I thought this was worthy of a page since it has caused such a fundamental change in my running.

BFR = Barefoot Running/MR = Minimalist Running

Why did I start to look at BFR/MR? Like many runners, roughly 90% in fact, I have had running injuries. And I haven’t enjoyed my running in recent years due to chronic knee/back/leg problems, indeed I haven’t been able to train for a while without injuries. A friend at my running club recommended a book to me, and whilst there are certain issues with it and I don’t take everything it says as blind truth, Born to Run has become something of a bible for me. I spent some time hanging round barefoot running forums before I took up minimalist walking, to ease myself in to it, all the time reading further and further into the subject before I finally worked up to jogging and running.

It’s worth noting at this point that I reduced how much I wear shoes, apart from where its unavoidable (public transport for example). Within a week of walking around wearing shoes, my posture was significantly better; I’ve always been a bit of a sloucher but my walking frame is a lot better, and feels a lot more comfortable. I have no hard evidence for this other than how I feel and look when I walk (my improvement in posture has been noted by friends).

I’ve no evidence, and if I claimed otherwise I’d be lying and potentially causing you injury. I’ve turned to MR as a means to reducing injury, and so far my experiences have been positive; I run MR twice a week, BFR once a week, and still run in my old trainers – I just concentrate a lot more on my stride whilst shod in my trainers, and try to replicate my MR/BFR stride.

Hell I don’t even know if its for me long term – the furthest I’ve run MR is 3.4KM (to a landmark and back to my house) and BFR is just over a mile (a double loop of Jesus Green). My goal is to slowly build up to the point where I can comfortably run a 10K either via BFR or MR.

One thing that needs to be made clear is that there is not a huge amount of evidence to compare BFR/MR to shod running. It’s a popular movement that is gaining impetus, and there is a fair bit of evidence around to show benefits of it, it is still a movement in it’s infancy – much like modern running trainers were 40 years ago. One thing it is worth pointing out is that since the invention of the modern running trainer (1967), there is absolutely no evidence at all that injuries have decreased, despite all the fancy gimmicks in trainers.