What did the Five Finger say to the foot?

I've been religiously wearing my Vibram (Vee-Brum) Five Fingers for over 3 years now. What I've learned over that time is how to react to the floor. That has allowed me to more efficiently and effectively walk, run, jump and stand.

Follow me for a second while I attempt to simulate your brain. The largest organ in your body is... Your skin! It's very challenging to stimulate your skin without contact, damn near impossible. We wear more clothes in the colder months to keep us warm and close off much of our skin from that cold stimulus. Adversely in the warm summer months we wear less and allow our skin to get stimulated by the sun and experience more i.e. sand, water, etc...

Now tell me showering doesn't feel good. It does for a few reasons, but mainly it "feels" good because your nerves are getting stimulated by the water.

Back to my point - What the VFF accomplished is creating a minimal sneaker that allowed you to feel the ground without being completely barefoot. I'm totally an advocate for barefoot conditioning, but the mainstream public rather have something on.

In college we test, "ground reaction force" which is the amount of pressure one's body hits the ground. We found out that people created more force with the more cushion between them and the ground.

For example, if you were to run on gymnastics mats vs concrete the forces applied would be different.

Let's break it down..
Force = Mass x Acceleration
F=MA

Your body mass is fairly constant, however you can change the acceleration and/or deceleration to the ground.

As humans we have a muscular system that moves our skeletal system to get around. Say you jump up, you dictate how soft your landing is. While in motion you can only control your deceleration force towards the by increasing the time that force is applied.

Huh?

Say I jump into a pool with 3 feet of water, my impact force at the bottom of the pool will be low. Now jumping into that same pool without water I could produce the same low impact if it takes me the same time to hit the bottom. It could happen, but would require your entire body to react slowly to the ground from a pencil to fetal as you touched the floor.

Another amazing benefit of these funky sneakers is the toe box.

What's that?
-The space distal from the balls of your feet.

The toe box is open and wider than almost all sneakers on the market and it has toe separation. That allows you to be more stable on your forefoot.

Lastly, it looks bad-ass and people know your serious about your fitness if you're rocking a pair of VFF.

Which is best for you?
Check out birthdayshoes.com for all the latest and greatest reviews of VFF and all barefoot/minimal conditioning shoes.

September Teaching Schedule - Equinox

Mondays
1:05-1:50pm Whipped! at Columbus Circle
5:45-6:15pm HardCORE Cuts at 54th and 2nd
6:16-7pm Whipped! at 54th and 2nd

Tuesdays
6:30-7:15am TRX MAX at 63rd and Lex
7:15-7:45am HardCORE Cuts at 63rd and Lex
6:30-7:15pm MetCon3 at 12th and Greenwich

Wednesdays
6:30-7:15am Jump n Pump at 12th and Greenwich
7:45-8:30pm MetCon3 at Columbus Circle

Thursdays
6:45-7:30am Whipped! at Columbus Circle
6:45-7:30pm MetCon3 at 76th and Amsterdam
7:30-8pm HardCORE Cuts at 76th and Amsterdam

Fridays
6:30-7:15am Whipped! at 12th and Greenwich
12:15-1pm Jump n Pump at 43rd and 5th
6:30-7:20pm MetCon3 at 50th and Broadway

Saturdays
OFF

Sundays
11:15-12:05 MetCon3 at Columbus Circle
12:05-12:35 HardCORE Cuts at Columbus Circle

The Gym vs. The Box

Yesterday I went to a training/meet-up for one of my upcoming races - Civilian Military Combine.  The founder, Sean Rogers, went through the short history of the CMC and other like adventure races that started with Tough Mudders inception merely 28 1/2 months ago.  There's something to training together for a race that really gets you fired up.  It felt like nothing else I'd experienced in the 25 years of playing sports growing up.  It's one thing to help out other people achieve success, but it's almost weird to have everybody helping each other out as direct competitors.

This bring me to my point of writing today. "The Gym vs. The Box"

I've been working at different gym since 2004 and exclusively Equinox since 2008.  I have seen and experienced few moments where members truly interact with one another.  Being a personal trainer I work one-on-one to develop skills, functional movement patterns and rehabilitate injuries for my clients.  As a group fitness instructor I try day in and day out to get people to interact with myself and the class, but it happens sparingly.

The few times I have gone to a CrossFit studio (Box) I have always felt warm and welcomed.  A few things I've noticed every time I walked into a Box is:
1. Everybody wants to be there to either learn some skill/technique or crush their workout of the day (WOD)
2. Nobody is walking around with 3 broken arms and 12 months pregnant.  (People know what they can or cannot do)
3. People are interacting with one another and not because they are told to!

I guess my takeaway from this is, "Can I bring some of this mentality to The Gym?"

Let's see...


P.S. Thanks everyone who was their yesterday leaving it their on the Pit floor

Everyday is a chance to learn

This week I attended 3 different group fitness classes with some outstanding instructors.

2 classes were barefoot conditioning/cardio and the other was a circuit style bootcamp.

What I took away from all of these classes was an experience more than a workout. I sweat, burned calories, and worked hard in all 3 classes. However, I felt connected to only one class that I took. Only one instructor made me feel like I was there and that I mattered.

BRAVO!

That's the experience I hope to give my members in every class I teach.

Mock Food?

Another passion of mine is cooking and creating unique dishes.

I love to watch Food Network and see what crazy ideas are tossed around the kitchen.  On Facebook, I recently setup a food blog for people to post, share, and ask questions about food - Picture Fit.

This week my goal is to make a dish using ingredients that I don't eat or cook with - Cauliflower.

Below is the recipe I've found for Mock Garlic Mashed Potatoes using cauliflower.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-stella/mock-garlic-mashed-potatoes-recipe/index.html

More photos, foods, and fitness to come!