article that recommended running while fasted.  Guess it wasn't the expert publication it was supposed to be!

Squat Recap II

Back in April, I set a goal to do a deep, barefoot squat and achieved the goal.  Two weeks of concentrated practice seemed to loosen me up and do the job.  This is a second update on the whole process.

As of late, I just practice the deep squat sporadically - every few days or so whenever I remember.  Despite this, my squat mobility is as great or greater than it was in April.  So somehow my practice sessions did lead to what appears to be a permanent increase in mobility.  That counts as pretty awesome in my book.

Here's some further speculation on why the deep squat flexiblity has stuck.  When I practice the squat now, I go through a number of steps, heavily influenced by Esther Gokhale, to make sure I'm doing it correctly.  The steps are:

1. Feet in a kidney-bean shape to activate the arch
2. Knees/legs externally rotated
3. Pelvis anteverted
4. Inner corset engaged
5. Shoulders back
6. Extend spine throughout the neck (like a balloon is pulling up your head)
7. Squat "down" with the hips, not "back"

I know, this seems like a lot of work just to do a deep squat.  I would like to be able to do it without thinking, like a child, but I'm not there yet.  This is the most lower body mobility I've had in probably 20 years, so I am sticking with this method.  It works for me.

Here's some more speculation: I wonder if when a person can't do a deep squat it's because the body is being "defensive".  In other words, if your posture is all wrong and you try to squat, maybe the body stiffens to protect from injury.  I have no real evidence to support this, but the thought has crossed my mind.

It just seems strange that I can go into a deep squat now with no problems, but I couldn't before even with other forms of squat practice.  Maybe it's connected to that "Z-health" stuff where you if you do things in the right way you can have rapid increases in mobility.

Take Off Your Shoes and Get Hurt

I was rereading the Nature article on barefoot running by Daniel Lieberman and company the other day.  I think the main table is extremely interesting (click to enlarge):

 

Compare the habitually barefoot USA adults (or the recently shod Kenyan adults) to the habitually shod USA adults.  When all parties run barefoot, there are huge discrepancies in the joint angles between those who presumably grew up barefoot to those that grew up shod. 

The knee angle is way less in habitually shod people who run barefoot (looking at the first row of the table).  There doesn't seem to be any ankle bend.  And the plantar angle seems to be going the opposite way of the habitually barefoot!

In essence, taking off your shoes after being shod your whole life does not transform you into an efficient barefoot runner.  To me this would seem like a huge potential for injury.  If you're not getting any bend at the joints, where are all the forces going?  It appears that habitually shod people switching to barefoot still overstride and create more impact forces.

I'm sure some people can ditch their shoes and have good running form.  However, I would think the large majority of shod adults would need retraining a la Lee Saxby or something along those lines.

I wrote the title of this post to be inflammatory, despite the fact that I go barefoot as much as possible indoors and out.  It is meant to balance out the evangelical side of barefoot running that doesn't seem to caution against injury.

I'm slowly starting to see more reports of people trying barefoot running and getting hurt, and this is unfortunate.

One other item is the surface for barefoot running.  I know some people say that running barefoot on concrete is good and that it exposes flaws in form.  I think this is incorrect, and I feel that I will be proven correct over time.  Barefoot running is meant to done on natural surfaces.  If you add in the above info about the sub-par form of habitually shod adults running barefoot, running on a surface like concrete would only seem to compound the risk of injury.

Running barefoot on concrete doesn't erase decades of walking and running in shoes.  I feel it will become more apparent that habitually shod adults need to approach running as a skill (or retraining if you like).

Trail Jackpot

One of the first things to do in my new residence was to find a place to walk in the evening.  I checked the woods behind our house, and lo and behold, there is a network of trails!  It looks like it was created by a mountainbike group.  Literally, this connects right to my backyard.

I tried out one of the trails shod last night.  It looks like the whole thing can be done barefoot, so that's a big plus.

I can check this item off my list...

Natural Rehab

I think the value of natural movements in rehab/physical therapy has been overlooked.  This morning I did some barefoot walking on grass, along with occassional squats.  It's amazing how nourishing these activities are from a physical perspective.  The barefoot walking on grass allows your feet to work as they should and build up strength.  The squats seem to help realign various parts of the body and put things in better balance.

I am also starting to think squatting on natural/uneven surfaces provides additonal benefits.  If you do a barefoot squat on a flat, even surface, there is less need for all the arch muscles and the toes muscles to contract.  When you squat barefoot on grass, more of the foot musculature is activated and I believe it leads to better form and balance on the squat.

Deceleration

I wanted to throw out some wild speculation about running.  Sometimes you see a runner with good form and posture lose that posture when they start to decelerate.  An example would be a baseball player racing to first base.  After they hit the bag, some players kind of let their bodies go and their limbs flail a bit.  Another example would be a runner hits the finish line and then loses his posture for the next few meters or so.

I wonder if this deceleration period has a greater potential for injury.  During the high-speed running, the core is probably engaged and therefore the body is protected to some degree.  But if that protection is disengaged immediately after the goal is reached, there may a be a brief window where injuries are more likely.