Seven Summits Body – Fitness and Training

Author: Charles Miske

  • Barefoot Treadmill Exercise – Transition to Low Drop Shoes

    Barefoot Treadmill Usage

    If you’ve been reading articles like THIS ONE you’d be afraid of trying to transition to a low drop shoe. You might want to switch to a maximalist shoe. You might want to start using a minimalist shoe. One thing they tend to have in common is a low drop.

    That’s when the heel is 0 to 6 MM or so above the toe, standing flat with your weight on the midfoot. Some variance exists in that number, but it’s a safe zone, since some traditional running shoes have drops in the 14 MM range. Now that I’ve made the transition to shoes in the low drop zone I can’t imagine going back.

    Barefoot Treadmill exercise in the comfort of your own bedroom
    Barefoot Treadmill exercise in the comfort of your own bedroom

    In the video below, from my Facebook Page HERE I demonstrate a simple way to get on the treadmill and start walking barefoot. Be sure to check out the short video and watch me follow these steps.

    1. Set the treadmill to 6% incline to help prevent heel striking
    2. Set the treadmill to .5 MPH
    3. If that works, go up to 1.0 MPH
    4. Walk gently in the mid to forefoot area
    5. Grip the treadmill belt with your splayed toes
    6. Roll off your toes and bring your heel up consciously to the rear
    7. Don’t go too fast too soon
    8. Do not actually run

    If you follow all those tips, you’re sure to make good progress in strengthening the arch and toes of your foot. This is instrumental in making the transition to a low drop shoe.

    Barefoot Treadmill for Plantar Fasciitis

    Yes, in my PREVIOUS ARTICLE I mentioned that using a maximalist shoe helped me to heal my plantar fasciitis, but barefoot treadmill exercises as mentioned above were just as important. A strong plantar fasciitis will go a long way in preventing injury. I recommend that you make a conscious effort in gripping and pushing off with your toes at a slow speed and moderate incline.

    Barefoot Treadmill Exercise Video

    Want stronger feet? Barefoot Treadmill Training might be the answer. Register if you want Inner Circle Access. Posted by Seven Summits Body on Saturday, March 28, 2015

  • Can Maximalist Shoes Cure Your Plantar Fasciitis?

    An article HERE explores “Can Maximalist Shoes Cure Your Plantar Fasciitis?”

    I have worn Hoka One One maximalist shoes for several years. I started with winter after Elbrus Race 2010. That was winter 2010-2011. Previous to that Asics and Mizuno shoes worked well for me. I thought I was a supinator since most of the time my foot rolled to the outside. I had a running coach analyze my form and he said I was neutral with late-stage pronation. He suggested a neutral cushion shoe.

    Winter Trailrunning in Maximalist shoes - Mafate WP from Hoka One One
    Winter Trailrunning in Maximalist shoes – Mafate WP from Hoka One One

    Maximalist Shoes I’ve Used

    • Hoka Mafate WP
    • Hoka Bondi.B
    • Hoka Stinson
    • Hoka Stinson EVO
    • Hoka Stinson Tarmac

    I underlined the maximalist shoes I’ve especially loved over the years. As you can see, I’ve been using the Hoka One One brand for quite a few years, and literally thousands of miles. Check maximalist shoes by Hoka One One out on Amazon

    Maximalist shoes and Plantar Fasciitis

    My own story goes back to those Asics and Mizuno with the very solid plastic stability wedges and plates all over the midsole. Running in those actually caused me to slam my heel into the ground much harder than needed. That caused me much pain at the origin of the plantar fasciitis (where it connects to the heel). I focused on becoming a more mid-foot striker, slapping the ground with the ball of my foot as the heel lightly brushed the ground. I stopped running pavement as much as possible. I exercised my ankles and insteps to strengthen them. All of these were facilitated by my maximalist shoes. Especially the forward landing while running.

    Bondi.B about 300 miles - the maximalist shoe that changed my running forever
    Bondi.B about 300 miles – the maximalist shoe that changed my running forever

    I think that adding maximalist shoes to my shoe rotation was instrumental in my eventually curing my plantar fasciitis. I actually recommend them to most of my friends with a few disclaimers. Make sure it fits. Use the thinnest insole it comes with. It’s relatively low drop, and there is very little stability, so get used to it gently.

    In the article, linked at the top, LaMarche says. “The downside is the body does not do enough work and it can make you weak, possibly causing injury.”

    On the contrary, there are several articles pointing out that the very soft foam is so forgiving and has so little stability, that many people experience extreme fatigue in their lower legs when they first start using maximalist shoes. This is important to train for. I recommend barefoot walking on a treadmill, and will put up an article soon with more information on that. If you want to make sure you see it, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter, to the right column. I’ll send you a notice when I publish the barefoot training article.

    Remember, I’m not a doctor and I’ve never seen you run. Have your form and body analyzed by professionals and take my suggestions with a grain of salt. If it works for you great, but don’t hurt yourself. Thanks!

  • Ice Climbing Training Manual UnPublished

    In case you weren’t aware, I unpublished “Ice Climbing Training: In Season Program” last week. That means I took it off the list of available books on Amazon. I am still bound by the publishing contract, so am unable to sell it on my own sites, or on any other book sales site, like B&N.

    Ice Climbing Training manual - my good friend and climbing partner Todd Gilles on the sharp end
    Ice Climbing Training manual – my good friend and climbing partner Todd Gilles on the sharp end

    Why unpublish Ice Climbing Training Manual?

    That’s a good question, but the answer is complicated. When I first published it, I had a few sales and no reviews. Sadly, Amazon really only cares about sales and reviews statistics, and if you don’t have much of either, you could do a search “Ice Climbing Training” and my book would appear on page 10, after 9 pages of “hello kitty ice cube trays” and other miscellaneous nonsense.

    I could have easily done what other best-selling authors on Amazon do, which is to buy reviews for anywhere from $5 (not legit) to $500 (legit) each. I chose instead to do the “Free Flash Sale” and offer the book for free for one day, with a day notice. I did this for my “Weight Training Secret Manual: 8 Hacks to Beat the Plateau” and got about 400 “sales” in the first 12 hours.

    First in Kindle Category - Weight Training Secret Manual
    First in Kindle Category – Weight Training Secret Manual

    I tracked my links to the flash sale, and about 3000 individuals in my targeted “book buyers” “free book downloaders” “ice climbers” lists got to see the link for the free book. When the 24 hours of free were up, I had gotten 33 “sales” and at that point in time I decided to pull the book from Amazon and drop it. No interest.

    Ice Climbing Training Manual Issues

    Yes, I had a little bit of feedback. Here’s a general overview.

    • There was no actual ice climbing in the book.
    • There were no insanely intense radical circus trick exercises.
    • The exercises had nothing to do with ice climbing.

    Well, right up front it was an in-season program. That means the majority of your extreme efforts should be in the actual climbing. You don’t want to get totally pumped out in the first 5′ of climbing because you were doing sets of 100 with a 365# Captains of Crush Hand Gripper. That would be awesome in the off-season program, but don’t do stuff like that in-season.

    I don't suppose you use your shoulders at all while ice climbing?
    I don’t suppose you use your shoulders at all while ice climbing?

    An in-season program is designed to maintain gains made in the off-season, especially in the antagonist muscles, which don’t get anywhere near enough work in-season and eventually weaken, leading to higher potential for injury. A marathon runner will often train chest, back, shoulders and hamstrings in-season to assist in their long running training. It’s the same deal here.

    I’m sure there are other factors involved, such as my lack of fame, but the fact remains that (surprise surprise) it actually costs me money to market my books and sell them, and I can’t afford to market this one when no one appears to want it.

    That being said, I’m doing a Kindle Countdown Deal on all of my books starting late this week and going into next week. In a Countdown Deal, your book starts at $.99 and works its way back to the original price over a few days time. It’s in your best interest to get it early.

    That last one was a little outside my usual box for you folks, right? It’s a dystopian young adult romantic triangle with zombies, and has great reviews, if that’s your thing.

    Anyway, I will see how sales and reviews go for this group. Particularly for Finding Time to Train, and Summit Success, which have been a little low in the rankings for lack of reviews. I have mentioned a few times the review issues with Summit Success ARTICLE HERE, and will do so again in an upcoming article on my mountaineering pages.

    Summit Success: Training for Hiking, Mountaineering, and Peak Bagging - Available Sept 23 on Amazon
    Summit Success: Training for Hiking, Mountaineering, and Peak Bagging – Available Sept 23 on Amazon

    If things don’t change for those two books I’ll have to pull them both as well. Time will tell. Thanks again though for all of you who have bought and read my books, and especially for those of you who have given me your honest heart-felt reviews.

  • To Glove or Not to Glove

    To Glove or Not to Glove?

    Post by Lose Weight Gain Muscle Newsletter.
    Please give me a hand here, and like and share this video with all your friends who lift and train. I would enjoy all comments. Thanks!

    So what's the deal about gloves?

    Some powerlifters and bodybuilders, etc. believe that gloves protect the hands from getting callouses that are needed to protect them from the bar. If that's true then you should never wear gloves, and instead should build up your callouses and earn them. Others believe that a normal person working a normal job who will never ever bench 400 pounds should just wear gloves and not worry about it. If you want to troll bodybuilding and powerlifting message boards just post that gloves are essential and watch the flames grow into an inferno. [caption id="attachment_1135" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Gloves - so I don't lose my sweaty grip on the ice tools and hit the concrete floor hard Gloves - so I don't lose my sweaty grip on the ice tools and hit the concrete floor hard.[/caption] If you want to enjoy more videos like this one, LIKE my Facebook Page HERE (link also in video above). If you want first notice of amazing offers, fill out this form and I'll send you a link for the download. Thanks! [grwebform url="https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=BLe6u&webforms_id=3882404" css="on" center="off" center_margin="200"/]

  • Running in Foot Deep Powder

    Today was a great day for a trail run. I went trailrunning this morning at -1F (according to the weather channel). Accuweather had it at -13.

    Nothing like a little negative F to kick off the morning trail running
    Nothing like a little negative F to kick off the morning trail running

    I went out on the deck and it felt more like the weather channel had it at -1F so I dressed for that. It was snowing pretty hard and there was at least 8″ of new snow on the ground. I wore a minimum of clothing, in spite of the cold. It’s better to be slightly cold and dry, rather than dressed really warmly but sweat too much. That sweat will chill you if the wind hits it.

    Dressed lightly for a winter trail run at -1F
    Dressed lightly for a winter trail run at -1F

    I wore my Pearl Izumi Trail N2 with Kahtoola microspikes. I’m glad I did. The trail was really bumpy with icy spots under the powder snow. You couldn’t see under the snow so it was good to have the extra spike aggressiveness. I had thought of wearing my Hoka Stinson with the screws in the bottom.

    Winter Trailrunning Video on Vimeo:

    [weaver_vimeo id=”111698274″]

    I wore Salomon hybrid top and bottom. When I say hybrid I mean a thin athletic fleece with wind and water resistant panels. I wore the loose tights without a base layer. On top I had on an Arctyrex mid-weight base layer. That’s it for clothing. For socks I wore thick wool mountaineering socks. For gloves I had on bike commuter lobster mitts from REI for my hands. On my head I wore a buff, a mid-weight helmet liner, and a swag Salomon baseball cap I got at a race.

    The snow was light and fluffy and dry so I didn’t really need to worry about my feet getting wet. When I turned around at the 2.5 mile mark the wind was pretty cold on my chest. I had a thin insulated vest in the UD Pack, but in a few minutes I was warm again so it was worth waiting before I got it out. It ended up I didn’t need it.

    Winter Trailrunning GPS Track:

    [sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/11-12-2014-KeystoneGulch.gpx”]

  • Slapping Motivation Upside the Head with a Wet Noodle

    Recently a friend of mine posted in a social media site something about how food is the fuel that runs your body and you don’t want to be starving your body of the nutrition it needs. I thought this was pretty good motivational commentary, so I added the following paraphrase of a Brian Tracy classic:

    “Imagine you’ve just spent $500,000 on a race horse. What would you feed it? Would you cut corners? The cheapest stuff you can find? Your body is even more valuable.”

    Almost immediately there were a few demotivational comments. Something along the lines of crippled old horses needing good food, something along the lines of can’t afford good food, something along the lines of a calorie is just a calorie. etc….

    So I came up with the following:

    If we break down the analogy into the smallest simple parts with the intent to destroy it and excuse our lack of progress, then yes, if you were to use aviation fuel in a Lamborghini, it would fly down the road. If you were to pour that into your 1978 Ford Pinto, it would explode when you turn the key.

     

    Eggs, brown rice and salsa. Inexpensive healthy meal choice.

    Sometimes motivation is hard. So is eating good simple healthy food. That doesn’t make it untrue. It also doesn’t excuse you from some simple facts. Yes, donuts and diet coke are the nutrition of choice for the Pintos out there. But you do have a choice. You can choose to spend your money more wisely and eat good healthy foods. Even Walmart has good inexpensive organic and natural foods, made by the same companies as those trendy very expensive stores that hold their employees under the guillotine of profit. Not that that is bad or anything …