Sunday, September 24, 2006

Barefoot

I am really suprised by my body's reaction to training barefoot for the first time. I thought that the wrestling shoes I wore gave me little or no support but how wrong I was. The activation of the feet and the lower legs was dramatic! My rooting was instantly improved and my lower leg got way more of a workout; not to mention my quads!

This was a real suprise, that my quads would be more activated. My adductors too are more worked than normal, which does make sense but I was suprised it was my quads. I have a long way to go to get my feet even close to 'strong', but I will glady take 'better' any time.

I feel good from the last two days workout and stretched out this morning

10 min Rifga on hardwood floor( interesting feedback)
5 minute standing on left foot.
5 minutes overhead decompress hangs.

bw 160.4
bf 9.5% this is hanging around awhile. perhaps a shift?

6 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Rif,

I find that in the past when I Stretched in the morning it aggrivated my low back. Too much hydration in the disc in the morning and consequently too much pressure. After 10am by body seems to tolerate stretching alot better.

Have you found the same?

Anonymous said...

Like you, I've found that doing swings barefooted is whole 'nother experience, even when compared to wearing just a thin sock.

After seeing Steve Cotter talk about the importance of "rooting" on his dvds months ago, I'm just now barely beginning to comprehend his point. I've found that it's not enough to simply ditch the shoes and socks. Instead, one must focus intently on the soles of one's feet while doing a swing, paying full attention to what's happening at the floor/foot interface. For instance, notice how subtle shifts of weight from the forefoot to the heel make a gigantic difference in how well one can tame the arc. Now experiment with shifting from the inside of the sole to the outside. And so on. Set up a hyper-conscious feedback loop from the foot to the fingertips, and back.

As I said, I'm just a newcomer to all of this and while every "discovery" may be exciting and motivating to me, to many of you experienced kb'ers this is probably yesterday's news.

On a related topic, here's link to story about barefoot hikers in Minnesota. Now there's a "rooted" group of folks.

http://tinyurl.com/h32v2

Mark Reifkind said...

franz,
just the opposite. I stretch religiously every morning at 5:30 so I can move enough to work! I do avoid all lumbar flexion though. I have to stretch out the hammies, abs and calves to get started as well as the shoulders/thoracic area. hope you are feeling bettter. Please update on your rehab tools though.

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks john and yes I've found the same thing although having taken off the shoes it seems to be happening very quickly, the feedback that is.and yes subtle differences in weight disttibution make huge difference is the arc.

keep in touch

rif

Tom Furman said...

I train barefoot 100% of the time unless with a client outdoors, then I wear TEVA's. In fact I wear TEVA's everytime I go anywhere except when I am working at my theater. I have included some foot training in my DVD that I got from Indonesian and Burmese sources.

--Tom

Mark Reifkind said...

tom,

this is a recent revelation to me although I knew I would benefit from it I just didnt know how much. as well as not knowing just how pathetically weak I let my feet get.terrible.

good news is that when you start so low you are always making progress! The transition from squat shoes to wrestling shoes to barefoot was a good one.

135-175-165 Press, two hand swings 16-32 kg , laterals rear delts

 Everythings been perfect  but some time between 4 am an 11:30 my tricep started to tighten just a bit, for no damn good reason of course Bu...