IrishOboe

As part of my self-designed physical therapy routine to get my body back into working condition, I’m doing some exercises from a book my mother recommended.  You can learn about Pete Egoscue’s method here, if you wish.  Apparently I dismissed him when Mom first recommended his books to me because it was “like easy yoga” and at that time I was still doing yoga faithfully.

I’ve since abandoned practicing yoga (not without a great sense of guilt and deteriorating health), so now the Egoscue exercises are challenging enough and are a great help.  The corrections the exercises have made to my posture have even improved my running, which is a lovely added benefit.  The other thing that’s helped my running was watching Chariots of Fire.  I watched it so long ago that all that my child’s mind got out of it was the music and slow motion.  I am certain I didn’t have a clue what was going on because even this time around I had a hard time understanding the dialogue.  Still, it is working its way up to being one of my favorite movies.  Of course you all know the famous theme music plays while the Olympic hopefuls run barefoot on the beach (and Lord Lindsay in particular wears a great big smile of pleasure on his face).  The film is spiritually uplifting, but the reason for mentioning it here is, take a guess?  Yes, the keyword: barefoot.  I don’t think the real athletes ran barefoot in cold Scottish beach water, but the scene captures the joy of flying freely in God’s beautiful creation.  As Eric Liddell said “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure” (loose translation from movie)

Yesterday was the first time in the US that someone commented on my barefoot running as she exclaimed “Where are your shoes?!”  “Off my feet and it feels great!” was my response.  It was at the end of a hard run and it was an honest burst of the pleasure I felt.  The point is that I love running barefoot, but it is always nice to be affirmed.  I found such affirmation in the unexpected form of Pete Egoscue’s The Egoscue Method of Health through Motion.  I quote:

"The less shoe the better.  As long as your foot is pointing straight ahead, it doesn’t matter what shoe you wear.  The shoe manufacturers are selling shoes for dysfunctional feet – feet that are pronating, supinating, bearing weight improperly.  The shoe design masks the symptoms of dysfunction – or attempts to – and those symptoms move into the ankle, the lower leg (shin splits, etc.), the knee, and the hip."

"The human foot was designed to function au naturale – naked, bare.  We don’t improve on the design by putting in inside a shoe.  On the contrary, by restricting movement shoes interfere with the design, and if the interference comes early enough in the developmental stage, a child can be deprived of functions before they have first manifested themselves."

"The arches of the foot distribute weight and participate in the balancing process.  The arches – there are three of them – are maintained by muscles in the sole of the foot and the lower leg.  As the arches change in tension, the muscles automatically contract and expand in adjustment.  If the foot is enclosed in a hard shell, which is what the shoes is, you have altered the way in which the skeletal arches are free to react to tension.  And because the body is a unit, the effects of this alteration are felt in the knees, the hips and the shoulders."

"Kids love to go barefooted and so do many adults.  They don’t realize it but they are listening to their bodies.  The foot wants freedom.  Encourage your children to go without their shoes when weather and other conditions permit.  It will help them develop balance and agility."