Use what is natural: Running

Early humans ran their prey to death using a technique called persistence hunting. Click the link to read all about it. Nowadays I feel that the consensus is that most people are scared or intimidated by running a mile or two. It seems like a lot, but given your natural chemistry, you are born and built to run.

Don't believe me? Well, I was a non-believer before too.

When I was in first grade, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when i grow up. At that time I loved to run. I was a kid and running was already coursing through my veins. I ran for no reason. I wasn't trying to reach a goal. There was no goal. it was just to run for the sake of running. You could say I ran for fun. So i told my teacher that I would be a marathon running.

I got older and forgot how to run for fun. I forgot something so natural. I didn't run much until I got to middle school and there, they required running. It sucked. It was horrible and I dreaded the mile. I remember suffering through a ten minute endurance mile. It was hard.

Running was hard work and wasn't fun.

After middle school I never ran. Why would I? I was happy sitting on my lazy ass.

I got to college and discovered two things. The POSE running system and vibram five fingers.

The only athletic shoe I had at the time were my kung fu shoes.  Most running shoes have some sort of pad or cushion on the heel region.  These shoes did not have a heel to land on and this more or less forced me into POSE method.  Running on the balls of my feet felt strange at first, but I adapted.  And for the first time ever in my life I ran 3 miles.  How the hell does that even work out? Is it about the right shoes?  I tried running in Nike running shoes and got bad blisters and always got tired out. 

So....Maybe...

The nike shoes had squishy soles while the kung fu shoes had solid soles. The squishy soles didn't return me any energy, the solid ones did. But it's not even about the shoes.  What is important is that my natural running mechanics aren't obstructed  . Just think about how a kangaroo moves around. I bounces around on its toes and uses its calves as a spring to preserve energy. Humans have that ability too, but to a lesser degree.

When I run on my toes I need to run on something that will return my energy not steal it. Ideally, that would be to run bare foot. But these days it isn't practical to run bare foot. There's glass and rock and weird parasites.

Then i discovered vibram five fingers and it enabled me to run as nature intended. It let me use my natural mechanics while offering protection from the outside world. Brilliant.

Running was fun again. It was effortless and it felt like I was flying. My legs would run and run all by themselves. When they decide to run all by themselves, its easier to keep running then to stop running. Now I know the reason I hated running in middle school. They taught us to run from heel to toe. This method is horrible for two reasons: One, your knee absorbs all the shock and two, you don't get any energy back in return. The POSE running system is the natural way to run and it doesn't have either of the above listed problems.