Archive for September, 2009

Saw an interesting article in the Sunday Times yesterday about a different type of running shoe/sock that mimics the sensation of running barefoot - supporting thinking that running shoes are no better for the body than running in bare foot and that actually, there is no evidence that running shoes prevents injury. (Article also available at the Timesonline http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article6823220.ece  and Mail online today http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1211526/The-toed-sock-taking-running-world-storm.html. There are references in the article that the sock could be beneficial to injury treatment and in particular, their use in the rehabilitation process by an practising Osteopath. It is also generating a lot of chatter on Twitter too! There is huge, simple logic in the shoe and why it will work: our feet are designed to respond to the uneven surfaces we walked on as we evolved, with many people throughout the developing world not having super smooth surfaces to walk on that we do. Runners from these countries have shown how well they can run in barefeet. A shoe that acts like a second skin and allows the foot to feel and respond to the ground beneath it in a much more natural way cannot do us any harm. It allows the joints in the foot to move and encourages all the intrinsic muscles to respond which will maintain the integrity and shape of the arches of the foot. If you’re looking for something new and different it must be worth considering, I certainly will.

Excellent piece in the magazine as a whole especially the comment about ‘old injuries’. This ties in with an earlier post on our differences; how over the years all the things we do take a toll on our bodies and many of the niggles we ignored - and still do - leave a legacy. Everyone is different: your physiology has responded to what you have asked of it over the years; your body has an awesome capacity for adaptation and many of those times when the injury sorted itself was just your body learning to live with it. The likely outcome was that another part has had to take on a greater load or change its natural way of moving. Eventually though, it will stop finding those changes more difficult to achieve and something will give. Try and respond to them at the time; good manual therapy to correct the original injury will pay huge dividends in the long term along with regular maintenance to reduce risk of injury in the first place.

One of my clients who comes to me for monthly maintenance, stretching and injury prevention sports massage is now the Herts County 10-mile Vets Champion having won her age group at the Garden City 10 which took place on 6 Sept, a 10-mile road race around Welwyn Garden City. More details about the race can be found on the Garden City Runners website  http://www.gardencityrunners.org.uk/gc10.html.  Well done to Katherine!