Welcome to the GAIN Blog
The blog is updated Monday-Friday. Tune in for posts and discussion about health, fitness, nutrition, training experiments and reflection. We share articles, videos and more. We post the link to our Instagram story every day, make sure to follow along there to never miss a post.
Friday THoughts 54
Welcome to Friday Thoughts, where I share some of my favorite things I saw on the internet this week. Enjoy!
More than Halfway
October Habit Challenge is going strong, we’ve crested the halfway point. Hopefully your habit feeling manageable, and becoming easier and easier. If you have screwed up, and haven’t got all your days in the, the most important step is to start back up again. Far too often we quit things when we don;t stick it perfectly the first try. Use this month as an opportunity to get back to it and keep going!
You are what you repeatably do…
D1 Cheerleader’s Training
This guy moves well and is super strong. Great training. Enjoy the video narrated by two Irish weightlifting coaches, Daire and Eion.
Soviet Wrestlers Strength and Conditioning
I love seeing old school training footage. Lots of similarities between the this and the previous video.
Insane display of athleticism.
Running Skill:
Check out this solid breakdown of what makes a good butt kick drill for runners.
This workout makes my skin crawl. Crazy volume and a high output. David Roche set the Leadville 100 course record earlier this year and is gearing up for another 100 miler.
DL 5x5, lol
Until next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Training Ramblings
Over the summer I had a great ram up of running fitness, cumulating with pacing 45 miles at the Wasatch Front 100-miles Endurance Run in early September. I felt solid during the run, and at altitude, no less. Stoked on my summer fitness and after spending a weekend at a classic 100 mile race I have my eyes set on 2025, and maybe my first 100.
In an effort to use this fitness and fulfill some 100 mile race prerequisites, I’m running the Stone Cat 50-Miler on November 2nd. Here’s my reflection of what my training has been like since the Wasatch Front.
Sept 9-15:
Four days after Wasatch I was in California. I got tons of steps and a few lifting sessions in, but no running. I had hoped to get one or two in while out there.
Sept 16-22:
The following week my body was feeling two weeks of travel and I listened and took it easy, despite already wanting to be ramping up for Stone Cat. I got two runs in of 2-3 miles and plenty of time mobilizing, swinging kettlebells and doing pull ups. I also did Alex’s challenge of the month workout, and it left me sore for days! I hadn’t done a workout with such high intensity in a while and a paid the price.
Sept 23-29:
The next week the pull ups continued, this time mixed in with power cleans and power snatches. It felt good to move fast and athletically and move some weight. Hanging out with Kelly Starrett and getting a couple lifts in with my college roommate had me craving the gym and moving some weight around - despite my running motivation from a couple weeks earlier. I often find these two training desires at odds with one another, not because they can’t be done together, but because I can’t hold the level of fitness with each that I want at the same time. I settle for excelling in one while the other fades, and eventually it swings the other way.
Regardless, I got four solid runs in this week and managed it while Hannah was away on a work trip.
Sept 30-Oct 6:
More of the same this week. There was a lot going on and I crammed it in when I could, getting about 20 miles/3.5 hours of running and 4 good lifting sessions in.
Oct 7-13:
Feeling solid and motivated for running and get 5 runs in 7 days. Felt strong on all of them, and I’m starting to think despite feeling good after Wasatch, my body needed a while to get back to baseline.
Thanks for reading. Writing this out helps me organize my training and figure out what’s working, what isn’t and how to keep preparing for this upcoming race.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Hot Salt
You all know I’m a fan of getting electrolytes in my water, and have been cracking sea salt in my water bottle long before all these salty electrolyte packets came to market.
A trend I’ve noticed over the years is that I desire way less water in the cooler months. Makes sense, right? Less sweaty just walking around and producing less sweat during workouts since the temps aren’t as high.
One of my favorite ways to make sure I’m still getting hydrated is hot, salty water.
It’s warm, refreshing and helps keep me warm as the temperature drops. I’ll make on of these in the morning if I’ve drank too much coffee or sometimes as an afternoon treat.
Making it is simple, heat up some water and add an LMNT packet in your favorite mug. In the Miner household, our go-to is the citrus flavor - it’s better than you think! Raspberry and orange are also good flavors to try, not to mention the obviously ones they make, like the chocolate varieties.
Give it a try and stay hydrated this winter!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Training Session Breakdown
Here’s a general breakdown of a training session at GAIN by categorizing the movements by intent. Strength training is the main event, with some accessory work, direct core training and usually conditioning. Of course, this is a generalization. Each individual member has a training plan designed for them and their abilities.
These categories provide the framework to build out a training session and eventually a long-term program.
Warm Up.
The goal here is to prepare your body to train. There’s a balancing act to play with warming up. We want you to get your body temperature up, restore some positions, and work on timing, balance and coordination. The key here is to do just enough. If you’ve been around for a while you remember the days of us foam rolling to start the warm up. One of the reasons we got rid of that is because it requires laying on the floor, which is the opposite of getting your body moving and warmed up!
A. The main event.
The exercises at the start of the workout are typically when we’re focused on building strength. Movements stay consistent, i.e., goblet squats and deadlifts, but rep ranges, volume and intensity undulate to allow for maximum long term adaptation. Keeping your body healthy and ready for action outside of the gym, rather than just beating you up. Over the course of a month, several months or years, we want to see steady progress in loading on these “A” movements.
B. Accessory work.
These moves pay to do regardless of weight and intensity. While we track progress on the main strength piece, accessory work is more about consistently exposing your body good movement and getting some reps in.
It’s helpful to think of loading here in 3 levels.
Bodyweight. Not feeling intense exercise? Push ups, ring rows, lunges and split squats are all beneficial even without the extra load. This keeps your training going even when the circumstances aren’t perfect.
Standard load. Your usual weight for split squats, one arm rows and db floor presses. This is a comfortable load you can do any day of the week for 8-12 reps.
Push it. When the movement is crisp or if you’re feeling confident, go heavier-than-normal. Touch this weight every 4-8 weeks.
C. Core.
Less is more. The more you can slow down and concentrate on trunk specific work, the better pay off. Your stability will thank you, and you won’t continue reinforcing bad bracing mechanics.
D. Conditioning.
Get sweaty. Create distance or calorie targets for the time duration. Occasional tests, i.e., 5 minutes for max distance or 20 minutes for average watts, measure progress and build pacing context for future training sessions.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
You Can Never Start Too Light
When building up in weight for a strength movement, like a squat, bench press or deadlift, you can never start too light.
Even if the weight is no where near your working sets, a couple extra rounds spent a lighter weights affords you time to practice, groove your technique and get a feel for how the day is going to play out.
I always start with a set or two with just the bar, and use that as a gauge for what’s to come. Bar feels light and snappy? It’s going to be a good session. Feels slow and sluggish? Might need a little extra time warming up these creaky knees.
Experienced gym-goers understand that the more sets you do, the more warmed up you get. It’s counterintuitive, but your last sets should be the best, despite the fact that you’ve build up some fatigue in your muscles. You’ve also gotten more blood flow, awaken your nervous system and increased your range of motion by lifting. An extra minute rest can make a huge difference too.
In summary, give your body the opportunity to warm up better and sneak in a couple extra practice rounds.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 53
Greetings! Happy Friday. Day 11 of the Daily Habit Challenge, keep going this weekend!
Fall Running:
Fall weather is upon us, and with that, fall running. I love wearing long sleeve shirts and shorts, the colorful, leaf colored trails and how it seems so much easier to breathe this time of year. My only complaint is that since I’m not in a constant state of sweatiness, my heart rate monitor has been giving me a hard time connecting.
EMOM:
I’ve long been a champion of the EMOM, and after hanging with Kelly a few weeks ago, my program is filled with EMOMs right now. What I love about this is that every single workout doesn’t need to be precious or special, and that the real key here is to move more and get a dosage of training.
Ten minutes of kettlebell swings may seem lame, but it’s a something not a lot of people have in their abilities -get a quick 10-15 minute movement session in. My favorite EMOM moves lately have been power clean, kettlebell swings, pull ups, chin ups and a kb circuit of 1 clean, 1 press, 1 snatch. Kelly calls these short and simple sessions the “Never Do Nothing Plan.”
Plates in:
Finally! Someone gets me.
Seriously though, on metal plates like that the numbers are supposed to face in so your fingers grip the plate better.
Running Training Misconception:
Many runners have the idea that they need higher reps in the gym to build their muscular endurance. However, they get a ton of endurance from doing their actual sport. More and more reps in the gym isn’t productive, and instead, adds more stress and volume to the system. Here, Michelle explains why training in the 3-8 rep range is most beneficial to endurance athletes.
3:56 mile
What stood out the most here was that he started warming up 50 minutes before the run, and his warm up included 3 miles of easy running for a 1-mile race!
Sip some air:
I loved this cue and thought of it often when training for my weightlifting meet earlier this year.
Have a good one!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Day 10 Check in
Today is day 10 of the October Habit Challenge!
Hopefully you’ve experienced it all so far. Easy days, challenging days, days where you almost forgot and maybe you even missed a day or two. Whatever the case may be, I hope you’re planning to stay strong for the rest of the month.
Remember, our goal isn’t perfection, and nailing the habit all 31/31 days. Our goal is to build consistency and develop awareness, and through that, we’ll build a new habit too.
If you don’t have a way to track your habit, like a habit tracker app, the Reminders app, or old fashioned notebook, get that done today! This will enhance your chances of sticking with it. Another thing to consider, what time of day are you completing your habit? Are you consistent or all over the place? The more routine it starts to feel now, the better your chances are for sticking with it after the month.
Hope this gives you some things to ponder today. Stay strong!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Self Evaluation
There’s a new self evaluation feature on my watch, and I was hesitant to turn it on. Initially, I thought it was another thing to worry about and a bit over the top.
I gave it a go anyway, and after my first run with it on, I liked how it made me take 5 seconds to stop and think.
When completing an activity the watch prompts me to rate how it felt, based on 5 different faces, from sad, to neutral, and to happy, and then rank the effort on a scale of 1-10.
It’s so simple! It’s keeps me engaged, makes me reflect and doesn’t take long.
You can do this with your in gym workouts, too. Workout journal, comment in TrueCoach, or in your notes app.
I tend to think simple is best when working out, and while this is another step in a busy day, it’s short, easy and forces me to take pause and reflect.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Don’t Get Caught on Your Heels
When I'm coaching someone through any movement, the first thing I draw my eyes to is what their feet are doing.
Are they balanced between the ball of foot and heel? We call that the mid-foot.
Are they shifting their weight back and letting the toes lift up in the air?
Are they too forward, so I can see a little daylight underneath the heel?
It's a small but significant change to find better balance.
It's universally applicable to all things athletic.
The shortstop doesn't shift their weight back as they get ready to field a ball. A basketball player is on their mid foot before jumping up to grab a rebound. Even when I'm trying a kick flip my skateboard, I'm balanced on the mid foot.
The gym is where we practice movement, and if done correctly, the movements and skills we practice will transfer seamlessly to other parts of our life.
Don't get caught on your heels.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
First Weekend check In
How did you do on your habit challenge this weekend?
The first weekend is a big test, as the more structured work week is behind you.
Stop and reflect today.
How did you do? Was it easy? Hard? Did you screw up? Why? What can you do to prevent that next weekend?
If you skated through no problem, congrats.
If you screwed up, get back to it today. If your habit seems too hard to get done, it may be time to adjust it to make it more aligned with the challenge.
Happy Monday, keep getting those habits in!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 52
Welcome to Friday Thoughts, enjoy!
Weekend Test:
Today is day 4 of the Habit Challenge and your first big test awaits, the weekend. If you got into a good rhythm Tuesday through Friday this week, keep it going this weekend despite your schedule being different.
Monica:
How about Courtney Cox busting out this chin up at 60?
Mobility:
Creatine:
You know I’m aboard the Creatine Train but, Jordan, as he typically does, makes some fair and thoughtful points here. You get a marginal benefit from creatine - when you’re consistent. If you’re not consistent training, eating or sleeping, there are probably bigger fish to fry than worrying about supplements,
Breath Work:
NC State football team has a breath work coach, players are feeling physical and mental benefits from learning different breathing techniques. In San Rafael a couple weeks ago Kelly Starrett mentioned that this is common place. He teaches breath work to every sports team and military group he sees. Some of you have been getting a taste of this with the Big Breath Drill.
Protein Diet Coke:
I’m here for this and will report back.
Just an easy run:
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Paradox of Small IMprovements
If you haven’t read Atomic Habits by James Clear, you’re really missing out.
I saw this quote on my feed yesterday, it’s timely with our October Habit Challenge underway.
Small changes = big improvements
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Underway
The Daily Habit Challenge is underway!
Here are a few things for you to keep in mind.
Day two, the habit should feel easy. The newness will provide motivation on these first days. This motivation will dwindle in the coming days!
If your habit is already too hard to get done, it’s too ambitious for a daily effort. The key here is to realize how small efforts add up over time.
Starting on the beginning of the month means nothing. If you didn’t start yesterday, no one cares. Get going today and don’t get hung up about it.
Have a system to track your habit. Old fashioned calendar with a big X through each day, a habit tracking app or a recurring reminder through your iPhone’s built in Reminders app are all options. The satisfaction of checking it off keeps you engaged in the process.
I asked Coach T to list the top 3 reasons people won’t stick with their habit, here they are.
You get “bored” halfway through so you stop.
You’re unwilling to start up again after stopping or missing a day or two.
You don’t have clear enough guidelines, or made too big of a habit, so you never really start.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
September by the Numbers
Each month I reflect back and look at some of the data I collect around my health and wellness. This practice helps me make adjustments, spot trends and hopefully inspires some of you to do the same. September will be an interesting one to look back on. I Travelled to Utah and California, and don’t often get on airplanes and change time zones. My focus on sleep and steps for the past year let me get some good quality rest regardless, we’ll see what the numbers say though.
Steps: 335,380 total for a daily average of 11,179.
Not too much of a surprise here. I got over 50,000 steps in during the Wasatch Front, where I ran 45 miles. After that though, I shut it down for a couple of weeks to let my body recover. When I was in Long Beach, I got 20k steps in each day, which was impressive considering I traveled both of those days. It also gave me pause to think about how my college roommate and I were walking around crushing steps instead of beers like we would have been 15 years ago. My lowest step day was 4 days after Wasatch, 3,333 steps. All in all, despite it being over 100,000 steps less than in August, it’s nothing too surprising. October’s step numbers will climb and I prepare for my next race.
Sleep: Average Duration - 7 hours 54 minutes
What! I can’t believe it. So close to an 8 hour average I’ve been chasing for a year. Truly surprised, with all the travel it didn’t seem like this would be this high. In California, I got tons of sleep though, upwards of 9 hours each night. Utah, I skipped a night of shut eye all together while running, and I thought that would affect the average. I got more than 8 hours 13 nights out of the month. Once I was home more consistently on the later half of the month, the travel was catching up to me and I was sleeping in much later that I typically do, this also helped my average climb this month.
Workouts: 24
In a surprising turn of events, only 10 of these were running workouts. I spent a lot of time this past month in the gym and moving around. When I’m running a lot, the gym is an opportunity to tune up my body, and make sure everything is working like it should. When I finish a workout, I want to feel refreshed, and I want my body to feel prepared for the next effort. I did a lot of kettlebell workouts, pull ups, and power cleans. I even got a heavy deadlift session in.
Some other running stats for the month:
Total runs: 10
Miles: 80
Hours: 21
Gain: 14.717 ft
In other running news, I’ve cracked 500 miles on the year, not a lot by any means, but it’s my first time doing so since 2020, and I’m happy about it.
Thanks for reading, remember, if you’re wearing a fitness tracking watch, you have all of this information available as well. Be sure to pause a look at it to make some adjustments for the coming month.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
October Habit Challenge Starts Tomorrow
October Habit Challenge starts on October 1st, tomorrow. It’s easy to play, choose a simple habit you’ll add to your life, every day for the month of October. We want to explore how small efforts can add up over time. We have an obsession with hard challenges and tough goals, but often times, the small, simple habits that we can stick with for the duration are more impactful than big, shiny and impressive goals. Be specific and realistic when choosing your daily habit. Here are some examples for you to steal.
Walk 7000 steps per day
One 30 minute walk every day
10 minutes of mobility before bed
10 minutes of mobility first thing in the morning
Breath work 1-2x per day (box breathing is a good place to start)
Track your macros
Track your protein
Eat protein at every meal
Drink 2 liters of water
Read for 10 minutes
Read 10 pages of a book
Drink water before your coffee in the morning
Do 30 push ups
Do 50 bodyweight squats
Hang out in a squat for 5 minutes throughout the day
Follow along with a meditation app
Do 20 pull ups
3 minutes of handstand practice
Sit on the floor for 20 minutes every day
Run 1 mile
Go to bed at the same time every night
Do 50 kettlebell swings throughout the day
Roll your feet for 2 minutes each
Feet on the wall breathing - 5 minutes
3 rounds of the big breath drill once a day
Book openers, deep lunge stretch and downward dogs
5 minute daily yoga flow
Hopefully something on that list will click for you and provide inspiration, good luck everyone!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 51
Greetings! Here we are with another edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share random ideas and my favorite posts from the internet I saw over the week. Enjoy!
Habit Challenge:
Our October Habit Challenge kicks off Tuesday October 1. Cancel all your plan this weekend and instead, spend them brainstorming the perfect habit for the month. Remember, your habit needs to be measurable and repeatable, and not so ambitious that you’ll fizzle out after 10 days.
Hip Mobility:
These two mobilizations from Kelly are some of my favorites, and worth saving on Instagram for reference if you want to do a mobility/stretching habit for the month. At GAIN, we call the first one the hip reset, because that what it feels like when you’re done - someone just came over and hit the reset button on your hip.
Compare and Contrast:
For your next assignment, please compare and contrast the following two videos and report back to me with a 5 paragraph essay on Monday.
Perfect Push Ups:
The push up is probably the most recognizable, most classic evercise there is. It’s probably one of the most butchered movements too. The fact is, it’s hard to properly do push ups, and many people prioritize more reps versus better technique. I’m not sure what the whole story with this guy doing 1 million push ups, but I’ve got to say, I love this technique. Arms are tight to the body, eyes on the floor, meaning no funky neck movement, hips and lower back are locked in a solid position, chest hits the floor. These are great reps.
Speaking of Push Ups:
Whoa:
This is some serious intensity! I’m not sure the context for the clip, but my guess is a nordic skier working on power output, and 980 watts on a SkiErg is no joke!
Zone 2 wattage:
While we’re talking about endurance sports and watts, check out this clip of the Peter Attia Podcast with a professional cyclist and 2020 winner of the Tour de France. He mentions his easy pace watts at 320-340 watts, next time you’re on the Concept 2 bike, try to touch 300 watts and hold on for as long as you can and you’ll have a new appreciation for this post.
No Goals:
I loved this post, and this mindset, from author Ryan Holiday. We’re always trying to chase the next goal, but sometimes we just need to slow down and focus on our process.
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Habit Building: Do The Math
Let’s say your habit for the month of October is to do the deep lunge hip stretch for 2 minutes per leg each day.
Four minutes per day sounds unremarkable. Perhaps it’s so unremarkable you’ve already written it off as too easy for your habit challenge. But, let’s say you listen to my advice, and take on the challenge of 2 minutes per leg per day.
The first week, you do exactly the minimum amount.
7 days x 4 minutes each day = 28 minutes of stretching in one week!
But here’s where it gets interesting.
The next day, day 8, you feel great. And your body is actually feeling better after the stretching session, so you start to look forward to it. On day 8-10 you end up stretching for 4 minutes per leg. Doubling your original habit time. Days 11, 12 and 13 are back to normal, just 2 minutes per leg. But on day 14, you have some extra time and end up doing 5 minutes per leg!
7 days x (8+8+8+4+4+4+10) = 46 minutes of stretching!
On week 3 your body starts to crave it. You aim to do 5 minutes every single day. Expect that you miss two days this week, you had some travel and it just didn’t workout. But instead of quitting, you get back on the wagon because you’ve done the math, and realized, even though you missed a couple days, you’re crushing because you beat last week’s total stretching duration, without even trying!
5 days x (10+10+10+10+10+0+0) = 50 minutes of stretching!
Do the math on your habit. Build it out and see how it looks in two weeks, four weeks, or a couple months down the line. Expect mishaps, they happen. It’s important to get back to it the next day. Lowering the bar, and starting with a small habit, pays in the long run. It creates momentum and before you know it, your 4 minute stretching session is a 10 minute stretching session. Let’s get to work!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
October Habit Challenge
On October 1st, we’re kicking off another edition of our Daily Habit Challenge. The goal is to kickstart improvement in some part of your life through small, daily efforts that compound over the month. At the end of the month, you will have tested your resilience, built discipline and have a new habit that adds value to your life.
Your habit should be specific, measurable and repeatable. It’s important not to be vague. Habits like, “eat healthier,” “walk more,” and “stretch,” aren’t precise. Better options would be; eat veggies with every breakfast, walk 8000 steps every day, and do these two stretches for 5 minutes every night before bed.
Other good examples for you to pull inspiration from are, daily breath work or meditation, reps of a certain exercise like kettlebell swings, push ups or pull ups, foam rolling or soft tissue work with a mobility ball, hitting a daily protein goal or reading 10 pages from a book.
To get involved, you’ll need to sign up on the sheet near the coaches’ desk. Write your name, your habit and we will either approve it, or help you rework it to make it a better aligned with what we’re trying to accomplish.
The most ambitious doesn’t win any thing here. Instead, we want to teach the value of successful small habits over time. Make your goal seem easy, not daunting, and not only will you develop a new habit, but you’ll develop a method to add in positive habits into your life through small, daily doses. Get involved!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
My Foot Journey
originally posted 9/24/2020, this is the most read blog on the site, so I repost it each year, enjoy!
I recently listened to a wonderful podcast all about the evolution and subsequent devolution of our feet. In the episode, Dr. Peter Attia interviews Dr. Irene Davis, a researcher and expert in all things feet and running mechanics. I’m also on my third (or fourth) reading of Sapiens, which I can’t recommend enough. It’s a deep dive into the origin of humans. All of this of course, coincided with the birth of my son. This got me thinking about his development, and specifically, what kinds of footwear we’ll put him in as he’s growing up. Shoes have barely been around for most of human history when you stop and realize that we’ve been walking around on two feet for almost two million years.
The podcast recommends minimalist footwear, more time barefoot, and staying away from maximally cushioned running shoes. Today, however, I want to share with you my foot journey and how I curated my healthy, resilient feet and why I’m not always so fast to recommend a minimalist shoe for everyone.
It all started in 2010.
I was in college and I was spending the summer interning and training hard for the upcoming hockey season at a strength and conditioning gym.
One day, someone brought us in a copy of Born to Run. If you’re not familiar, McDougall’s book is a wonderful exploration of running mechanics and history of human beings using running to survive. Dr. Irene Davis makes an appearance in this book as well.
I was anti-running at the time. I was bad at it, it always hurt and I found it incredibly boring. I did however appreciate the ancestral perspective of the book. How humans needed to run in order to track down game to eat. Something Yuval Noah Harari talks about in Sapiens as well. Back then of course, there were no Nikes, no Hokas, no shoes at all. Just bare feet on earth. That made sense to me. I found it fascinating at how adaptable we were.
Throughout the book McDougall makes reference to a Vibram Five Finger shoe.
Training barefoot was not a new idea to us at the gym. For years we had been doing our deadlifts in socks and squatting exclusively in Converse Chuck Taylor’s. We didn’t do it for health reasons though. We did it for performance. We knew that if our heel was on the ground, instead of raised up by a sneaker, we would transfer force better, and therefore lift more weight.
Now, let me back up just a bit.
While we were spending time training in the gym barefoot, my feet certainly were not in good condition. I had spent most of the past 18 or so years jamming my feet into hockey skates. My little toe had disappeared under my foot, and my three other toes had wedged themselves together. Like most other hockey players, I had developed bone spurs on my heels, aptly named Bauer bumps after a brand of skates.
As I read McDougall’s case against modern footwear, I couldn’t help but feel singled out. His argument made sense to me. I needed to get myself a pair of these five finger shoes.
If you’re not familiar, the Vibram Five Finger shoes are exactly what they sound like. A glove for your feet, if you will. Comprised mostly of neoprene, each toe has its own individual sleeve, forcing them to spread out. On the bottom is only a thin slice of rubber there to protect you from hot surfaces, but if you stepped on a small jagged rock, you would really feel it.
After I found a pair, I did something unintentionally intelligent. I only wore them while coaching, probably just a few hours a day. My toes hurt and my arches were sore but I was committed to doing the natural human thing. I only wore them while coaching because they’re silly looking and smell bad.
After a while I started deadlifting in them and then before I knew it I was doing all my training in them.
Fast forward to that winter and I couldn’t stand putting them on they smelled so bad. It was just my luck that New Balance came out with the first shoe in their minimus line at the time. A new concept, this shoe was designed for strength and conditioning, had a wide toe box to let your toes spread, had no arch support, and had only a few millimeters difference between the heel and the toe of the shoe, something known as drop, which I had learned about in Born to Run.
Since these looked like normal shoes, I wore them much more often than the five fingers. To my luck, my feet were ready to spend more time in this style of shoe since I had spent the summer building my tolerance.
Over the years, my toes continued to spread out, my bone spurs have mostly disappeared and I try to exclusively wear minimalist shoes, which were barely a thing back when my journey started.
Nowadays, footwear is swinging the other way.
It’s common to see maximally cushioned, high arch, high heeled shoes, and I think we’re missing the boat. Born to Run is to blame for this too. See, after the book, thousands of other people were inspired like me and went out to get themselves some five finger shoes. Runners everywhere ditched their traditional shoes and went right back to training with a less protective, much less forgiving shoe and all of a sudden, minimalist shoes had a bad reputation because many of these people got injured.
As the shoe’s popularity was grew, Vibram did something stupid. They said their shoes will prevent injuries. They didn’t recommended starting slow, building your tolerance and not trying to do too much too soon. Remember when I said I did something unintentionally intelligent? That was starting slow, only wearing the shoes for 12-15 hours a week at first. I didn’t do any running in them and also worked on stretching, rolling and improving mobility in my feet and ankles.
This led to a somewhat-famous lawsuit, which in my opinion, is why maximalist shoes have now become so popular.
People wanted to throw these Five Finger shoes on and expected their running technique to transform into a fluid natural stride like the Tarahumara Indians in Born to Run. It’s not that simple though. Just like it took my feet years and years to start looking more like hockey skates than feet, it takes years of dedication to bring them back to a more natural state.
The reason I’m not too fast to recommend a minimalist style shoe nowadays is because I worry people will expect too much from them too soon. An ideal way to dip your toes in the water is to wear them just at the gym. They’re better to train in. Period. You’ll be more stable, have better balance and wearing them for 3-4 hours a week will slowly let you build up a tolerance to more barefoot time. If you’re a runner, it may take even longer since you’re not going to want to start over. I think running in a shoe you’re comfortable in while spending some time with shoes off when not running is a good start.
When you’re home, I recommend making sure you get some time with nothing on your feet and you’ve probably seen a lot of people walking around the gym in just their socks, another great way to strengthen your feet.
The key point is that your feet were designed to be barefoot. Humans walked around with nothing down there for far longer than Nikes have been around. We’re really good at adapting, which is why it might take you a full year or two until you start feeling more comfortable in a more barefoot style shoe. Expecting too much from your feet is what gets people into trouble and, as I mentioned above, led to the pendulum swing of ultra cushioned shoes that do the exact opposite of what we need.
Today, I still spend as much time in a minimalist shoe as possible. In the podcast, Dr. Irene Davis defines a minimalist shoe and something you can fold up and put in your pocket and has zero difference between the height of the heel and the height of the toe. I realize there’s utility in other shoes and don’t spend all my time in a zero drop shoes. My trail/mountain running shoes have a bit of a lift (4mm) and I even have a cushy pair for days on the trail when I’m feeling beat up. I also wear high heeled olympic lifting shoes when practicing my cleans and snatches.
In summary, your feet are important and jamming them into dress shoes, high heels and traditional sneakers will slowly deform your feet and transform them into something different. Remember, don’t drop your current footwear and go total minimalist yet. Start slow, a few hours a week is enough to build your strength and tolerance. If you play the long game with this I promise it’ll be worth it.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Big Breath DRill
Breathing is important. Getting people to focus on breathing is hard though, because it feels boring and uncomfortable because your brain is going one million miles per hour and taking a chance to chill out is hard. I’ve found that because of that, the most simple breathing drills are best. I’ll lay one out below that you should try this week.
The goal of taking some breaths are:
Improve breathing mechanics - by focusing on breathing for a few minutes, hopefully afterwards, you can breathe better and access better positions. Think of it as a mobility drill for your whole body.
Wind up or down, change your state. Depending on the sequence, a few minutes of breathing can make you feel chill or fired up. The one below is more about feeling awake.
Improve posture; when you get better breaths, you’re less willing to sacrifice them to poor positions. When you know what a good breath feels like, you’ll recognize a short, shallow breath too.
Thinking about your diaphragm, or expanding your ribs and into your lower back complicates things. And while I want your breathing mechanics to improve, I’m not sure me cueing ‘use your diaphragm’ is going to actually help accomplish that. The best way to get a better breath is to get some reps in trying to fill up as big as you can.
Initially, you might be all in your chest and shoulders, but as the reps (breaths) accumulate, you can get more air in and will get more expansion throughout the whole trunk. After a long breath hold, you’ll get even more air in, and with it, better mechanics.
Here’s the drill:
Lay down on your back, feet on the wall.
For 90-120 seconds, take big, deep, expanding breaths with a sharp, quick exhale.
Exhale all of your last breath and hold.
Repeat when you’re ready to take your next breath.
*repeat 2-3 rounds
The longer you try to hold that exhale, the better your next round will be. Give it a shot!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain