Great and well balanced article from Podiatry Today busting the myths commonly associated with barefoot running.

For all those jumping on the Google+ bandwagon, I am now one of them and I am now on Google+. I'm interested in setting up a running circle and maybe a minimalist/barefoot circle, so if you're interested add me to one of your circles and I'll add you to mine.

I've been following and instilling the 10% rule for years for people starting out, especially when it comes to barefoot running, but I've always stated that this shouldn't be treated as a hard-and-fast rule. Looks like research is on the way to confirm that this doesn't really make much difference toward preventing injury. I think it should still be followed when starting barefoot running: not for injury prevention, but to acclimatise your feet to the new sensations.

For a long time I've thought putting kids in shoes too much and too soon is wrong. I spent a lot of my childhood completely barefoot as it's the norm in South Africa. Looks like forcing your kids to wear shoes may have a long term impact on their health and development.

A great post in which Ian Griffiths smashes the 4 common myths used by almost every running shop and publication, including Runner's World, when it comes to selecting running shoes for a runner.

Whilst this isn't barefoot specific, it is running related and certainly worth a read.

Wow!! Apparently sugar has been found to decrease blood levels of testosterone by as much as 25% in perfectly healthy men. Could this explain why obese men get moobs? This is definitely one to consider if you're trying to lose weight, build muscle or have kids. I suspect this may be old new in the drug-taking-elite "athletes" world though.

A great anecdotal discussion about overuse injuries from Pete Larson @ RunBlogger. My own experiences pretty much match what Pete details here, with the slight exception that I think my recent injury was actually due to a problem with my hips. Interesting thoughts about cycling your shoe wear. I don't wear shoes often, but as we enter winter I'm contemplating shelling out for a pair of Vibram Bikilas - my classics are looking very sad.

Quite a long and quite interesting analysis on the growing use of minimalist running shoes from Runner's World. There isn't much new in here for anyone keeping up with the recent studies and minimalist shoe world, but it's good to see Runner's World finally acknowledging that big cushiony shoes are not the best thing. Me thinks RW may have some advertising deals in the pipeline - why else would they start promoting something they always shunned?

Oooops, I updated the underlying code of this site a while ago and completely forgot that the comment form functionality changed. No wonder I stopped getting comments and spam . I've rectified this now, so comments should be working again.

In a word: Nope. The US Military has just finished a large study only to conclude: wearing the “right” shoes for their particular foot shape had increased trainees’ chances of being hurt. From the article, it looks like quite a few studies on the effects of shoes on injury prevention and cause are starting to come to light.