Barefoot bliss

For the last three months I have been debating which barefoot shoes to buy. The last six month, I have spend converting my shoe wardrobe from positive heeled shoes to negative heeled shoes. Earth Kalso are amazingly comfortable and keep me in alignment when out and about. No more backache after a days shopping in town. Their main aim is to keep my weight in the heel of the foot, by increasing the sole at the front of the shoe to be slightly higher than the heel of the shoe, simulating walking in sand. With this set-up it is a lot easier to learn to use your heel to push back when walking instead of falling forwards as most of us tend to do. This blog by Jillian Nicol Why is walking falling? explains the mechanics of walking with comic(al) illustrations.

Now barefoot walking is the next step. Not only does it allow me to walking in my heels it also gives the foot back its ability to move on its own and mould onto the ground beneath. Not very exciting in town but amazing off road. Barefoot walking stops your ankles from tipping left and right to accommodate unevenness on the ground and causing damaging rotational forces in the knee and hips.

I have tried Vibrams five finger shoes but they somehow didn't quite feel right and it may just have been the price (really, do I need to pay almost £100 pounds for shoes to simulate barefoot walking if all I really need is a piece of rubber or leather strapped to my feet to protect me a little from dirt and injury?). I also like the look of Sockwas but am a bit worried that they may be a little hot on the bare foot (is that a problem anyone who has them?). I may still splash out on the Swiss protection socks made out of kevlar. I bought those for my Dad's birthday, as I don't mind spending the money on others. He so far enjoys wearing them but I need to see them in action first before I buy them for myself. The next time I will see my Dad is in May and as I am not very patient and can't wait that long for barefoot bliss, I did what I always do and made my own.

After scouring second hand shops I came up with a leather jacket (£6) for the soles and a skirt with lining (£2) for the upper section. I also got some leather sewing needles and plastic paint to turn the leather soles water-proof and dirt repellent. All in all these shoes have cost me less than a fiver as I intend to make at least 3 more pairs from the same materials :-). For the pattern: I drew around my feet for the sole with a little extra and the uppers are based on a baby shoe pattern, see here.

I love my shoes. They are light and cool and I can feel my feet again. Yesterday was my maiden trip to town (not very exciting as it is all pavement). I could feel my muscle working hard in the front of the foot and realised that when I roll the feet off the floor my heels turn inwards. My walking alignment I have achieved so far went almost completely out the window. Keeping my feet straight and facing ahead is a lot harder without negative heels. But hey, I like to learn and adapt. In the afternoon, I walked across a field and on the seafront/beach. Amazing. Absolutely love the feeling of feet on uneven ground. After a day spent in my new shoes I could feel my feet buzzing when I got to bed. A feeling I last felt after an hours session at the reflexologist - another £30 saved :-).

At a motorcross race with Tommy (it was very loud)

Now I am not sure how long these shoes will last me and I will have to apply at least another three layers of protective paint. The achievement of making them alone has been worth the effort. Once I have the basics of cobbling down a little more I shall investigate different materials and styles to maybe make them even more fashionable.

PS: A few days later. My new shoes have also survived a walk and rock climbing in Dartmoor.

There are a few scrapes in the paint but the leather and paint is surprisingly sturdy and water proof.

Gravity Gravitas

or the gravity of gravity

Now you may be worrying about the amount and kind of food you are eating. Will it be healthy enough to get you through life without illnesses? Or about the amount of exercise you are doing. Will it be enough to be able to function until the ripe old age of 90? High aims and probably worth worrying about a little as the quality of life is dependent on our functionality throughout. 

You may think this is enough to worry about but may I be so mean and throw in another stinker. If you are a new mum or about to be a mum you may want to keep this jewel of information for a time when your children are old enough to dress themselves, get their own food and wipe their own bottoms and you have the capacity again to worry about something else. 

The one and very important other thing you need to worry about is gravity. "Why is that?" you may ask as you can't really do anything about gravity. Well that is were you are wrong. Food is ingested only several times a day and the body has many mechanisms to prevent yourself from poisoning and harming yourself by accident. Exercise may be good for you or may not but either way there is a limited amount of time you spend running, walking, exercising (maybe 7 hours a week i.e. 7 out of 172 hours?), but gravity is acting on your body ALL THE TIME. While your exercising and eating and sleeping and sitting and pooing … It will pull you towards the centre of the earth if you like it or not. It will pull on you, your body parts and each individual cell, the food you are eating, the clothes you are wearing, the bag you are carrying. OK, so far but were is the problem?

Human have evolved to present themselves to gravity in a variety of manners, sitting, standing, walking, but mostly upright, eyes level with the horizon. To be able to live life upright we slowly evolved a complicated set of muscles, tendons, bones that is able to balance on two feet and is trained to stay/live in this position by constant practice, e.g. standing/walking developed over thousands and hundred of thousands of years. Now in the last 100 years, for many of us our life style has change dramatically decreasing the amount of standing and walking. Where are we headed for next in evolution? 

Hmm interesting but where do I come in? In the short term, the way we present ourselves to gravity influences the functionality of our body. If you carry your head forward from your shoulders, gravity will pull on it and as there is nothing underneath it to hold it up, muscles in the neck and upper back have to constantly pull it up and back (neck pain anyone?) If the head is balanced plumb over the shoulders the bones (vertebrae in the neck and back) carrying the weight and muscles are only used to support the spine not carry all the weight itself. This applies to every part and muscle of the body. Out of alignment, muscles and bones not designed to carry weight and work against gravity to keep us upright are called to work and fail over time as they weren't designed to do the job. 

But gravity doesn't stop there. Our body is programmed to make use of gravity, e.g. when we go to the bathroom, give birth or when we eat food. These processes carried out without the use of gravity put a huge amount of strain on the body. Giving birth on your back is a lot harder than all fours and so is menstruating when sitting with our pelvis tucked under or lying down for large amounts of time. The body has to push against gravity instead of with it. Food is designed to slide down the oesophagus, but with a head that is forward from the shoulders, the very few muscles in the neck/oesophagus will need to push the food back first before it can slide (cause for suffocation when eating).

Gravity acts all the time on all of your body. Knowing where you should be in space and how to best present yourself to gravity to avoid and reduce many illnesses caused due to wear and tear and mis-alignment (including CV disease, diabetes II and osteoporosis) is well worth some investigation. If you are already at a stage of pain, find out if a simple (but maybe note easy) readjustment to how you present yourself to gravity can help (sometimes almost instantly) before going for surgery or medication. 

Alignment is the new worry, but luckily gravity applies to everyone the same and the solution is the same for everyone - it is based on basic mechanical principles. It is a simple solution if not easy. Regular walking and living in alignment will provide you with a metabolic change, which will help with weight control and provide all the exercise you need to stay healthy. So no more worrying about exercise. See I am not really mean, all I have done is replaced your worry about exercise with worrying about alignment. 

If you are interested in learning more about alignment work contact me here or on Facebook about one to one classes. I teach 25 alignment marker that are the easiest to control and have the largest impact on overall health. They classes are based on alignment work by Biomechanist Katy Bowman. For a manual on how the body and body alignment works have a look at Katy's Wholebody Restorative Exercise course, her blog Katy says and her book "Every Woman's Guide to foot pain relief". Otherwise, see if you can find a very good physiotherapist or chiropractor who can tell you when you are neutrally aligned - and not just tell you how you should look when aligned but actually gives you concrete points of alignment (bony markers) to look out for based on biomechanics. 

ALIGNED WE WILL CONQUER GRAVITY - or at least live with it in peace until gravity takes us to our grave.