Being an athlete can take quite a toll on the body, even with a great diet. Over weeks of training I’ve found that even on the best diet, I’m bound to run into injuries and soreness. That being said there are several things that make a big difference in how I feel the next day and rather or not I’m able to train the next day.

Currently, I’m training for a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition in May. I’m new, and my workload isn’t nearly that of a seasoned professional athlete, but for the average person, it’s intense.

Every day I do a full body weight lifting workout, yoga, stretching and breath control, 100 bodyweight squats, three sets of push-ups and pull-ups, drilling and training with my dad for about 20 minutes, a mile run, and training at the gym for 3-4 hours a day.

Most injuries I get heal quickly. Since starting Brazilian jiujitsu I’ve suffered jammed toes, a bruised trachea, a pulled quad muscle, and most recently a pulled muscle in my rib area near my spine. Every other injury has been quick to heal, gone in three days at the most. My rib injury took longer to heal. Even after it got better, I spent weeks being sore in that area and having to pay special attention not to reinjure it.

I’ve got a competition soon so extended time off isn’t an option, nor is any sort of pain management that would slow my healing long term. I don’t take pain medication of any sort, nor do I use recreational pain relief like cannabis. Cannabis and over-the-counter pain relief, as well as prescription pain medication all slow down the healing process exponentially for temporary relief.

I view my pain (and many other things in life) like a credit card. Using medication to relieve pain temporarily means dealing with a longer lasting injury, and more pain in the long run. For instance, if I have an injury that hurts at a 6 out of 10, I can smoke some weed or take some other pain medication. But once it wears off that 6 becomes a 7, maybe an 8. And of course, the next dose of pain relief won’t be as effective unless you up the dosage. That’s not my idea of a desirable feedback loop.

To promote healing, we do hot-cold compresses switching back and forth to attract blood flow and inflammation for healing. In the end, we use lots of deep tissue oil on the area. Deep tissue repair oil is my number one recommendation for pain relief and healing if you’re only going to use one thing to aid in the healing process. I use it multiple times a day when I feel sore and before or after a workout. Deep tissue oil has menthol crystals, cayenne, wintergreen oil, and other things to promote healing and attract blood flow to the target area.

I also do hot epsom salt baths as often as needed. It’s nothing revolutionary, but epsom salt does help release tension, relax the muscles and prevent soreness.

Many people recommend Boswellia, an herbal extract, to help with inflammation and pain. Although I’ve never used it, you can read more about it and its benefits in this article.

I stretch and do yoga every day to work on flexibility and aid in healing as well. Even if I’m injured to the point of being unable to workout, I still stretch for movement and healing.

Many other athletes have done down similar paths of using natural remedies to help heal, but very few go deep enough to get the full benefits. Acupuncture and chiropractic care are two examples of holistic routes that some people go down, but as great as they are, they’re really only temporary pain relief. Acupuncture and chiropractic work can be great aids for the body in addition to a healthy diet and routine, but they don’t fix any problems on their own.

Diet

Without a healthy diet, I wouldn’t be able to do this every day, but I’ve learned that there’s a difference between fueling my body for everyday life, and my diet when I’m training. When I’m training, I eat a high caloric diet with lots of protein. My main sources of protein are eggs, meat, and cheese. I generally eat less than a pound of meat a week. I have a little bacon in every salad, and between one and three nights a week, we’ll have sausage or bacon in dinner. I also eat homemade beef jerky for protein in between classes.

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is probably the most important part of my healing process because it goes beyond just healing. My diet is even more strict than it was prior to fighting, although prior to fighting I ate better than almost anyone I knew. I have to eat a diet that not only aids in healing but prevents me from getting injured frequently. With the right diet, you can make your body impervious to injury. I don’t sit around and wait for an injury to start eating a diet that promotes healing.

Every day I eat a large salad with lots of different vegetables. Diversity is an extremely important part of a healthy diet that many people are missing. There are lots of professional athletes who have figured out that a healthy diet allows them to perform radically better, along with recovering faster and overall feeling better. That being said, not many people have figured out that there’s a big difference between eating some kale salad and eating a 10-cup salad with kale, collards, rainbow chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, and more. My salads have at least 10 different vegetables and herbs in them. This article goes into how I make my salads and cranberry lemonade.

Three to four times a week I drink my “anti-inflammatory smoothie“. I make it with an abundance of anti-inflammatory foods like ginger, pineapple, cranberries, tart cherries, and turmeric (to name a few). I drink lots of cranberry lemonade to flush out toxins and inflammation, as well as stay hydrated. Lastly, I obviously avoid inflammatory foods. I limit my grains and avoid corn (although occasionally we make homemade tortillas). I don’t even eat oatmeal anymore, because it’s too similar to gluten in the way it digests and causes inflammation.

Many fighters and bodybuilders eat lots of oatmeal as a good source of protein and fuel. For many people, it’s great. But, like most other grains, it’s inflammatory. I feel it when I eat them. I’ll bet if you’re paying attention, you can too. When I’m in need of protein and fuel I stick to things like eggs, homemade beef jerky, walnuts, chia seeds, and raw sheep’s cheese.

It seems like the list of foods I can’t eat is extremely long, but the list of foods I can and do eat is even longer. The guidelines are pretty simple, make everything from scratch, eat tons of raw veggies, eat tons of cooked veggies, and avoid any and all things processed.

Supplements

With a healthy diet the average person shouldn’t need to take supplements everyday when they’re healthy, but someone who’s pushing their body on an athletes level may find that they function better with supplements.

Currently, I take Sf722 every day, generally because I eat a lot of fruit. Sf722 also helps pump my body full of good stuff similar to salads. Without Sf722 my skin can be prone to breaking out from rolls on the mats, and my healing and recovery slows. I also take Abzorb, or other enzymes to help with digestion, especially if I eat pasteurized nuts. I take vitamin D, Vitamin B, and thyroid and/or pituitary glandular supplements to prevent endocrine system crashes.

When you’ve taken antibiotics or medication or done anything to eradicate your gut microbiome, your gut isn’t producing enough vitamin B. This can be one of the last things to correct itself after you’re healthy. Taking vitamin B helps heal your gut and helps the endocrine system by providing your body with vitamins that your gut should be producing.

When you’re overweight, even just a small amount your body has a hard time assimilating vitamin D from the sun. not to mention most of us don’t get enough sunlight anyways. Being overweight also leads to extra stress on the kidneys (and lower back) and the endocrine system.

Sleep

Diet and sleep are equally as important for overall health, and when it comes to how sore I am and my recovery time for an injury. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep when my injury is severe enough, but it’s always a top priority.

I always get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. Regardless of the quality of sleep, I’m in bed trying to sleep for at least 8 hours. Sometimes depending on the workout the day before, or how an injury is healing, I can get more than 10 hours of sleep.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Training

While training anything contact or combat related it’s extremely important than you learn how to protect yourself from injury while drilling and rolling. It took me way too long to learn how to fall properly in jiujitsu, and it’s still a work in progress. Falling down wrong was the number one cause of injury for me while training.

Related: Running Without Knee Pain

That being said, once I learned how to protect myself from injury I found that training was actually extremely important for healing my most recently injury. So, if you can move, move. Staying active and using your body is extremely important for working your muscles and building them back stronger after an injury.

Generally, I use the rule use it or lose it. Broken bones often don’t need casts (and strong healthy bones are harder to break). Staying active is usually your best bet for healing quickly.

Conclusion

Some days I wake up barely able to move! Training this hard has been really intense, but I know that with the way I do things, my recovery time is radically faster than anyone else I know doing the same thing as me.

In my experience the most important thing to do is to be in tune with your body to an extreme. The moment something isn’t right I can tell, and I can feel a difference in the way certain foods fuel my body. I track my sleep and my diet, and when things aren’t working the way they should I back track and examine where I might have gone wrong.

This takes time, and it takes mistakes. I’ve experimented with lots of different foods and routines and I’ve seen how certain things make me feel, and how they effect my performance. Working out and being active is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re not healthy enough to sustain it.

Running on a regular basis has numerous health benefits. Studies show that running for just 5-10 minutes a day can benefit the heart, help prevent neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, result in a lower chance of cancer, and of course, build excellent lung capacity, and function as a great leg and core workout. Additionally, a runner’s high is very real. The endorphins and other chemicals you release in the brain while running are not dissimilar to those released from getting high on cannabis. Not to mention, when a runner’s high wears off, you’re left with the benefits, as opposed to the crash some feel after smoking too much weed. Running can help with depression and other mental health issues as well.

All that being said, running can be a pain, literally. Running is difficult. It’s hard on your joints if you’re not healthy enough. It can leave you feeling beyond sore and tired, and if you’re wanting to run every day, you might be feeling like you don’t have enough time to recover in between runs. I’ve put together a list of some of the most common problems new runners face, and the best way to fix them, based on my experiences. 

I’ve found that pain from running is caused by four major things and can generally be fixed with one thing. Pain while running is often caused by poor form, poor shoes, poor diet, and obesity. If you were to fix your diet, all of your problems while running would get better and would eventually go away, but you might need a few other things to fix the problem completely in a timely fashion.

Hip Flexor Pain

Hip flexors are muscles that bring your legs up towards your torso while bending your torso towards the hip. In other words, they flex the hips (hence the name). You can feel the hip flexors through the sides of your thighs up to the hips.

When I moved away from a slow jog and started trying to run as fast as I could, my hip flexors became extremely sore. If you notice your hip flexors are sore, the best thing you can do is stretch them. In my experience, if I notice the soreness in the hip flexors one day and then stretch, they’re worse the next day.

Low lunges and the pigeon pose are my two favorite stretches that I do almost every day to combat sore hip flexors. They’re also great for opening up the hips in general. Check out this article for some other good stretches for the hip flexors. I’ve also found that any post-runners yoga routine is great for stretching the hips. This is my favorite yoga routine for after a run. 

Knee Pain

Knee pain and overall joint pain (more on that later) is often caused by inflammation and can be fixed by diet. But that can take a while. So, in the meantime, you can correct your running form a couple of different ways to alleviate knee pain. You should be running on your toes, not running on your heels. The impact of running on your heels often causes knee problems.

I also recommend running in Vibrams. Regular running shoes are not as good for your feet as they’re made out to be. You can read more about that in this article. Regular running shoes make it difficult to run on your toes, and they weaken your foot muscles. Vibrams are made to mimic the natural way we walk when we’re barefoot, and they build up your muscles in your feet. 

Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain comes from poor kidney function and/or excess weight. I still experience lower back pain while running if I’m not taking practically perfect care of myself. Diet is key, and it will fix most problems. But to target the lower back, I drink a gallon of cranberry lemonade a day to keep my kidneys working properly.

I still have about 40 pounds of extra weight to lose. This is the other factor in lower back pain! Having extra weight puts stress on the kidneys and can also result in lower back pain, so, as much as it sucks to hear, losing weight will help with your lower back pain.

In the meantime, when you’re on your feet, tighten your abs to relieve pressure on your lower back. I use this trick when I’m running, when I’m on my feet for prolonged periods of time, and whenever my lower back is bothering me. I also do ab exercises every day to strengthen my abs and relieve lower back pain. I find that yoga helps, too, but if I’m doing yoga solely to relieve lower back pain, then I’ve been slacking on the actual methods to prevent lower back pain. Ideally, I do these things on a regular basis to prevent lower back pain, not make lower back pain better (although it works for that too).

Foot Pain 

People are often wearing the wrong kind of shoes for running. Tennis shoes are not good for your feet. The extra cushy arch support flattens your arches and can contribute to all sorts of problems. You’re better off in the long run with Vibrams or other toe shoes.

I will warn you, toe shoes can take a bit of time to get used to when you first start running. As your feet muscles begin to get stronger, your feet will probably be sore while you adjust. If you’re running on gravel paths, look out for rocks! The soles of your toe shoes are thinner than regular tennis shoes.

You might find that if you’re running every day with Vibrams, they wear out faster than tennis shoes. Make sure you are wearing the proper size shoe when you’re running. If your shoes are too small, you won’t have room to compensate for swelling. If your shoes are too large and your feet have too much room to move around, that is also a problem. When you buy running shoes, you want them to be slightly too big to compensate for swelling. 

Overall Joint Pain 

Joint pain and excessive soreness from running are often caused by inflammation and the body’s inability to recover quickly. This can be fixed by diet. I wouldn’t be able to run every day the way I do, at my current weight, if I didn’t eat as well as I do! Check out this article to learn more about how to achieve homeostasis through diet. You are what you eat! Pay attention to what you put into your body so your body is able to perform at the level you want. Check out this article to learn more about joint pain, the causes, and how to fix it.

Side-aches 

You’d be hard-pressed to find a runner who hasn’t suffered from side stitches at one point in time. Remember to breathe deeply throughout your run (I know it’s hard, but it will get easier as your lung capacity gets better). Don’t run on a full stomach. I prefer to run first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  

Conclusion

Running on a regular basis and recovering enough to enjoy it every day, is certainly a challenge. That being said, it can be done, and running is one of the best forms of cardio. Running boosts my mood, gives me energy, and creates a routine in my daily life. I’ve found it to be my favorite way to start the day. In fact, it’s a guarantee that my day is going to be better if I start it with a run.

Developing daily running habits isn’t easy, but taking care of yourself so you have the physical ability to develop daily running habits, is a good place to start. 

A new study has shown that curved toed shoes may weaken the muscles in your toes and feet, leading to common foot problems like plantar fasciitis. Stress develops strength in your body’s muscles. Similar to the way stress develops strong muscles in the gym, studies show running barefoot develops strong muscles in the feet. When we remove these sources of stress, our bodies don’t adapt in the same way.

While curved toe running shoes may make it easier or more comfortable for us to move, a new study has shown that we pay for comfort in the long run by developing weaker foot muscles. These weaker foot muscles can, in turn, cause knee and foot problems.

Related: Running Without Knee Pain

Our toes were designed to bend backward while we lift our bodies forward and upwards. Curved toe shoes make this more difficult, and while they’re designed to remove some of the effort from moving our feet, this has shown to not be good long term.

 Our toes, which are shorter than our ape-like ancestors, help us use less energy when walking and running. There is less muscle work required to stabilise and control the movement of smaller toes.

Curved shoe tips make it easier to move – but research suggests they may also weaken foot muscles

Researchers gathered results from 13 healthy adults who always wear shoes. They had each participant walk in four different types of sandals with the curve of the shoe set at 10, 20, 30, and 40-degree angles. Researchers then measured the movement of participants toe joints and compared the measurements to when they walked barefoot. The numbers showed that the range of movement in the toes decreased as with the increase of the toe spring angle, and consequently, the total amount of work required at the joints also decreased.

Related: What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good

The plantar fascia is a long and broad elastic tissue that runs the length of the sole of your foot. It becomes injured from repetitive strain associated with constant deformation of the arch.

Curved shoe tips make it easier to move – but research suggests they may also weaken foot muscles

The job of foot muscles is to stabilize the toes while supporting the arch. Modern shoes can cause weaker foot muscles and higher rates of flat feet than those who regularly wear shoes that mimic being barefoot. Plantar fasciitis is the most common injury when running. Evidence has shown that running barefoot on the grass can help with plantar fasciitis.

At OLM, we’re big fans of the Vibram FiveFingers shoes. We always wear them for running, and for pretty much every activity besides running as well. Vibrams mimic the feeling of being barefoot. If you make the switch over to Vibrams, your feet and toes will likely be sore as you get used to them- but fear not! This is just a sign that the muscles in your feet are getting stronger. After a few weeks of regular wear, your feet should feel fine, in fact, you’ll probably never want to wear any other shoes ever again. Wearing Vibrams has fixed any knee and feet problems that we’ve experienced while running, but just a word of caution, be sure to look out for rocks when you’re running in your Vibrams.

Eat Salads

Medicine is entering the age of the microbe. We are just beginning to find out how incredibly important our tiny symbiotic friends are to the health of mammals. Your well-being is regulated in large part by the food you eat because your microbial chemical reactions define your health. There is no better way to foster a diverse and beneficial gut-ecosystem than to eat a salad every day consisting of many different vegetables and herbs. Think of your body as your family, and your gut microbes as your children. The health of those kids will completely dictate the health and success of the home. These aren’t just any salads though. We’re not talking a bag of bleached lettuce and some carrot shreds. These salads promote a diverse and beneficial ecosystem because the salads are made that way: here’s a recipe.

Must Read: How To Heal Your Gut

Drink Cranberry Lemonade

Water is wonderful, and chances are, you should be drinking more of it. Let’s take it one step further, though. Cranberries reduce inflammation and keep our kidneys running at peak performance. Lemon juice is said to help clean the liver, and lemons are known to help with digestion and PH balance. Try making cranberry lemonade with stevia, and drink a half gallon or more a day. This counts as your daily water intake too, so you don’t need to drink this and water. It’s super easy, all done to taste, and here’s a recipe. There is probably nothing else easier to do that can beneficially impact your health as much.

Eliminate Toxins

The toxins you breathe in are not inconsequential. Cleaning products may do as much damage as a pack-a-day habit. Perfumes, air fresheners, that new car smell, and fragrances in body care have been proven to be highly toxic to the body. Open your windows whenever possible, don’t trap yourself in areas that do not have fresh air circulating, and use non-toxic cleaners like this.

Squat

In many parts of the world, squatting is common while cooking, eating, birthing, and relieving oneself. We used to squat all the time. We are designed to squat. We would squat constantly in the wild. In nature, to navigate life and stay alive, we foraged all day. We would squat down, pick a leafy green, and eat it, likely while still in the squat position, staying low and looking around for trouble or more food. We would squat to track our prey, squat to defecate, and we would squat to relax because we didn’t have chairs. Our bodies have been squatting for a long time, and we are still evolved to squat. Squats even help detoxify the body and regulate our hormones! Click here for more on squats. If squats aren’t possible right now, try “get-ups.” What are “get-ups”? Anything you want them to be, just get up, get back down, and get up again! You may need to start in a chair, or maybe your starting position can be laying on the floor. Just get moving up and down and build up to squats.

Must Read: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Walk and Run

Us humans were meant to walk and jog and sprint on a daily basis. We should be walking, squatting, and running sporadically all day. Jogging can be particularly hard on a body with a heavy toxic load, but it has tremendous benefits too. If you suffer from knee pain, read this. If running or jogging isn’t something you can do yet, walk. If you can run, walk some anyways. Walking is a kind of meditation even when one is not trying to mediate. Take the stairs and park farther away. Walk and jog and sprint every chance you get.

Go Outside in Nature

Have you read the studies about this yet? Nature is really important to our health. We need it and we do not get enough of it! If you are near the woods, take a daily walk. Breathe in the nature around you. Do some grounding by walking barefoot or sit on a rock and meditate. Whatever you do, just get out there and get some negative ions.

Breathe

Speaking of breathing, this is not a small thing. One can radically improve their health and their mental well being immediately by eliminating shallow breathing and learning to naturally take deep, full breaths. If you lie down on the floor and breathe in, does your stomach rise or fall? If it’s sinking in as you take a breath than your breathing is all wrong! Here’s how to breathe properly.

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
• How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes
• Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones
• How to Cure Lyme Disease, and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

Relationships are hard work. Sometimes they suck. But sometimes (most of the time, hopefully), you wouldn’t want to be with anyone else. Everyone faces the same difficulties from time to time. Arguments can happen. They’re normal, but they shouldn’t be tolerated.

That’s why I want to talk to you about how marathon running can help your relationship. Whether it’s the strongest it’s ever been or you’re nearing a divorce, marathon running, as a couple, could be the best thing you could do for your relationship. Literally, the best thing.

Getting your spouse to run will be half the battle, and convincing them can seem as plausible as convincing them you’re a witch with eight toes and can fly on a broom. But it must be done.

Here’s a list of reasons why marathon running can help your relationship:

1. You’re in it together

Cheesy or not, it’s true. You’re not alone, and you’re not just  friends. You’re with someone you’ve dedicated your life to – someone who understands you. Someone who feels the same as you do about them.

You’re going to experience some rough patches, times when you want to rip your partner to shreds. It’s all part of the journey, the journey that you will be embarking on together. Together is the key word here. You’ll both smell worse than the breath of a dog after eating its own excrement, but at least you’ll smell like it together. That’s all that matters.

Put all that behind you, and it can be fun. You’ll each have your own goals. You’ll be more empathetic with one another. If nobody can be bothered to cook or clean, it won’t result in a fight. But it will result in  “put your feet up and watch TV for a while.” When times get tough, you’ll begin to appreciate one another more. Who needs conventional counseling when you can run a marathon?

2. Anger outlet

Being angry is never a good thing. It sucks, and it’s the root of all evil.

Imagine this. You’ve had a rough day. Your boss is annoyed that you didn’t finish your report on time. Your friends don’t have time for you right now. There’s absolutely nothing good on TV for you to watch. You just got a bill from your credit card company that seems like someone’s playing a nasty trick on you. As you can imagine, you’re having a bad day.

Now, DO NOT let your anger get the better of you. Go for a run with your partner.  Discuss your feelings. Use this as an opportunity to show a bit of that good ol’ emotion. You’ll feel resoundingly better afterwards, and you probably won’t even care what your boss has to say. You could even turn it into a game: just don’t get fired.

3. The marathon itself is worth it

The training is just the start. The 26.2 mile race is just a distant thought. But when you’ve done the training, you’ll know you’re ready for the marathon. The journey with your partner only gets better from now on.

Not only will you be running alongside your partner, but also the thousands of other runners in the race. Not to mention all the people watching – chanting your name as you run past them.

The excellent thing about this is that your partner feels the same. You’ll be running together and get to experience the same emotions. Nothing says, “true love” more than enduring torture together and getting through it. Just remember that it gets easier. Not only the running, but being a couple. Because being with one person can be hard sometimes.

And, just a warning: crying like a baby at the end is not uncommon.  I don’t care how much of a man (or woman) you are. Don’t hold back. Don’t be emotionless. If you cry, you cry. If you’re a “man,” you may feel your masculinity take a hit, but who cares? Don’t try and please other people. If they mock you, then stuff ’em.

4. Sharing travelling experiences

We know marathon running is a continuous, never-ending sport. If you’re lucky, you’ll be 90 before you consider taking a much needed break. You don’t just run one marathon and stop there. That’s not how it works. If you’re a serious runner, you’ll run as many different races as you can. This means you’ll have to travel. A lot. To other countries, states, and cities.

But it doesn’t stop there. You’ll be with your partner the whole time. Providing the plane or car doesn’t crash in the process, you’ll find yourself traveling the globe in search for the best marathons. And you’ll run them together. Sure, it can be expensive, but so can any other hobby. The experiences are ones you’ll never forget.

Just don’t spend your days away from home cooped up in your hotel room. Get out. Experience the culture. Do something you’ve never done before. Go skydiving. You only get one opportunity. Don’t waste it. Do something fun with your partner. It’ll be worth it.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Marathon running is, in time, going to be something that couples participate in to grow, heal, and strengthen their relationships. Think outside the box. Make your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start

Have your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start of something great, even if you feel your relationship is as healthy as it will ever be.

Further Reading:

• Running Without Knee Pain
• BikeRiding – Life without a Car

This method helps you to also give birth without lower back pain, heal the sciatic nerve, stop spending money on chiropractors, with Vibram Five Fingers information

I run. Humans are meant to run. We’ve come to find that we humans caught prey in large part because of our ability to outrun other animals due to our incredible endurance. We aren’t fast compared to many  animals, but we can run over 100 miles without stopping. And our bodies are very good at staying cool.

The problem with running today is that our crappy shoe design attempts to support our arches and causes us to  heel strike. Most knee, hip, and I suspect most lower back pain, is caused by shoe design that attempts to support our arches but actually weakens them.

Fallen Arches, Flat Feet, Back and Knee Pain

The arch issue is huge! People who grew up as barefoot children have arches that are naturally stronger than  people who always wore shoes right from the start. Those who played barefoot while their feet developed have the ability to easily rebuild their arch strength. Those who have worn shoes from the very beginning are bound to have serious alignment issues with their whole body. And high heels hurt arch strength as well.Shoes with arch support cause flat feet because the support actually weakens the arches.In addition, when the toes are not allowed independent movement for walking, the toe muscles weaken (the toe muscles are within your arch). When the shoes come off, the arches flatten. Then they don’t go all the way back up and in as they should be when the shoes go back on unless the arch support is very stiff, like orthopedic shoes. So the arches stay flattened, knees buckle in, and  hips shift one way or the other to compensate, depending on which knee is more buckled inward.

There was a guy in jail who used to be a football player. (For those of you who don’t know, yes, I was in jail.) He was working out, and I asked him why he wouldn’t do squats. He told me about his knee. He talked about his football days; he tore his ACL playing high school football. He was thinking he would go pro, but with the torn ACL, from that point on, he lead of life of crime. He told me his uncle was going to pay for half of his surgery and his wife would pay the other half and he could finally get a decent job. The guy was in terrible pain all the time and never had the money for the surgery. But he worked out every day, and he wanted to be able to squat.

I told him how the ACL can heal if it’s not severed. I told him he just needed to fix his arches. He laughed and called me an idiot. Everyone listening started made fun of me. But I persisted, and we made a deal. I would fix his arches and he could do a full squat, or I would give him all of my commissary for a month. Everyone laughed at this, called me names, and a few people threatened to kick my ass for being such a bullshitter. But he let me do it. I pushed back in his arches, adjusted his hips as well, and then he did a full squat for the first time in years. The look on his face almost made jail worth the stay. Actually, honestly, it was worth it. I love healing people more than anything. Within seconds there was a line to my bunk of people waiting to be cured of whatever ailed them.

Running and squatting with good form can heal the joins and ligaments. It should be noted here that adequate nutrition makes a huge difference as well. If you don’t get the nutrients to fix the injuries, the injuries will persist in most cases, or at least easily come back at the slightest opportunity.

Vibram Five Finger Shoes and How to Run

I am a huge fan of Vibrams. They are all I ever wear. They allow for independent toe movement which builds arch strength and aids in walking and running more efficiently.

I run with a mid-foot strike, unless I am sprinting. When I sprint, I run on the balls of my feet. If you want to know how to run, do it barefoot first. Find a safe place where you aren’t likely to step on glass or rocks or anything dangerous. Run. See how it feels. Adjust your form. Forget what you knew; just feel your body. It will tell you the proper form very quickly.

Many people have flat feet and don’t realize it. Even if arches are a little flat, as in, just slightly out, this can cause significant pain and misalignment.

Avoid Back Labor and Improper Infant Positioning at Birth

Vibrams aren’t just for running. I recommend  Vibrams for anyone who is pregnant. Get them immediately! And squat. If you aren’t too far along in your pregnancy, you should be doing lots of full squats and lots of walking. Hips being out of alignment (as mentioned, typically caused by flat arches) is a very common cause of back labor and difficulty delivering. If Vibrams are not an option, or the pregnancy is in its third trimester, go with orthopedic shoes that will push the arches back in and keep them in.

Arches and Chiropractic

While there are many variables, for most people, fixing their feet fixes not just the knees, hips, and lower back, but the whole spine all the way up to the neck. And I suspect that this is not something chiropractors talk about because everyone that I’ve ever gotten to start primarily wearing Vibrams has been able to completely rid themselves of back and neck pain within a few months. Obviously, as readers of OLM are well aware, the money is in treatment, not cures.

Fix Your Arches and Start running without Knee Pain

Put your arches back in yourself. If you don’t believe that this is the cause of your knee pain, just give it a try and see what happens. It may get a little better every time, or they might just pop right into place, but in almost every case, it will make a perceptible difference.

How to fix you arches

A golf ball, a tennis ball, any small ball, a towel rolled up, a rock, anything that you can put weight on with your foot can be used to push your arches back into place. Put pressure all over your arch by pushing down on the object. Stand on it if possible. Put in one arch at a time (both are usually out but one is almost always worse than the other). The flatter the arch, the more it hurts. But you will find that the more you do it, the less it hurts to push them back in.

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Take your time. Give yourself a strong foot massage using this method. Push in hard. You should be able to feel it when the arch goes back in. But they won’t always go in all the way at first.

Now do a squat. Better? It should be. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this.

The next step is to get Vibrams. Walk barefoot or in Vibram Five Finger shoes as much as possible. Use your toes too. Feel them push off with each stride. And then, take up running if you don’t already. And squats. Get up to 100 bodyweight squats, and you will be amazed at how much your body transforms!

How To Get Vibram Five Fingers That Fit a Tight Budget

If you’re on a tight budget like me, you’ll notice that Vibrams are expensive! But I typically spend about 1/3 the price. During the right time of year, just before the new models come out, sales are to be found up to 50% off. In addition, if you go into a store that sells them you can get yourself fitted and then check on eBay or Craigslist for people who are selling them. Lots of people get the wrong size, or just don’t know how awesome they really are. I just bought a pair for $30 on eBay because they are slightly used. I like to get them used because they are much less likely to be counterfeit that way (that’s a problem with Five Fingers, and the counterfeit ones are garbage).

The Bikilas have the most padding, perfect for the beginner Vibram wearer and your everyday walking shoe. But I prefer to do my runs in a pair with minimal padding.

One more thing

Diet is paramount. If you eat crap, your body goes out of alignment  I’m not going to get into the details of why in this post, but even your arches can drop due to a toxic diet without enough nutrition. And injuries take time, so take your time ,too, if you’re recovering from an injury. With the right shoes, or no shoes at all, and the right nutrition  almost anyone can completely rid themselves of knee and back pain for the rest of their lives. I did. And I’ve helped many others do the same.

Arches that don’t stay in place are often a sign of hypothyroidism. Check out Understand Hypothyroidism – Prevention and Natural Remedies.