In the first chapter of your book, you said that you went to the Native American tribe, I'm going to try and pronounce this, the Tarahumara. Tarahumara. And they're famous for their long running. Yes.
What did you learn about running from them? Well, you know, they have been famous for well over 100 years. I mean, many people have gone to study the Tarahumara and commented on their amazing ability to run. But what I really learned from them is that for them, physical activity is spiritual.
You know, there's this book Born to Run that describes their running and calls them a hidden tribe of super athletes. They're not hidden and they're not super athletes. And the one thing that the book missed was that the main impetus for the running, they do these famous long-distance races, is that it's a form of prayer. It's really very beautiful.
It's also an opportunity to bet in sports and all that. It's all wrapped into one. And what I've learned was that this actually used to be almost universal among Native American populations, Native American tribes. Everybody had long-distance races and ballgames and they all had a spiritual element.
It's just that they've retained their traditions because they're in a very remote part of Mexico and that's essentially inaccessible. We all used to do this. All humans used to do this. In fact, if you look around the world, every population has a tradition of endurance to its events.
Some of the subjects you talk about in your book, but also outside of your book, is how we used to run. In terms of, you know, I was at the foot doctor. What's it called? I don't know what they're called.
Podiatrist. That's what I said. But I went to the podiatrist the other day because I got this, what's it called when you're pointing on my foot. This part of my foot here started to get lots of pain.
Plantar fasciitis. That's it. Plantar fasciitis. I started to get some plantar fasciitis.
That's it. And it was just ongoing pain. And they prescribed me some insoles. I was doing a couple of machines, some soft stuff.
And they measured my foot and took a scan of it and said, right, basically you're standing wrong. Your arches are too flat. Take these insoles and wear them in all of your shoes. I just, I always think in these moments when someone prescribes me something that's not natural.
I go, why? Like, where do I go wrong? And I think that's the key question. Presumably my ancestors don't have many insoles.
So, plantar fasciitis is what I would call a mismatch disease, a disease that's more common or more severe because our bodies are inadequately adapted to modern environments. And in your case, and as is the case with a lot of people, you have a weak foot. So, you know, you look like you go to the gym. You look like you're a pretty fit person, right?
I'll make it that you strengthen pretty much every muscle group in your body except your feet, right? No, go on. Well, but we don't, right? One of the reasons is because we encase our feet in stiff-soled shoes that are very comfortable.
And the reason the shoes are comfortable is that your foot muscles have to do less work when you're using the shoes, right? We have shoes that are stiff soles. They have arch supports. And your foot has four layers of muscles in them.
And those muscles are supporting your arch. And at the bottom of those four layers of muscles is this layer of connected tissue, the plantar fascia. And the problem with the plantar fascia is that if it stretches too much, like anything else, it gets inflamed. But it's got almost no vascularization, right?
So it's very hard for it to repair itself when it gets inflamed. To prevent plantar fasciitis, the best way to prevent it is having a strong foot. A strong foot is a healthy foot. So the way to treat the disease on the long term is to strengthen your foot.
But if you want to just alleviate the symptoms, that's what your podiatrist did. By giving you an insole, right? It's basically preventing your arch from collapsing as much, making it more comfortable so your plantar fascia gets stress less. And so it can kind of alleviate that stretching and hence the pain, right?
So that's a typical example of what I call dis-evolution. It's what happens when you treat the symptoms of a mismatch disease rather than the causes of preventing their causes. So podiatrists are a bit like drug pushers in that sense, right? Because they're essentially putting your foot in a cast, right?
And then for the rest of your life, you kind of have to keep using them unless you strengthen your feet. So there's nothing wrong with those treating the symptoms. I mean, pain is no fun. So wear the insole to kind of alleviate the pain.
But also work on strengthening your foot. And I think you'll find that the plantar fasciitis will disappear and never come back. So the plantar fasciitis has now healed after about a month of wearing the insole. I don't have the insole with me here in New York.
And I don't have them in any of my shoes because I've also taken a bit of time off running on my feet. I was playing about football. So now I'm at a point where I can go to a preventable state. Prevent it happening again.
You said to strengthen my foot. How does one strengthen their foot? Good question. So there are some exercises.
They're kind of foot-domed exercises. You know, I can send you some links to videos showing you some good foot-strengthening exercises. So that's one way to do it. But the other way is to wear more minimal shoes.
To wear shoes that aren't stiff-soled, that don't have arch supports. Go barefoot a lot, right? So you're now working on a compliant surface, right? It's not stiff.
So your muscles are having to work more to stiffen your foot to push you forward, right? Jack, could you grab my black shoe up? I just want to show you something. So wearing shoes that aren't as stiff-soled, they don't have arch supports, will slowly strengthen your feet.
But, and this is a huge but, if you do too much too fast, your plantar fasciitis will come roaring back and you'll hate me. You'll never forgive me because, yeah, there's a Vivo barefoot. Yeah, I wear the same shoes. Oh, you've got the same shoes on.
Great shoes. Yeah, those are wonderful shoes. Those are exactly the kind of shoes that will help strengthen your feet. These are a new addition in my life.
And they feel really strange because you can kind of feel the floor. That's exactly what you described. Yeah, but you can transition. If you have weak feet, which I'm guessing you do, if you go, if you suddenly, that's the only shoe you wear all the time, you'll probably regret it, right?
So slowly, slowly, slowly increase the percentage of time. Just like anything else. If you suddenly decide to lift, you know, huge weights that you can't lift before, you'll hurt yourself, right? The same thing as with your feet.
So slowly it does it. But if you do it gradually and slowly and carefully, you can build up strength in your foot.