Journalist Christopher McDougall was a man mired by running injuries. Doctors essentially told him, That’s what you get. McDougall just wasn’t buying it, though — not after hearing about Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians, those flip-flop wearing, natural-born marathoners of modern lore. He dug in, learning all he could about the Tarahumara.
He was at for years. He finally came up with: “persistence hunting — a combination of tracking and endurance running over many miles at a time.” He believes persistence hunting is humanity’s first and best exercise.
The ironically named Terra Humera
We’re being fleeced. It’s a pure marketing and product thing. Modern running shoes let people run with their foot in front of their hips, picking up two feet of stride. You can’t do that with the naked foot—it hurts. One of the mysteries out there is that if any shoe in existence really helped prevent injuries, you’d see that in an ad. But you don’t. Over and over again, you’re told you must go to a specialty running store. They’ll say if you’re doing something wrong, you need to buy something to fix it.
After I wrote this book I had heel pain. I couldn’t shake it for a year and a half. I went to a barefoot running coach, and within 15 minutes the problem was solved. What had happened is that I’d started running with a neutral shoe and had regressed back to my old form—leaning back, landing on my mid-foot. That’s what was causing the pain. I’ve been literally afraid to put on running shoes since then.
You go with your crazy a**, McDougall.
Check him out tonight on The Daily Show.
