Born to be Barefoot | From Science to Life

This week we are delighted to welcome a couple of intrepid travelers from Chattanooga, Maggie and Bruce Tate, who took 9 months off work to travel up the East Coast on something called The Great Loop. They followed this route, circling the eastern North American landmass by boat. Their decision to embark on this adventure was sparked by a book titled "From What Is to What If?" which encouraged them to embrace imagination and possibilities. Throughout their travels, they encountered challenges, forged deep connections with fellow boaters, and discovered the importance of curiosity and forbearance in fostering meaningful relationships.A bit about their East Coast journey 1:00Leaving during Winter 10:00The Covid pandemic 27:00What they did for fitness 42:00What is next 50:45Get the book: Currently Away 60:15“One of the things that really struck me is that if I want a better neighborhood, I need to be a better neighbor, and to carry some of that stuff that we got from all the community that we had daily on the loop, and to try to bring that back home in the regular life.” 18:35Discount Code for 10% off: BTBBPODCAST@currently_the_boatwww.currentlytheboat.comScho and Jo youtube channel 

In this week’s episode Katie welcomes guest Rae Reynolds, a shockwave therapist and massage practitioner, who shares insights on her profession. Rae discusses her experiences with shockwave therapy and her journey to becoming a healer, emphasizing self-healing and empowerment. Through anecdotes and discussions on topics like cellular inflammation and childhood trauma, Rae underscores the importance of balance and self-awareness in achieving overall well-being, challenging societal norms and advocating for personal responsibility in health and healing. They discuss her book and its themes of self-discovery, healing, and empowerment. The book touches on personal experiences, childhood trauma, and the journey towards self-love. It encourages readers to start a conversation with themselves, prioritize their health, and embrace their authentic selves. Rae’s experience with Barefoot Science 2:00Ondamed (Wave) Therapy 3:30Parasites 5:30Healing yourself 12:50Rae’s book “Let Us Start the Conversation” 20:30Just be you 30:45Figuring it out in a less costly way 35:20“I literally have [Barefoot Science products] in everything. I don’t put anything on my feet that doesn’t have Barefoot Science. I paddleboard in them, I ski in them, I do everything in them and every person that pretty much walks into my clinic, regardless of why they’re there, they’re gonna walk out with a pair of Barefoots.” 2:13www.raereynolds.ca

We have an interesting guest on the podcast this week by the name of Danielle “Dani” Bryant and many may know her as the founder of MAKE IT COUNT 4 Dani Foundation. Dani was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 16, which is when life as she knew it came crashing down around her. Despite a devastating diagnosis of this disease, which dashed her dreams of continuing her athletic career, she refused to be defined by her illness. Instead, she embarked on a journey of self-discovery and resilience, confronting her disease head-on. She now dedicates herself to helping countless women around the world to deal with the same issues, and continues to live a happy and fulfilling life. About Dani 0:55Rheumatoid arthritis 2:30Treating this disease 5:45Dani’s platform to help others 10:30What helped Dani the most 16:20How Barefoot Science is helping 23:55People of all ages 33:40“I do try to not react back to people who do a lot of things to be unkind because I know what they’re feeling and going through, but I also don’t want people to live in that space. I want to motivate them to move out of it. Our minds and what we tell ourselves can be so powerful on how we move forward.” 32:00@makeitcount4danimakeitcount4dani.com

This week Katie had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Courtney Johnson, also known as the Female Athlete Doctor. She is a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in pelvic health, women’s health, particularly in general active women in all walks of life, such as women in pregnancy, postpartum, or women who are diagnosed with some sort of pelvic floor dysfunction. Courtney helps women be active again and get back on their feet, which is often where these issues usually occur or originate from. What Dr. Courtney is all about 0:50Pregnant women 4:50The benefits of doing this while pregnant 7:20Helping athletes to relax for birth 12:00Working with C-section women 16:00“When you think of a sports team, a sports team has everything and a coach for everything. For every position in a football team. They have a recovery squad, an athletic trainer, they have a doctor on staff, they have a physical therapist, so we should approach pregnancy and postpartum with the same mindset. Who is on your team? I know when that time comes for me, I’m gonna have X-Y-Z all lined up and I’ll be ready to go.” 11:10thefemaleathletedpt.com@thefemaleathletedoc

Today we are proud to present our guest Britni, of Denver, CO. She is a doctor of physical therapy and a pain free performance strength coach. After about 3.5 years of working in the traditional outpatient clinic model Britni started to feel burnt out and began to shift outside of the traditional clinic setting. Britni started online coaching in 2022 working with active adults who are struggling to manage pain/injury. In 2023 after moving to Denver, CO, Britni also started a cash based practice which she now operates inside of two different gyms in the greater Denver area. When she's not working Britni loves being outdoors hiking, snowboarding, exploring Denver or reading a good book. Tune in this week to hear this interesting conversation. How it works 2:30Live vs online 12:30Warm ups 15:45Workout recommendations from Britni 23:15Stretches and exercises for desk workers 32:30Insoles and feet 39:40Connect with Britni 48:40“Would you say having a designed warmup might be more important than a designed workout?” “I think both are important, but I think if you have a poorly designed warmup, that’s essentially not setting you up for the best success that you could have in your workout, which kind of has a bigger impact, I guess you could say, than a poorly designed workout.” 17:20@britnib.dptriseptconsulting.comriseperformanceandpt.com

We have 2 lovely guests on the podcast today named Kristi Harrison and Matthew McKeown, who are co-owners of Highland Fitness and Wellness, a personal training studio and fitness community in Scarborough, Ontario. They fill us in on some great tactics of how they’ve been able to build their gym culture in the best way possible, and then we get into what to focus on when helping your clients in improving their physical health. Movement is very necessary for each day, especially for those who are working a sedentary job 8 hours a day and they give some good examples of how to do that.About Kristi, Matt, and their gym 0:45Creating a community 7:30Focusing on the scapula and lumbar spine 16:30The worst thing about sitting 19:50Clients want professionalism 28:45Targeting specific people and groups 41:50Looking at feet and gait 49:00“I think the hardest thing is teaching people there’s more of a mental side that this is the rest of your life. Not meaning that you have to use the rest of your life, but the goals you want to accomplish, they need to be the rest of your life, and you can’t convince them on that. You can maybe show someone that, but you have to get someone who’s pretty much there already, that they know ‘I need to make significant changes and I know this is gonna take long term.’” 17:18www.highlandfit.com@highlandfitto

We have a returning guest on the podcast this week, Jeff Browning, who is a master long distance runner. Many know Jeff as “Bronco Billy” and royalty of the ultra marathon category. He has finished around 200 ultra marathons, which includes 52 one-hundred-mile-plus ultras. He has come in first place in 30 of those races, so we are so honored to be speaking with a world champion today. Jeff and Katie talk about everything from getting in the right mindset to foot care and the importance of heart rate variability. This last race and how he won 1:30Training that mindset to do this difficult thing 6:30Foot care 20:45Heart rate variability (HRV) 29:40Staying away from seed oils 38:45“I think everything in life prepares you, I think working on your mindset all the time, and that’s being willing to embrace hard things in your life, whether that’s learning something new or figuring something out. Always having a positive attitude is important, and positive mental speak as much as possible. It’s easy to say, hard to put into practice, to really be positive daily.” 6:51@gobroncobilly www.giddyupultra.com

In this week’s episode Katie and Stuart interview Mike Whetstone, who has over 25 years of military leadership and training experience and is a former FRS and TOPGUN instructor, and owner and president of BMK Ventures, a Vetfirst certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. A big part of his business is helping prepare the medics in the field by putting together these kits that they can acquire, which contain all the resources they may need when faced with tough or intense physical situations on the battlefield. History, fitness, and prep for flying in the Air Force 3:00BMK Ventures 9:00Military is a massive amount of footwork 16:00Testing balance in military 25:00Seeing the curvature of the Earth 31:00Being disabled in service 33:00Seeing the difference of the Barefoot Insoles 38:00“It’s a young man’s game and I’ll tell you what, I creak and crack, and I pretty much blame pulling Gs on that.” 8:45 “Believe it or not, I told myself I was gonna run a marathon before I turned 40 and on my 40th birthday I hadn’t run one, so between 40 and 41 I ran 5, and then I kept running them until I messed my knee up. Now I stick mostly to the halves.” 34:27bmkventures.com@bmkventures1

Today Katie speaks with a previous guest we’ve had named David Lemke, who we have described as a wizard in body work. He’s a technical wizard using a method of technology called Surface Electromyography (SEMG), EEG, and various other things. David grew up in a cold place, trained as a bodyworker, was injured as a young athlete, became an EMG technician and describes himself now as a body explorer with a compass who has treated, assessed, and helped tens of thousands of people from very high performance athletes to your everyday people. Who David is 1:20Understanding muscles with a compass 6:00Does the heart bring everything together? 15:00The first 2 exercises David uses with his trainer 24:00“Your core is not your abs and your butt. Your core is your whole central processor and soles of the feet are just as critical, if not one of the most critical input sites to your autonomic nervous system. I like to compare wearing shoes to having your phone in airplane mode and you’re wondering why you’re not sending and receiving calls, but you’ve actually turned off a key antenna. The soles of your feet are how your whole system knows whether you’re upright or not.” 10:26

Katie and Stuart had Evan Strong on this episode of the podcast, who is an olympic superstar that won a Gold medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics & a Silver medal in the year 2018 in Paralympic Snowboarding. He has done everything that involves a board including skateboarding, surfing, and even playing on chess boards. Join these 3 as they discuss human prosthetics, education, and different living conditions to improve and even help your own kids better develop. About Evan 1:20Living in Maui, Hawaii 11:50Wearing shoes vs not wearing them 15:45Evan’s lifestyle 23:00School and education 31:30Prosthetics and shoes 38:45“Nobody has ever thought of ‘Oh, let’s build a prosthetic based on natural biology and actually the natural physiology of a human,’ and they always just think of it around the shoe or the modern shoe.” 42:35@evan_strongpacificbirthcollective.org

In this episode Stuart and Katie have a chat about some of the things that popped up in other episodes when talking about injuries and how those can be avoided, as well as helping people recover from those injuries. They discuss women’s health and how their cycle can affect vulnerability to injury, and then how strengthening the muscles around ligaments is a good way to prevent injury, before also getting into how to increase brain function and speed by focusing on stimulating the proprioceptive nerve. “Getting the brain tuned through stimulating that proprioceptive nerve is absolutely fundamental.”Women’s cycles and injury 4:35Increasing brain speed 11:05Helping kids with mental difficulties 17:00Injury happens to everyone 24:40“At the end of that program their average brain speed had come down to I think it was 80 milliseconds, which meant in real terms they were seeing the ball a third of the way down the bat distance from pitcher to batter, so that gave them the other 2 thirds of the time to figure out what they were gonna do, where they were gonna hit it, and bang, off they went. They actually tested them just after wearing the insoles and even just wearing the insoles had actually given a measurable brain speed change in the first week.” 14:50

Mindful Movement with Brea Johnson | Unveiling the Secrets of Yoga and Body Smart Practices Stuart and Katie had the opportunity to sit down with Brea Johnson, who has been a yoga teacher and movement educator for well over a decade. With a love for learning and studying the human body she continues her on-going education in yoga, anatomy and biomechanics and is also a certified Restorative Exercise Specialist. We discuss the importance of mobility and keeping your body moving. Brea mentions how in our culture there’s this belief that we have to get that one hour or so of movement and exercise in our day and we’ll be good, but she says that movement should be spread out throughout the day instead of just concentrated all in one session because little movement more often has more benefits. Yoga with brains, love, and body smart movement 1:10Top things that the body needs 11:00Crossfit and lack of rotation 23:00The 4 pillars of a sustainable yoga practice 28:45Shoes and the opinions that follow them 36:00Staying healthy through old age 47:50“If you have a standing desk I think it’s great to have the option. I think we need both. Don’t expect that we should be standing for 8 hours a day just like you shouldn’t expect to be sitting for 8 hours a day. For me, I have an office at my house, I have a desktop, I have a laptop, which I often bring onto the floor, I bring it upstairs, I bring it outside. On the days that I’m on my computer all day long, I’m in different positions.” 25:32@heartandbonesyogawww.heartandbonesyoga.com

In this episode we had the opportunity to speak to Graham Tuttle, a trainer who helps people move and feel better. His goal is to figure out this athleticism thing and how he can teach it to the people like him who missed that boat early on in life, and also work to create a more well rounded understanding of health and aging with activity. You see, as a kid starts to develop an awareness that they can control outcomes and not get hurt by not participating, they become more stiff and uncertain, while the kids who are more “Tarzan” looking can roll around and are just more loose and ready to tackle the physical challenges they face. Sports in high school then vs now 5:50Triangulating and balance 15:10Sports have created a monopoly on athleticism 31:00Becoming the barefoot sprinter 42:20“A relationship with the ground is one of being able to relax and melt into a harder, flat, non-yielding surface to some extent, which we try to then soften with shoes, and orthotics, and the big pillows and mattresses and paved surfaces and carpet, and all that stuff. So it’s ironic to look at the progression in that sense, but it is a rejection of the sensation of the ground.” 34:10grahamtuttle.com@thebarefootsprinter

Grayson Murphy is astonishing. She is a current world champion in mountain running, which is a new sport to us, but we’re excited to talk to her about it. She got a bronze this year in the vertical climb for mountain running, and she tells us all about her experience going through the championships. She’s now training and has even recently qualified for going to the Olympics, but has also dealt with some injuries and nerve issues that prevented her from competing and it took a long process of trial and error, but eventually she was able to figure it out and continue training. A bit about Grayson’s experience 1:15How she got into this sport 4:50Moving to running from soccer 14:30Aiming for the olympics 24:10Her boyfriend also shooting high 26:40Self treatment and injury 29:10Mental health and her training logs 34:55Getting a variety of skill sets 43:20“I figured out I had choked out a nerve and so I couldn’t feel a lot of things and I couldn’t get the muscles to turn on, so that’s why it felt dead. It took 4 months of kind of trying to figure out what was wrong, and then once I figured it out it only took 4 weeks to get it up and running again, but it was a long process of trial and error.” 30:36@racin__grayson

Today we talk to Steven Sashen who is the co-founder and CEO of Xero Shoes www.XeroShoes.com. Steven and his wife, Lena Phoenix, started the company after discovering the comfort, benefits, and fun of natural movement, by getting out of thick, padded, motion-controlled shoes. Steven got back into running later in his life and was having all kinds of issues and injuries until someone suggested he try running barefoot to better understand his form in running. He was then able to see clearly that his form was wrong, which naturally corrected itself as he paid attention to this, and then he stopped getting injured and became a better runner. Xero Shoes 1:30Steven’s main sports and training 9:00The Nordic hamstring curl and exercises 11:35What shoe he runs in 13:55His backstory before entering this adventure 30:00Advice for someone coming to a shoe like Xero Shoe 45:00Helping women with arthritis 57:10Static position doesn’t help build strength 61:35Foot coffins 71:10“The way our product line developed is from people saying like you said, ‘I can’t wear anything else, but now I need a shoe for this thing that you don’t currently do.’ That’s how we’ve developed a product line is based on people saying ‘What am I gonna do if I have to go to work and I need a leather shoe?’ OK well we just made a leather casual shoe for you.” 27:05@xeroshoesxeroshoes.com

Katie and Stuart sit down with Kelly Roberts who is the Founder of Badass Lady Gang, a running community created by women for women. This foundation was created to help women find joy in the struggle, providing women of all athletic levels a safe space to have fun and belong. There are some crazy health fads out there and ideas that pop up and grow popular on social media, such as the one where people were pushing the idea that you don’t need much sleep and can be more productive because you’ll have more time, but people weren’t realizing the bad health consequences one can experience when neglecting sleep. Kelly explains bluntly that running is hard and often just isn’t fun, but it’s OK to acknowledge this and just keep moving forward. She has a love/hate relationship with running, but she keeps doing it because she needs it and it gives her fuel for success in her life. About Kelly 1:20The challenges that she often sees 8:30Dating and sports bras 18:00Running an iron man 22:25What’s hard about the running 36:50“You’re never going to get away from that feeling of extreme discomfort and pain, and fear when you’re trying to run as fast as you can in 26.2 miles. That’s just the way it is when you’re doing something like that, but you can change your attitude around it.” 32:17@badassladygangwww.badassladygang.com

Today we welcome our wonderful guest, Morgan Brosnihan, who has been a physical therapist for 6 years and is passionate about helping her patients make progress to keep doing what they love. She is currently living the van life, so she’s always on the move and going all over the place on adventures and half of what she does is by telehealth. We discuss many of the reasons hikers and athletes injure their feet, such as wearing the wrong size shoes and not letting your toes spread out, which can cause issues and eventually injury. Helping people treat themselves 6:40Most common injuries 7:40Set program and telehealth 14:00Growing up 19:00Helping with common injuries 20:30Trying out the insoles 34:45What to wear when hiking 38:30A cause for plantar fasciitis 42:00“Even flexibility is improved by full range of motion strength training, it will make you more flexible than just stretching. So if you do deep squats with weight, you’ll have more flexible hips than if you pigeon all day long.” 26:55@blazephysio campsite.bio/blazephysioblazephysio.com

In this episode join Katie Tsuyuki and Stuart Gordon as they chat about some of the things that have popped up in the other podcasts talking about injuries and how we can help avoid those injuries and keep people recovering from them. Katie experienced some injuries during her snowboarding career and needed some help recovering, which happened when our previous guest, Joe Vecchione, introduced her to the Barefoot insoles. We discuss the importance of brain speed and being able to process things mentally, which can really affect an athlete’s performance and how well they do. ACL injuries and gender 3:30Proprioceptive stimulation 5:50Brain speed 10:55Gait testing 18:15Helping with brain damage 19:30Not just athletes deal with injuries 24:40“To me there’s this massive influence of that sensory nerve stimulus and it’s about stabilizing joints. What you have to do, obviously whatever the underlying cause of these ACL injuries are in female athletes, is you gotta get the muscles around the joints stronger to protect the ligaments.” 6:10

In this episode we have the privilege of speaking with a Canadian soccer coach by the name of Joe Vecchione, who has a diverse background in conditioning from soccer to swimming. We discuss women’s sports and the idea that often there isn’t much incentive for women to keep playing beyond a certain point because of dead ends they might find there. We talk about various exercises, such as those that have to do with your groin, quads, or hamstrings, that athletes should be doing to avoid injuries. Getting stronger in a sport or technique, you also have to make sure you’re preparing with the additional issues that may arise from developing yourself in order to balance things out and be prepared to avoid injury. Special things coming in Joe’s career 1:00Ideas on how to keep girls playing 10:00Snapshot of a day for Joe 17:20Joe’s thoughts on tech, exercises 21:55The Nordic 26:30Recommending the insoles 40:40Testing 46:30Specialization and training 56:00“You have to remember that they’re already training a lot. They’re already training multiple times a week and have a whole sport to prepare for, so you really wanna be as effective as you can with less training…doing a little bit less, but making sure you’re recovering more.” 33:17@joevex

Today we have a wonderful guest from the Canadian snowboarding world who featured in a previous podcast episode if you want to go listen to that one. Crispin is a former Olympic snowboarder and a partner in crime for Katie, specializing in the halfpipe event. Lipscomb made his World Cup debut in December 2002 at Whistler, and made his first podium later that season, with a bronze at Serre Chevalier. Crispin tells us about his experiences in the olympics, injuries and how they have been handled, and then we discuss skiing and sledding in the mountains with a snowmobile and how to make sure you don’t end up with a stranded machine. Crispin’s background 1:00A nasty accident 18:50Dreaming of success 23:55A shocking experience before the Olympic trials 29:40Coaching kids is a tough, tough job 37:10Discipline and structure 40:30Making sure you’re up to check 45:00Going up a slope with a machine to ski or sled down 52:35What he’s doing in Vernon these days 58:45What’s coming up next 75:25“You learn as you go through, they come, they go, time passes, you get fine, but the first time it happens it’s shocking and it’s connected to your self worth, and your dreams and efforts are interrupted. Your goals are—your whole world, the sky falls down. So that was a really important lesson in learning and how to manage those injuries, and learning how to work with the physios and the trainers, and sports psych to put it into proper context.” 19:33@crispinlipscomb