New Research on Running Barefoot

I just got Christopher McDougall’s “Born to Run” for Christmas, and I can’t wait to dive into it! I’ve heard amazing things about the book, and I’m a huge advocate of barefoot running. The latest study, published just last month, further propels the thinking that, “less is best” when it comes to your shoes. Ladies, did you know that your running shoe causes more stress on your lower load joints than a high-heeled shoe? Pretty fascinating study. Read more here.

Burst Training

I’ve been doing some research on burst training after some friends of mine turned me on to it.  I gotta admit, it’s a very interesting concept.  Here is burst training in a nutshell: When you workout, you are either burning fats or sugars.  When you are finished working out, your body burns the opposite of what was burned during your workout, and continues to do so for the next day or so.  So, if you are in your ‘fat-burning zone’ during your workout, then you will be burning sugars for the day or two following.  Sounds good, right?  What if I told you that sugars are stored in your muscles, and instead of burning fats for two days after your workout, you are instead burning the muscles that you’re trying to build?  Sounds not-so-good, right?  Here is where burst training comes in.  Research is showing that shorter intervals (bursts of any exercise for 20-60 seconds, repeated for 3-4 sets) get you in your sugar-burning zone.  If you’re in your sugar-burning zone during your workout, that means that you will be burning fat (while holding onto the muscle) for the day or two following your workout.  I’m guessing I now have your attention!  And, the TOTAL time of your workout will be about 10 minutes, including resting in between the sets.  That’s my kind of workout!

You can find burst training videos and sample workouts at healthyoates.com compliments of Nathan and Jenni Oates.  They have a remarkable story and are all-around great people.  Let me know what you think.  I’ll keep you posted as I embark on my new burst training journey.  Keep moving!

The Magic Mouth Guard?

This article caught my eye in the NY Times the other day.  The claim is that new technologically advanced mouth guards can actually increase your performance, make you stronger, jump higher, run faster, leap over buildings in a single bound, etc., etc.  Basically, as the subject of the article claims, the mouth guard makes you “Superman”.  The research indicates that as this mouth guard realigns the jaw into a more relaxed position, the athlete is then in a better position to get more oxygen into his or her lungs, and the body performs better.  While I don’t doubt the validity of this statement (actually, I agree with it 100%) or the statistics, I am a little leery about the artificial repositioning of the jaw/head to achieve the results.

Why not realign the whole body, rather than just spot-treating the symptom area?  Why not make sure the shoulders and hips are properly aligned so as not to compress the diaphragm?  And, let’s make sure the knees and ankles are doing their jobs from the ground-up to help provide a solid basis of support for the hips and shoulders.  Let’s take a real-life example from one of our clinics in Japan.  This is a before/after picture that absolutely blows my mind.  This is the difference in ONE VISIT.  She is a rice farmer and spends her days hunched over.  Look at the impact it has had on her body.  You think she doesn’t have some breathing issues, let along chronic pain?

Now, for an image that might resonate a bit better with you, think of the position of a cyclist.  Let your mind take you back to Lance Armstrong during the Tour de’France.  If you’ve clicked on the link to the full NY Times article above, you’ll notice the subject of the article is a cyclist.  Look at the position he’s in.  Wouldn’t it make sense that someone with a rounded upper back and a forward head like the person pictured above would have breathing issues?  The same is true for the subject of the article, it’s true for Lance Armstrong, and it’s true for the vast majority of us walking the streets today.  Our postures are compromised, and are bodies are becoming more and more inefficient.  In both examples–the Japanese client, and the cyclist–the thorax gets compressed, the lungs get compromised, the head comes into hard cervical extension in an attempt to look straight ahead, and the end result is extremely inefficient movement, but in this case specifically, inefficient breathing.

Now, I’m not saying that Lance Armstrong or the subject of the article aren’t amazing athletes.  You and I both know they are.  For my money, he’s arguably one of the greatest athletes ever.  What I am proposing is that I believe Lance can get even more from his body.  Bold statement?  Yes.  True statement?  Without a doubt.  For as good as he is, his body is moving inefficiently.  Check out these two pictures, and I’ll show you what I mean:

In the running photo, notice his everted (duck footed) left foot, and everted left knee.  If he’s running north/south (i.e. straight ahead), why are his knee and foot traveling east/west?  I’m also seeing an elevated right shoulder and his upper body is laterally flexed to his left.  Once again, he’s running north/south with an upper body that’s traveling east/west.  If the femur is externally rotated, the primary hip flexor muscle (iliopsoas), which attaches to the femur, the pelvis and the lumbar spine, isn’t working properly, and because the diaphragm attaches to the lumbar spine at essentially the same place as the psoas major, we can assume he isn’t breathing properly.  All we have to do is connect the dots…it’s just that simple.

Let’s take a look at the bike photo.  Left knee and foot are still pointed out to the side, although the degree of eversion is less here due to Lance being clipped into this pedals.  But, that begs the question: Where is the difference being made up?  His knee and foot want to evert, they just can’t.  Is he compensating in his hips?  Shoulder?  Mid-back?  Opposite side of his body?  Where is he compensating so that his body can get him from point A to point B?  I’d love to find out, because I guarantee it’s happening somewhere.  And, notice that if you look directly over his left shoulder, you can see the arch in his mid-back.  He’s extremely developed in his erector muscles (the muscles that run up and down his spine).  They are doing a HUGE amount of work for him; most likely more work than they are designed to do.  From the Egoscue perspective, this spells trouble.  It could result in hip pain, a herniated disc in his low back, even a torn rotator cuff, but regardless of the symptom location, it’s most likely on its way.

The bottom line is, don’t treat your symptoms, but instead cure the reason they are there. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself for it.  You’ll be pain free, limitation free and moving MUCH more efficiently.

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!

Here’s the article I wrote for this month’s newsletter.  If you aren’t subscribed to our newsletter but would like to be, click on the link to the left to ensure that you don’t miss another one.  Merry Christmas to all of our Egoscue family!

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You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out

It’s that time of year again.  Snow is starting to fall (or at least cold rain if you live in Nashville), houses are decorated, and “A Christmas Story” is all over the television.  Life is good!  This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and one that I can (and do) watch over and over.  As a child I was even given my own Red Ryder BB Gun.  What great memories.  And, I’m happy to report, I didn’t shoot my eye out.

This movie did recently get me thinking, however.  I think it’s interesting that everyone surrounding little Ralphie never instructed him what to do but instead focused on what not to do.  Instead of teaching him how to aim and fire correctly, all everyone could think about is what could go wrong with him and his BB gun.  The echos of, “You’ll shoot your eye out!  You’ll shoot your eye out!” continually haunted poor little Ralphie.  The adults were approaching Ralphie and his BB gun with a fear-based mindset.

I can’t help but think that in this day and age of uncertainty and fear, life is imitating art.  The economy is tanking, the sky is falling, and your body isn’t enough.  How often are you told what not to do rather than what to do?  Don’t run, don’t golf, and don’t garden.  Something bad will happen.  You’ll shoot your eye out!  And, if that happens, you’ll NEVER be healthy again!

It made me chuckle a little bit, because we at Egoscue are coming at it from a completely different point of view.  Rather than scaring the living daylights out of you that you might lose an eye, why not show you how to shoot properly?  Instead of taking away running, why not teach your body (muscles and bones) how to run properly?  Golf properly, garden properly, etc?  And, rather than tell you that you’re “weak” (how many of you have heard that?) LET’S REMIND YOUR BODY HOW STRONG IT, IN FACT, IS. That fallen arch of yours?  Rather than brace it with expensive orthodics, why not remind the muscles of the arch that they are designed to withstand 10-12 times the body weight, at impact, when walking and running.  For a 200 pound male, your arch is literally designed to withstand a TON of weight at impact when you go for a jog.  The arch is an engineering marvel!  And you want to artificially create that with a little bit of plastic?  I don’t think so.

So, this holiday season, rest assured that LIFE IS GOOD!  YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE IN FEAR. You aren’t broken… YOU’RE THE SOLUTION. You aren’t weak… YOU’RE STRONG.  And, if you take the proper steps, and do what you need to do, you won’t shoot your eye out!

9 Kid Foods to Avoid

Great post from our Palm Beach Gardens clinic.  They posted this list from a Time Magazine article.  Very informative, but I have to confess…my kid has had at least two of these.  I guess we’ll do better next time!

Read more…

Any other suggestions as to what IS good to feed your kids?  I’m all ears, so let me know!

How are you Sleeping?

Just curious how you’re sleeping.  Why would I be asking this?  Because I have a solution for you: move.  Get up, and get going.  Makes sense, right?  If you use more energy during the day, you’ll sleep better at night.  Chances are this isn’t anything new.  It’s certainly not a new concept to those of us in the Egoscue circle.  I talk to clients everyday who are struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep, and the majority are sedentary during their day.  Now we have new research proving what Egoscue and others have been saying for years.  If you are active during the day, you’ll rest better at night.  Here is a very interesting article from the NY Times that has accompanying research that breaks down just how much better you’ll sleep if you move during the day.  One of my clients, Joan Hampf (you can watch her testimony below) woke up every morning at 3:30 for two years.  The night after her first appointment, she slept until 5:30!  She moved in ways she hadn’t before, put her body in a better position, and her cardio-vascular system responded accordingly!  Her body was receiving more blood and oxygen and was in a more restful state for a longer period of time.  So for those of you dealing with sleep disorders or nights filled with tossing and turning, do your Egoscue menu before bed and let me know what changes.  If you don’t have an Egoscue menu, grab the book “Pain Free” by Pete Egoscue, read the first three chapters, and go to the chapter on Head Pain/Headaches.  The menu in that chapter will help reestablish proper head/shoulder position, putting your upper body in a more functional position.  This will allow the C-V system to operate more efficiently, and you will sleep better!  Email me and let me know the results.  Keep moving!

Egoscue in the News

What a great description of Egoscue–even if it is computer-generated!

The Nashville Oyster

Some of you might not know that I’m a huge fan of adventure racing.  Notice I didn’t say a huge adventure racer, just a huge fan.  I’ve actually competed in two races and plan to one day be an avid/consistent racer (3-5 races per year), but for right now I only dabble.  For those of you not familiar with adventure racing, think of being dropped in the woods with a compass (generally unfamiliar surroundings for a guy who made it through ONE boy scout meeting) and then asked to find a needle (checkpoint) in a ‘forrest haystack’ using said compass.  It ain’t easy, but it’s a blast!  My first race was a 24-hour, mind-numbing, feet-blistering, morale-crushing race.  I somehow managed to talk (trick?) my buddy Graham into racing with me.  We were asked to trek, navigate, bike, canoe and swim for 24 hours hours.  We spent 5 1/2 hours in a canoe (Graham, I won’t tell them what happened to you), and at one point I was literally seeing things moving in the woods while Graham was hearing thing in the woods.  Pretty freaky experience.  I can easily say that I won’t do another 24-hour race.

My latest race was just slightly different.  For the latest one, think more “Amazing Race” than “Survivor”.  The race was the part of the Oyster Racing Series, and they hold several races through the year in different cities.  Graham and I teamed up again, but this time we had our friend Bjon join us to form The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (you get to decided who is who!).  We covered about 30 miles total, but we didn’t canoe nor did we need a compass.  On this race we were given clues that led us around downtown Nashville to various sites and landmarks on foot and bike.  There were times that we used Bjon’s iPhone to look up a location, asked people for directions, and we were even allowed to use public transportation.  It was a completely different experience from the 24-hour race, and we’ll definitely be doing it again next year.  Here’s a great article recapping the Merrill team’s take on it.  The Merrill-sponsored team finished 6th in the men’s devision, while we finished 8th.  Not bad if you ask me!

Amazing Ultra-Marathon Story

You have got to read this article and watch the accompanying video about Cliff Young.  What a great lesson for us all!  Cliff is an Australian potato farmer who competed in a 544 mile ultra marathon.  But, not only did he complete, he WON.  And, not only did he win, but he ran in overalls and boots!  Maybe running without his dentures was his secret to success.  Great job, Cliff!

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Training for an ultra marathon running event can be daunting. But take heart, age need not be a limiting factor. It is well documented that older athletes perform better in endurance events. Whether this is to do with greater psychological strengths or a physical stamina built up over decades is debatable.

Some athletes stories transcend their sports and inspire nations. Cliff Young’s story did just that when in 1983 he, an unknown 61 year old Australian potato farmer turned up wearing overalls and work boots to run 543.7-miles in the countries hardest ultra marathon event from Sydney to Melbourne.

Cliff not only finished the event, his first ever competitive race but he won, knocking 2 days off the existing record and beating many professional athletes in the process.

His strategy was simple in that he didn’t stop to rest, he ran through the night while the other runners stopped for 4-6 hours to sleep. a classic case of tortoise and hare which brought him victory after 5 days on the road.

This ultra marathon running video describes Cliff’s training and race strategy and is a reminder to us all that age is no barrier to following our dreams. Well done Cliff.

For more information on Cliff Young and his ultra marathon running exploits please visit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young

Hip Pain Testimonial

Here is the testimonial from Joan Hampf.  Joan has been coming to Egoscue for a couple of months now and is almost 100% pain free!  She has taken control of her health!  Congratulations Joan–keep up the great work!