Running is fun - but barefooted
Running is fun
Those who are in the habit Jogging or morning walking for health or
otherwise they know it's a fun. Beside making good health it helps busting
tensions and makes one free from mundane daily life.
I've been jogging for many years now but ever since
I've been 45 plus age I am having pains
in my feet and knees after every session of jogging. Friends told me to buy good jogging shoes and
I bought it but it did not solve the problem. Sometimes I felt it has enhanced
the pain after every jogging.
The famous orthopedic surgeon of Hiranandani hospital
entered the scene - “You've flat-feet, you have to wear arch support inner sole
to get rid of the pain “
So a new fancy curvy inner sole entered into my pair
of shoes. The pain during jogging seem to have reduced but my jogging capacity
is greatly reduced. After every session I feel little pain in my feet &
knees. This phase continued for next two years till last week while I was in
Goa for a short pleasure trip along with my family.
Five days and two huge beaches have helped me to
rediscover the most crude fact of feet for life – The worst thing that we ever
did to our feet is putting on a pair of running shoes or the most destructive
force to ever hit the human foot is by running shoes.
Few days back a friend of mine even advised me to stop
running in all respect after 45 years of
age, as running at this age is the fitness version of drunken driving; you
could get away with it for a while, you might even have some fun, but
catastrophe is just waiting round the corner. As an example he himself stopped
running after becoming 45+ age.
The Palolim beach at South Goa and Calangut beach at
North Goa both are almost 2.5 to 3 kilometres
long end-to-end. Running on beach sand in running shoes is next to
impossible so for justified reason I'd to run barefoot to complete my daily
dose of jogging for these five days.
On a cloudy monsoon day , running just above the water
lines on the beach while keeping the sun rising opposite the Arabian sea was
the most majestic way of starting the day. Sometimes the wave touches my feet
while sometimes I skirt the wave along my way. The small crabs peek from their tiny holes while the
big birds fly silently on mid sea.
Run … run …. run … Never did I know when I completed
to & fro of Palolim beach covering every fishermen , hotels , restaurants ,
resorts & chapels on the coast. When I reached the starting point and
started again , for the first time I discovered that I've run more than ten kilo meters and still my feet and knees are without any pain and I can still
run more.
I could not believe neither did my wife believe my feats so next day again I ran the same path at same time and this time also I have not had a single pinch of pain anywhere.
Next day we moved to the Calangut beach which is at the northern part of Goa. The beach is little more stretched about 3 kilo meters end-to-end compared to 2.5 km of Palolim beach. I had the same feats here for the next 3 days.
What's the secret ? The beach , The sand , the atmosphere or the running
shoes ! I searched internet and the answer came from many quarters.
It's the running shoes - the root of all problems.
There is a whole barefoot running community in internet who are staunch
advocates of barefoot running. Lots of books are available in support of the
fact.
Moreover if we look at the architecture of our feet we
will find a marvel that engineers have been trying to match for centuries. The
foot's centerpiece is an arch, the greatest weight bearing design ever created.
The beauty of any arch is the way it gets stronger under stress; the harder it
is pushed down, the tighter it's parts mesh. No stoneman worth it's trowel
would ever stick a support under an arch; i.e push up from underneath because
that way you will weaken the whole arch structure. Our foot has 26 bones , 33
joints , 12 tendons and 18 muscles all stretching and flexing like an
earthquake resistant suspension bridge. Putting this whole system under your
fancy running shoes will just make it non functional from many sides. Even the
latest micro processor control pressure point shoes too prove to be useless.
The proof I've experienced with my own feet. Coming
back to Powai I tried the same tactic on the hard trucks of Ambrocia park and
the result is unchanged. I can run many loops without any pains now. Only
disadvantage of running barefoot in Mumbai is that people may look you down
like an uncultured people. To solve that problem you just enter the park with
your costly running shoes, find a corner at a crowded place and then remove
your shoes and start running barefoot. At every loop just slow down near your
shoes , have a close look at it and then continue your running as if nothing
has happened. Soon people all around will make a clear connection between you
and your costly running shoes.
Leonerdo Da vinci considered the human foot, with it's
fantastic weight-suspension system comprising one quarter of all the bones in
the human body, “ A masterpiece of engineering and a work of art”
Also running is an essential part of our life. Caveman
had to run all day for food and safety even watch a kid, it runs for everything
it does. But as we grow up we limit our capacity by putting a pair of shoes and
then we stop running besides there are many sports shoe companies who are
making fool of us with their running shoe businesses.
Perhaps all our troubles - all the violences, obesity, illness,
depression and greed we can't overcome – began when we stopped living as
running people. We deny our nature, and it erupts in some other , uglier way.
If there is a panacea to make human beings healthy, it's to run and run barefooted.
S. Bera
Powai
Comments
Post a Comment