Running Barefoot – The Debate

Earlier this week Rick posted “Are running shoes causing injury?”, where he spoke about a book he reviewed on his own website and about whether shoes should be worn running. I’m very interested in this book; I think it’s another one that Rick has convinced me to purchase

There is a huge debate over whether as humans; running shoes are causing more harm than good. In general, it’s not just running shoes, it’s any shoes. Many women have problems with their feet, namely due to high heels and pointy shoes where they bear pain and discomfort for the sake of  style and fashion. Bunions would be the most common form of problem caused by ill fitting shoes – although this can also be down to genetic make up, as I have discovered. As I said, it’s any shoes that can cause problems - flip flops (thongs for any Aussie readers ) have no support for the foot. My podiatrist told me that the best form of shoes are those with laces that are properly tied – thus offering full and proper support to the foot. This being the reason why I shouldn’t really be wearing Uggs boots when I have serious feet problems as I have to wear very supportive shoes to hold my prescriptive orthotics in the correct place.

Personally I find it very difficult to source comfortable “runners”, I don’t find the standard Nike shoes etc comfortable and certainly will not pay through the roof for hi tech shoes that I won’t wear all too often.  I wear a hard prescriptive device in both of my shoes, I need a fairly flat shoe with a slight bit of a lift in the arch to accommodate the devices – these sorts of shoes are hard to come by and both the device and shoe are not suitable for running in. Luckily, I am not a runner. I enjoy running but unfortunately my feet and knees can’t take very much of it. I find I can’t walk around the gym when coaching or around the house barefoot, even just in socks. Due to the pain endured in my foot through the past few years, socks or comfortable shoes offer a physical and psychological protection to my feet. I’m afraid of anyone standing on my foot, especially the area that constantly aches so for me, they create a boundary between my foot and the world.  I know many people who wander around indoors barefoot – it’s not for me. Obviously when performing moves in the gym, I have my shoes off as it doesn’t feel natural. Running in the gym for a short while without shoes is fine but I couldn’t imagine running for longer than I would in gym.

I don’t have too much to say on the topic of whether running shoes are causing more hassle than good  as I find it difficult to tell what’s right and what’s wrong because each persons body is so different and unique (and my feet are such a huge pain in the bum) and no two people run the same way but I am open to all theories, thoughts and studies out there.  As always, I take all medical studies published with a pinch of salt. I found Ricks post very interesting, mainly because feet are an area of the body that I am truly fascinated with. 

I subscribe to The Sport of Science, a website run by Ross Tucker PHD and Jonathan Dugas PHD and this morning a great post popped into my reader about the debate of Running Barefoot VS Shoes. If you were interested in Ricks post, I suggest you have a read. It provides lots of links on the debate. You can also follow The Sport of Science on Twitter.

Bodies The Exhibition Part 3

The fourth section displayed a model of a rugby player diving for the ball.  This was really something else.  The women beside me asking “How did they get it into that position?” and “How can they move it if the body goes into rigormortis? Maybe it doesn’t last that long?”. These questions still remained unanswered. I walked right around the specimen viewing every part I could in detail. As with the “runner” it was easier for me to see what is going on when an athlete is performing and how injuries might occur. You can see so much of these models that the hair on the body is visibly clear, notably on the arms and eyebrows.  Unfortunately I cannot source a picture of it. The body has been put into the most amazing position as the “player” dives to the ground for the ball. If you look at the pictures below, you may be able to get a sense of the poses shown at the different exhibitions worldwide.

Here we were also shown the body in Transverse and Saggital sections. The exit then lead to a small gift shop and a visitors book in which to write your thoughts, I really wish I had done this, although it could have been as long as this blog post! I treated myself to a pair of socks from the Gift Shop, for those of you who know the cost of them, I will try to convince you that it was well worth the “X” euro! My socks are great, they map out the structure of the feet and legs – a bit geeky but I love them!!

As you can probably tell , I very much enjoyed the exhibition. It was definitely one of the highlights of my year so far. It would be impossible, as the exhibition had been on for so long but I wish that there could have been a professional there that I could have posed my questions to. I have so many that remain unanswered.  Whilst viewing the specimens gave me a sense of clarification, I still wanted to touch everything, it was hard not to! I still wish that I had the chance to work on cadavers in college. Although smaller than I expected, I can understand why it might take people hours to get around the exhibition. There is some reading material to explain the specimens on display. I tended not to read these as I was already aware of the information.

Despite the negative reviews and reports, I found the exhibition to be amazing. A fantastic learning tool for anyone, whether you’re in the profession of medicine and biology or not and also for children. There were a few children there who seemed completely clueless to what they were looking at. The origin of the bodies on display is of mixed opinions and ideas, many people insist that these specimens were unclaimed bodies, which appeared to discourage some people from attending. Either way, donated or not, perhaps it would be some small comfort to the deceased that they have, in death, managed to provide such a wonderful educational opportunity for so many people. You are not permitted to take photographs at the exhibition, although these images will never be erased from my mind. I can assure you, the pictures in this blog post do the specimens little justice. I would encourage everyone to attend this exhibition.

Bodies finished in Dublin on July 27^th. A similar exhibition “Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time” is currently running in The O2 in London, from the fantastic Professor Gunther Von Hagen ,whom some of you may know from the Autopsy programmes on Channel 4 some years ago. This exhibition is running until Sunday August 23rd, I think it would be well worth even a day trip to London just to see this –  especially as flights from Dublin to Heathrow are very reasonable at under €100 return! Unfortunately I can’t see myself getting to London before the closing date so I just hope that this exhibition might come to Dublin due to the popularity of Bodies but somehow I doubt it.

Bodies The Exhibition Part 1

On Wednesday this week, I finally made it to the Bodies Exhibition in Dublin. It had taken me six months to manage to get to the exhibition, having had to decide whether to go alone or find someone to go with me.  Human anatomy has been of great interest to me since I was very young, so naturally as soon as I heard about the exhibition coming to Dublin, I had to go!  Eventually I decided to go alone. I very much enjoyed being by myself, in my own little world. I turned my phone off, shut off from everything and spent an hour and a half exploring one of my biggest passions. Please note that the pictures featured in this post do not do the specimens much justice.

At first I felt a little odd attending the exhibition in the Ambassador Theatre, a place where I had been to a few gigs as a teenager. Luckily the smell of sweat and spilled beer was absent! I walked down the small corridor anxiously, not knowing what to expect. Would there be many people here? What types of people would visit? Would there be a smell? I can’t say I noticed too much about the room; I know it was black and lime green, in places, with suitable lighting.

Section One focused on the bones and muscles of the body, essentially teaching the audience about the general structures and what they do. I began by looking at a section of the femur, something I am very interested in due to a disorder which affects me, as described in previous posts. I then moved to view the Pelvis. It really amazed me how small the pelvis really is and how wide the pelvis and pubic symphysis must move to accommodate for the expansion of the uterus during pregnancy. This was a rather small pelvis and I would have loved to have seen the difference in size between a normal pelvis and one nine months into a pregnancy.

After the queues died down a little, I viewed the Spine. It was presented as a full spine but with separate displays for the different types of shapes of vertebrae. For those who are not aware, the vertebrae of the spine are known as different regions (Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, Sacral and Coccygeal)  and are shaped differently to allow for articulation of the surrounding and internal structures. The spine is a fascinating structure. I have worked with some plastic models of the spine but, as with the full skeleton model present at the exhibition, the bones appeared much more rough and sharp, a lot more delicate than our plastic friend who hangs out in the corner of the biology lab in school. When beginning my studies, I was most interested in the spine, aspiring to become an expert in relief and treatment of back injury and pain, although in recent times, my interest has diminished and I have found myself becoming more interested in the structure I viewed next.

I’m not sure how long I spent looking at the section of the leg and foot, probably at least twenty minutes. Whilst the spine is fascinating, the foot is a much more complex structure, made up mainly of 3 different joints (Talocrural , Subtalar , Inferior Tibiofibular) . In college I found it incredibly hard to learn the names of all the different joints of the foot, the different ligaments, tendons and bones. I tested myself by trying to name the muscles of the leg and foot without looking at the labels – I did quite well! I loved how the skin of the foot had been pulled back to reveal all of the tendons, muscles and bones of the foot; most importantly they showed the structure of the sole of the foot.  Being a gymnast and having had many problems with my feet, I was simply amazed to be able to see the underlying structures and to see where it is exactly that I have problems with my feet and what my tendons actually look like. Drawings in text books can only show you so much but to be able to see the structures and how the muscle fibres lie was superb. Beside this there was also a section of the arm, presented in the same way.

In this section, there were three full bodies. These were in different positions to show the way the body moves and how muscles look when we take particular poses. There was an orchestra conductor, a running athlete and a person hunched over sitting. The Conductor pose showed some of the internal organs underneath the muscles and rib cage. Whilst seeing the persons eyes was a bit odd at first (expecting them to jump and go “boo”at any minute), it was great to see the brachial plexus , something I had found difficult to grasp during college. I then discovered that I could walk right around the model and see where a section of the erector spinae muscles and other back muscles , I could view the body from all angles, which was brilliant.

The model in the running pose was something else entirely. At this point the information plaques told the audience about muscles having a point of origin and a point of insertion. For example, your thigh muscles originate in up towards the hip and travel down to attach to the knee. It was fascinating to see how the muscles are as you run. It definitely made it easier for me to see how running can cause injuries due to the position of the muscles during movement.

The third was the person sitting hunched over, as if sitting at a desk but with arms on their knees. This was great, I wish I could show every client of mine who complains of back, neck and shoulder pain from sitting at their desk this specimen. It so clearly shows the range of flexion that the spine is put into in a hunched position and also the forward head posture. As the adipose tissue and skin was pulled back, you could see how the muscles of the shoulders and upper back are elongated to accommodate for the flexion in the spine.  This would be a valuable learning tool for those who suffer with postural problems.

Part two will follow shortly