Have you ever stopped for a moment to appreciate your feet? Well, now is the perfect opportunity.

On average, a recreational runner will take 160-170 strides per minute (an elite runner will average about 180). With each of these strides, your foot absorbs roughly 2-3x your bodyweight in force. If we assume you’re in the “recreational runner” category, that means a 150lb athlete’s foot will be exposed to 1,440,000 pounds of force on the low end, up to 2,295,000 pounds on the high end (and that’s per foot!). If you’re a 225lb athlete, you’re talking about up to 3,442,500 pounds of force per foot from an hour of running. Impressed yet?

Not only are your feet (clearly) durable and robust structures, they’re remarkably functional as well. The feet are made not only of muscles that help to propel you in every direction and manner (running, crawling, walking, jumping, landing, rotating), but also of passive tissues (ligaments, bones, tendons) and incredibly intricate structures (the arches of the foot, for example) that are capable of absorbing and storing forces to make your movement more efficient. This means that not only can your feet undergo an incredible volume of work, they also use the energy from the force of a step or a landing and release that energy to aid in the next step.

Add to this the foot’s capacity to adapt to various environments (cold, rough terrain, dexterous movements) and the foot’s proprioceptive capacities that help with balance, precise movement, change of direction, and more. You’re walking around (literally) on an unbelievably complex and capable structure each day.

Appreciate what your feet are capable of doing, and don’t forget to kick off those shoes and let your feet move like they’re meant to as often as you can.

- PS

10/1/18

• Round 1: 1k row time trial

• Rest 4 mins

• Round 2: Max distance row in time taken for 1k row

• Rest 4 mins

• Round 3: For time, row distance completed in round 2