Thread: Born to Run
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Old 09-27-2009, 15:52   #12
olhamada
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Nashville
Posts: 310
I think the purpose of this book is not just to demonstrate the prowess of the Tarahumara Indians, but to address the issue of "natural running", running injuries, and running as a way of life. It is a very inspiring book, and encourages running barefoot to reduce injuries and to take advantage of God-engineered anatomical features that we negate with our own compensated engineering in the form of expensive running shoes.

One option for running barefoot are Vibram's relatively new "Five Fingers". They look strange, but they work. http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

A friend of mine wrote a review about this book. I've taken the liberty of posting part of it below. You can find his full review at http://www.michaelhyatt.com/

"McDougall begins his book with the question that almost all recreational runners inevitably ask, “Why does my foot hurt?” I have personally suffered through bouts of plantar fasciitis and a pulled Achilles tendon. What I didn’t realize until I read this book is that 70% of all recreational runners will experience at least one running injury every year.

In McDougall’s case, his doctors told him he should stop running. According to them, he wasn’t really built for the sport and should consider doing something else to stay in shape. He didn’t really like that answer, so he embarked on a quest to see if he couldn’t solve his problem.

Over the next several months, he interviewed endurance runners, sports physiologists, and even anthropologists. He also discovered the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico’s Copper Canyon. These indigenous people are renown for their ability to run long distances—often 50–200 miles at a time! It is not unusual for them to run into old age, some even running into their nineties. Yet, they rarely experience running injuries and seem to love traversing extreme terrain.

In stark contrast, he took an objective look at modern runners and, in particular, the modern running industry. What he discovers is startling. For example:

- 25% of all the bones in your body are in your foot. It is an engineering marvel, unrivaled in the animal world.
- Running injuries were essentially unknown until the invention of the modern running shoe in 1972.
- Not only is there a direct correlation between running shoes and running injuries, the more expensive the shoe, the more likely you will be injured."
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