Born to be Barefoot | From Science to Life

In this week’s episode Stuart had the opportunity to meet with a clinical biomechanist and physical therapist with a PhD in bio mechanics, Irene Davis. She was previously at Harvard medical school and founded the Spalding National Running Center, and she is now at the school of physical therapy and rehab sciences at the University of South Florida. You could say she really knows her stuff! So join these two as they discuss, from an expert point of view, the science of running and foot health, and topics such as running shoes, minimal shoes, orthotics, etc. Irene’s background 2:45Starting from the beginning 5:00Why there are different categories of shoes 15:30Carbon plates 25:10Gait assessment and transition 38:55Weaknesses found 47:15“We do isometrics, we do concentric, we do eccentrics, we do them with our knees bent and our knees straight. Heel strikers come and they are weak in their calves. The primary weaknesses we find when someone is a habitual heel striker, is weakness in their hips and in their calves.” 47:15

In this episode Stuart had the privilege of speaking with South African Lindsey Parry, who is a very renowned coach of runners, from marathon runners of the professional/olympic level, to your average, middle of the pack runners. He was a fairly competitive school athlete who was always interested in all kinds of sports, which all included running, and ultimately led him to continue running. He’s always considered running as a type of therapy, he’s always loved the human body, and in University he began to coach and do therapy. A bit of background 3:40What Lindsey looks at in training 14:10You can’t sustain peak training indefinitely/training for peak performance vs training to be healthy 31:30Find and follow Lindsey Parry 35:20“You can’t improve from the training you’re doing if you do not recover from that training.” 15:50www.youtube.com/@CoachParrycoachperry.com@coachparry

We have a very special guest on the Barefoot Science podcast today by the name of Yuri Marmerstein, who has performed extensively as an acrobat, is very much involved in teaching the physical arts, and he has veered into stunt work with film and TV. Surprisingly, Yuri wasn’t very active as a child and the skills that he now has were mainly all developed in his adulthood, and for the most part he is self taught. Listen in today to hear the various interesting ideas and concepts Yuri shares with our hosts!How he got started in all this 3:00School and modern day exercise 6:30Performing in a circus 16:20What’s next 25:00Barefoot and balance 33:30Early day stunts 40:15Enjoying the process 45:30“One of the main differences between stunts and the circus is in the circus you’re trying to look good, pretty, and controlled, but for stunts you’re trying to look as out of control as possible while still being in control. So that’s a pretty interesting performance characteristic.” 2:50@yuri_marmerstein www.yuri-mar.comwww.youtube.com/@yurimar/videos

On this week’s episode, Katie talks to the barefoot running sensation and “original” barefoot runner, Ken Bob Saxton. When Ken Bob began racing exclusively barefoot in 1997, he found that people had a lot of questions, so he decided to compile all his answers in one place, which led him to founding the website barefootrunning.com in 1997. Ken is someone who will go shoeless at every opportunity he can and he has even done multiple marathons while barefoot. Join us to hear the benefits and great things he has to say about barefoot running. Ken almost never wears shoes 3:50Foot structure and effects on the foot from going barefoot 10:00Practice vs training, and relax 26:00Writing a book about how to run barefoot 35:15 Some of the “secrets” to barefoot running 37:00Elevation races 46:00“The odd thing that I tell people and people have trouble with this concept, is lift your feet before it lands. Trust me, it will still land, but as you’re coming down to the ground, you’re starting to lift your feet to your body, but your body is also coming down, so all you’re really doing is slowing down the impact. You’re decelerating your foot as it lands. So you’re coming down, bending your knee, but you’re not actually bending your foot up. You’re just slowing its descent down so that it touches gently. It’s really difficult for people to get that.” 38:49barefootrunning.com

Today Stuart and Katie had the opportunity to talk with Michael Adeniran, who is a weekend warrior as they call it. A while back he got into running, and then triathlons, ultra running, iron mans, Spartan races, obstacle courses, and so forth. He’s got a lot of experience now with all these different events and with that, a substantial amount of wisdom to share with us and our listeners. How Michael got started 3:15Going back to the basic human functions 9:00Doing an Iron Man 20:30His day job 23:15The importance of strength training 29:00Obstacle course races 35:00The shoes he wears to run 36:30“The more you get into the running life, you seem to stop doing as much strength training, and that’s where the injuries start happening. I remember in the early days of running, I didn’t have any injuries whatsoever, but that’s because I was more a strength trainer doing some running, but as I’ve become a runner doing a little bit of strength training, you see the differences in your body strength, and imbalances that come.” 29:15www.instagram.com/theurbanchallengertheurbanchallenger.com

Today Stuart and Katie have a very quick marathon runner (sub 2:40) as a guest by the name of Jason Fitzgerald. He is an extensive writer of articles about endurance running and has his own website by the name of Strength Running. After finishing the 2008 New York City Marathon in 2:44, Jason developed a severe ITB injury. He was sidelined for six months, wondering if he would ever be able to run pain-free again. But that injury transformed his thoughts on running healthy and injury prevention. Jason’s training changed dramatically and he finally “cracked the code” of his constant injury cycle. Listen to this engaging conversation we had and learn something new with us!Becoming a marathon runner 1:10Running a lot of marathons vs a few 4:10Creating his website 10:00Trail Runner Magazine and writing articles 17:20Insoles and proprioception 20:50Common themes among the strong athletes 27:30Getting blood work done 35:50Talking about zones 42:00“Yeah I think [getting blood work done] is a really good idea, especially if you’re training really hard or maybe if you just ran a hard marathon, or ultramarathon, you kinda wanna see, ‘OK, what did this do to my body?’ A blood test is gonna really answer that question and give an insight into how much stress you experienced, what’s going on inside your body. Do you have low testosterone? High levels of cortisol? Or many other things going on in your body that could be either A, just generally unhealthy, or B, something that’s actually inhibiting your ability to train.” 35:55strengthrunning.com@jasonfitz1

Taren Gesell started out as a complete non-athlete who was 215lbs and couldn't run to the end of the block. He later became a top 1% in the world amateur triathlete and in the process shared everything he learned on the Triathlon Taren YouTube channel, which became the second largest triathlon YouTube channel in the world. He published four books and created the MOTTIV training app which are all designed specifically for everyday amateur endurance athletes who want to reach their goals but don't know where to start. Join Stuart and Katie in this exciting interview with such an amazing individual. Taren’s transformation 1:00Training differences between elite athletes and your average person 9:00Overtraining vs casual training 14:15The MOTTIV training app 17:15Injuries 24:20Testing the insoles 33:00“About a year ago I had a pretty severe rolled ankle that exasperated a lot of the dorsiflexion issues I had and really struggled with that and had basically only gone on 6 runs since that time go figure I’m 40 and injuries don’t heal like they used to 25 years ago, but I went on a hike last saturday with the insoles and normally after a hike, that ankle I have trouble with gets achy, and I didn’t feel it at all this weekend.” 33:10www.youtube.com/c/triathlontaren@triathlontarenmymottiv.com

In this week’s episode Katie welcomes guest Rae Reynolds, a shockwave therapist and massage practitioner, who shares insights on her profession. Rae discusses her experiences with shockwave therapy and her journey to becoming a healer, emphasizing self-healing and empowerment. Through anecdotes and discussions on topics like cellular inflammation and childhood trauma, Rae underscores the importance of balance and self-awareness in achieving overall well-being, challenging societal norms and advocating for personal responsibility in health and healing. They discuss her book and its themes of self-discovery, healing, and empowerment. The book touches on personal experiences, childhood trauma, and the journey towards self-love. It encourages readers to start a conversation with themselves, prioritize their health, and embrace their authentic selves. Rae’s experience with Barefoot Science 2:00Ondamed (Wave) Therapy 3:30Parasites 5:30Healing yourself 12:50Rae’s book “Let Us Start the Conversation” 20:30Just be you 30:45Figuring it out in a less costly way 35:20“I literally have [Barefoot Science products] in everything. I don’t put anything on my feet that doesn’t have Barefoot Science. I paddleboard in them, I ski in them, I do everything in them and every person that pretty much walks into my clinic, regardless of why they’re there, they’re gonna walk out with a pair of Barefoots.” 2:13www.raereynolds.ca

This week Katie had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Courtney Johnson, also known as the Female Athlete Doctor. She is a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in pelvic health, women’s health, particularly in general active women in all walks of life, such as women in pregnancy, postpartum, or women who are diagnosed with some sort of pelvic floor dysfunction. Courtney helps women be active again and get back on their feet, which is often where these issues usually occur or originate from. What Dr. Courtney is all about 0:50Pregnant women 4:50The benefits of doing this while pregnant 7:20Helping athletes to relax for birth 12:00Working with C-section women 16:00“When you think of a sports team, a sports team has everything and a coach for everything. For every position in a football team. They have a recovery squad, an athletic trainer, they have a doctor on staff, they have a physical therapist, so we should approach pregnancy and postpartum with the same mindset. Who is on your team? I know when that time comes for me, I’m gonna have X-Y-Z all lined up and I’ll be ready to go.” 11:10thefemaleathletedpt.com@thefemaleathletedoc

We have 2 lovely guests on the podcast today named Kristi Harrison and Matthew McKeown, who are co-owners of Highland Fitness and Wellness, a personal training studio and fitness community in Scarborough, Ontario. They fill us in on some great tactics of how they’ve been able to build their gym culture in the best way possible, and then we get into what to focus on when helping your clients in improving their physical health. Movement is very necessary for each day, especially for those who are working a sedentary job 8 hours a day and they give some good examples of how to do that.About Kristi, Matt, and their gym 0:45Creating a community 7:30Focusing on the scapula and lumbar spine 16:30The worst thing about sitting 19:50Clients want professionalism 28:45Targeting specific people and groups 41:50Looking at feet and gait 49:00“I think the hardest thing is teaching people there’s more of a mental side that this is the rest of your life. Not meaning that you have to use the rest of your life, but the goals you want to accomplish, they need to be the rest of your life, and you can’t convince them on that. You can maybe show someone that, but you have to get someone who’s pretty much there already, that they know ‘I need to make significant changes and I know this is gonna take long term.’” 17:18www.highlandfit.com@highlandfitto

In this week’s episode Katie and Stuart interview Mike Whetstone, who has over 25 years of military leadership and training experience and is a former FRS and TOPGUN instructor, and owner and president of BMK Ventures, a Vetfirst certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. A big part of his business is helping prepare the medics in the field by putting together these kits that they can acquire, which contain all the resources they may need when faced with tough or intense physical situations on the battlefield. History, fitness, and prep for flying in the Air Force 3:00BMK Ventures 9:00Military is a massive amount of footwork 16:00Testing balance in military 25:00Seeing the curvature of the Earth 31:00Being disabled in service 33:00Seeing the difference of the Barefoot Insoles 38:00“It’s a young man’s game and I’ll tell you what, I creak and crack, and I pretty much blame pulling Gs on that.” 8:45 “Believe it or not, I told myself I was gonna run a marathon before I turned 40 and on my 40th birthday I hadn’t run one, so between 40 and 41 I ran 5, and then I kept running them until I messed my knee up. Now I stick mostly to the halves.” 34:27bmkventures.com@bmkventures1

Katie and Stuart had Evan Strong on this episode of the podcast, who is an olympic superstar that won a Gold medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics & a Silver medal in the year 2018 in Paralympic Snowboarding. He has done everything that involves a board including skateboarding, surfing, and even playing on chess boards. Join these 3 as they discuss human prosthetics, education, and different living conditions to improve and even help your own kids better develop. About Evan 1:20Living in Maui, Hawaii 11:50Wearing shoes vs not wearing them 15:45Evan’s lifestyle 23:00School and education 31:30Prosthetics and shoes 38:45“Nobody has ever thought of ‘Oh, let’s build a prosthetic based on natural biology and actually the natural physiology of a human,’ and they always just think of it around the shoe or the modern shoe.” 42:35@evan_strongpacificbirthcollective.org

Mindful Movement with Brea Johnson | Unveiling the Secrets of Yoga and Body Smart Practices Stuart and Katie had the opportunity to sit down with Brea Johnson, who has been a yoga teacher and movement educator for well over a decade. With a love for learning and studying the human body she continues her on-going education in yoga, anatomy and biomechanics and is also a certified Restorative Exercise Specialist. We discuss the importance of mobility and keeping your body moving. Brea mentions how in our culture there’s this belief that we have to get that one hour or so of movement and exercise in our day and we’ll be good, but she says that movement should be spread out throughout the day instead of just concentrated all in one session because little movement more often has more benefits. Yoga with brains, love, and body smart movement 1:10Top things that the body needs 11:00Crossfit and lack of rotation 23:00The 4 pillars of a sustainable yoga practice 28:45Shoes and the opinions that follow them 36:00Staying healthy through old age 47:50“If you have a standing desk I think it’s great to have the option. I think we need both. Don’t expect that we should be standing for 8 hours a day just like you shouldn’t expect to be sitting for 8 hours a day. For me, I have an office at my house, I have a desktop, I have a laptop, which I often bring onto the floor, I bring it upstairs, I bring it outside. On the days that I’m on my computer all day long, I’m in different positions.” 25:32@heartandbonesyogawww.heartandbonesyoga.com