We Evolved to Run But We're Doing It Wrong
The Fine Article doesn&#x27;t really go into <i>how</i> we&#x27;re doing it wrong, beyond a passing mention of barefoot running, and some dissing of treadmills (which is hyperbolic and orthogonal to reality; you can run &quot;correctly&quot; or &quot;badly&quot; on a treadmill or on the street or trail).<p>I used to run a bit. Did an informal &quot;couch to 5k&quot; over a couple of months, before I&#x27;d even discovered that was a thing. The single most effective thing I did for my running was to buy a pair of Vibram Five-Fingers shoes.<p>TL;DR, the gist of the &quot;wrong&quot; is that we&#x27;ve been trained by &quot;trainers&quot; (over-padded athletic shoes) to run in a straight-legged, heel-lands-first manner. When you do that, your knee is locked (or at least straight) as the foot lands, which transmits the force of the landing up your leg and into your lower back.<p>When you run barefoot, or in a pair of ultra-light &quot;shoes&quot; like Vibrams, you learn very quickly not to do that, or you stop running. The &quot;right&quot; way is to land on the ball of the foot, with the knee slightly bent. The knee bends further to dissipate the force of the landing. This is how evolution &quot;meant&quot; for us to do it.<p>I have a bum knee now, for unrelated reasons, so I can&#x27;t run for the time being (or possibly ever again). I was, in fact, specifically warned against it by one of my array of bodyworkers just this past week. I kinda miss it sometimes, because it actually can be quite meditative, once you get into your rhythm.<p>EDIT: phrasing.<p>EDIT 2: The &quot;wrong&quot; under discussion in The Fine Article might have more to do with <i>why</i> we run than <i>how</i>. Though, if so, premising the argument in &quot;evolution&quot; is perhaps specious. Thanks, follow-ups, for pointing that out more clearly.