the beach sand is an awesome place + scenery for running.
doesnt look very lean to me. not fat but a bit barrel chested.That's because Chris keeps it real. He's not trying to be some fitness guru, he's just telling his story. Drop his body mass? The dude is pretty lean already, and TALL.
because he is forced to run slower, meaning less impact. if he dropped some body mass perhaps he would have the same net result of a lower impact with each stepAlso, if you are referring to body mass as a reason for injuries, why is he no longer sustaining those injuries without shoes?
He's not an endurance runner winning marathons. He takes the slow and steady method. If you read his book or some other info on him & barefoot running, it goes into this.
Not to bring up any religious debates but I believe in evolution. That being said after centuries of wearing cushioned shoes with often too much support our feet have strayed farther from that of our ancestors. These indiginous african / mexican tribes however still maintain the anatomy of our ancestors. They have worked on the land with limited footwear and relied on manpower for transport. Not to mention its not like there are any doctors in the area so who knows how many people are struggling with stress fractures or the likes. I don't think its a valid argument to compare the feet of mexican indians to our century "spoiled" feet.
how much were those? ive seen some people with them lately and they look pretty sweet, i imagine they would be really comfortable
You're crazy if you think in a few centuries, that our feet have changed and "evolved" to become accustomed to modern shoes. Sounds like you need to brush up on your Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology...
Sorry, I don't want to sound like a dick, but evolution in the smallest increments takes place over thousands of years, noticable changes takes closer to hundreds of thousands of years/millions of years. Environmental inputs effect living things in large ways and would be close to the only thing to account for any such changes.
Any differences between Mexican Indian's feet, for example, and spoiled American's feet could be explained by environmental factors that vary greatly between the two from Birth to present.
Natural selection / genetic drift are forms of evolution. It doesn't take hundres of centuries for this to happen. Unless your discussing major physiological changes (even that can be debated). Thats not what I was trying to illustrate though so I will spare you details.
These indians have been reproducing amongst themselves for centuries. While today im sure things may be slightly different in those tribes but natural selection has definately caused certain "qualities" to proliferate. Diversity like we see in metropolis areas doesn't exist amongst those people. Why do you think so many Kenyan's are great runners?? That is no anomaly or coincidence. Thats genetics and generations upon generations of runners. Changes in gene pools can take place in as little as 15-20 generations. These tribes have been around longer than that.
So its not really "changes" that I was referring to but rather certain "qualities" that have proliferated amongst many indigenous people.
Im in medical school so my bio is kept pretty sharp. . .