Mark’s Beach Sprints

I just got on the floor and did the stretch. I want to try the shoes.

Thank you Mark!!!!!!
I sprint on the beach, and have never heard of these five fingers. I just ordered a pair. 😉
I used the nike free model for a while but they did not last and did not feel right somehow.
So went back to barefoot. My cut up feet thank you in advance.

T.

Fun to watch video! I normally do about 5 to 6 sprints like that as well.

I’ve been using the five fingers for about 2 months. My feet must have changed size. My feet seem wider now as my existing shoes don’t fit anymore. Also, walking gate changed (walk on balls of feet). I have worn them around town and people really stare…even in San Francisco. People at work always ask me to wear them.

I love the foot-wear! Also, looking good Mark!!

Would someone be so kind as to put up a link where the shoes can be purchased. Thank you.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

Thank you Sara.

Ole Grok sure never had six-pack abs walking the plains!! 🙂 Lookin good, Mark!

I’ve practiced that squat lots of times on my visits to Thailand; however, it had more to do with the type of plumbing facilities in my wife’s rural village rather than relaxing.

I live about 10 minutes from the beach but I normally only go to practice with my sand wedge. This sounds like a healthier option.

Thanks everyone. Try it out if you can (no beach necessary).

Woo-hoo, watching you sprint on the sand is much sexier than the Baywatch opening credits. You are so right about those squats. Maybe it’s ’cause I’m a heterosexual gal, but I much prefer to watch your abs ripple than see silicone bags bob up and down.

While living in Korea, I’d see senior citizens down on their haunches while waiting for a bus or just relaxing in a park. I wasn’t much of a squatter, but I did spent a lot of time sitting down and getting up off the floor.

great stuff. i can’t remember where i read it but there was a statement that went something like this “one reason why adults get fat is when they were kids they would run and when they became adults the started to jog.” that statement alone got me out sprinting again. i wish i had a beach to run on. that looked like fun with those shoes. some advice though. try to relax when you sprint. a lot of people get tight and strained in their shoulders, neck, and face. it slow them down and causes undo stress on those muscles.… Read more »

Am I crazy, or have you mentioned having grown children? Surely you are not old enough!! 😉

That is a great video Mark. Great body too – it is obvious you practise what you preach.

I’ve posted the video on my hillfit.com pages to demonstrate what interval training looks like:

http://hillfit.blogspot.com/2007/10/interval-sprinting.html

These videos are great – please keep posting!

I loved this video so much I posted the link to this site on my blog. The stretch is so simple and so true (I can’t do it by the way). Great stuff, keep it coming!

Here is an interesting article that covers this area;
http://
http://www.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/h_gluteus_maxintro.htm

Nice footwear Mark.

Love the music! (Get Innocuous by LCD Soundsystem)

Thanks for this great video! But.. help! Am I the only one who can’t do this fantastic stretch? My ankles don’t seem to want to let me. In order to do this stretch, I either need to 1) point my toes way out to the sides or 2) lift my heels off the floor. Does anyone have advice for me please? Thank you!

Also.. those shoes are fabulous! They go on my wishlist!

blah you can suck my balls!!!!!!!!! but i dont have any!!!!@!!!!!

The “indigenous people’s stretch” is one the best practices to prepare for childbirth. I practiced it before all three of my births and all three were successful completely without medical intervention.

Hands-down, still my favorite stretch for several years. I’ll often spend a large portion of a staff meeting squatting like that instead of sitting in a chair.

I love the beach! What a great excuse to get to the beach even during a cold NZ winter! Thanks for the video

would love to get a pair of vibrams, delivery charges costs a bomb. no distributors in malaysia either…

Beach HIIT, nice

Thanks Mark for this easy way to stretch. This position on the other hand has also a very beneficial effect on the digestion system/lower internal organs – the position cures in a natural way any problems with constipation, gut and bladder inflammation, prostate problems etc.

The squat is a really, really great position to do daily. People who do this every day from toddlerhood on actually have grooves in their bones which allow them to squat for long periods with no real effort at balancing – raise your kids squatting and do them a big favor!

This is fantastic. I’m working on putting a training schedule together for a 10K my wife and I are doing at the end of March. I don’t want to do the distance-style schedule (I’ve done them before), especially since I’ve heard such great things about intervals. Going to try some sprint sets out for a few weeks to see how it feels! This stretch might be one of my new favorite things.

Mark –

Do you do the gradual “jog to sprint” each of the 6 to 8 sprints, or just for the first sprint?

How do you determine how long/far to sprint? Do you just go until you’re too tired to keep sprinting? Dr. Mercola suggests working up to 6-8 rounds, each 30 seconds full-on. Virtually no one will be able to do that off the bat, but it’s something that can be worked toward, right? Just looking for some guidelines for continued progress other than distance, since for some people 100 yards is much easier than for others. Maybe a tabata timer would be of use? Also, I wonder if you’ve looked into active stretching for before/during exercise. Advocates suggest that extended stretching… Read more »

I have very bad knees, so running, even on a beach is out of the question, what would you suggest for a “sprint” once a week, bike riding at the gym doing intermittent sprints (20-30 seconds standing)?

Interesting. The Journal of Environmental and Public Health, researchers concluded:
“Emerging evidence shows that contact with the Earth—whether being outside barefoot or indoors connected to grounded conductive systems—may be a simple, natural, and yet profoundly effective environmental strategy against chronic stress, ANS [autonomic nervous system] dysfunction, inflammation, pain, poor sleep, disturbed HRV [heart rate variability], hypercoagulable blood, and many common health disorders, including cardiovascular disease.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/09/20/barefoot-on-electron-deficiency.aspx?e_cid=20120920_DNL_art_1

Thats my cow milking stance!

Are people still responding here I hope?

Sprints like this are not possible with my toddler 😉 Are there alternates that those of us with little space, little time and zero equipment can do?

I use an app called Zombies, Run! on my phone and it incorporates running and then when the “zombies” come you have to increase your speed by 20% in order to evade them. It is allot of fun and forces you to sprint randomly throughout the missions. 🙂

Hey, what’s that Vibrams’ model? Looking at the offers listed in my country’s website (http://www.fivefingers.pt), I don’t see it, or an equivalent model as fit for the beach as Mark’s. The models there are mostly closed at the top of the foot, with laces or equivalent, but Mark’s are pretty open and light.

Hmm is anyone else having problems with the pictures on this blog loading?

I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.