Today’s episode features Dr. Emily Splichal, podiatrist and human movement specialist.  When it comes to the foot, many coaches and athletes realize its’ importance, but due to its’ complexity, we often don’t dig much further than realizing it is important to spend less time in socks and shoes, and more time moving around bare footed.

Dr. Emily Splichal’s background in fitness and training offers a 1-2 punch that makes her an extremely valuable resource to the sport and exercise community.  She is also the creator of Naboso technology, which offers textured surfaces to train on, such as exercise mats and insoles.

Getting the feet to work properly is more than simply going barefoot, however, it is about understanding how the feet pick up sensory information, and then how to use that in exposing athletes to training environments that maximize the sensory capability of the feet.  Too many times we will label a foot as “weak” when it really wasn’t sensing something it needed to in order for the proper muscles to fire and tense up the fascia that spirals up to the legs and trunk.

In today’s podcast, Dr. Splichal will cover the ways that the foot picks up sensations, and how to manipulate training surfaces (and shoes) to maximize these sensations and improve performance.  She also goes into the role of vibration in foot sensation, as well as how athletes must pick up on this vibration to deliver a proper impulse to the ground through the body.  Finally she’ll give us her take on balance based work and the feet, as well as talking about Naboso technology.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.



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Key Points

Different types of nerves within the body, interoceptors and exteroceptors
Ways the skin picks up sensation in the foot and the difference between slow and fast receptors
How to utilize knowledge of the sense receptors in our footwear selection
How vibration and surface type plays in to the athletes relationship with the floor
Balance work in relation to foot sensation and adaptation
Naboso Technology and textured insoles





“The four main mechanoceptors are broken down into two different classifications, two adapt to the stimulus slowly… the other two are fast adapting, which means that they respond to the stimulus and then they shut off… so they need a continuous on/off of a stimulus”

“First slow adapting is Merkel disc and is slow adapting, sensitive to two-point discrimination (best analogy is braille)”

“The second slow adapting is Ruffini ending, which is skin stretch”

“Fast adapting, FA1 and FA2 are sensitive to vibration”

“The vibratory mechanoreceptors are super important because they are tuned to the stimulus of impact… 70% of the receptors in the bottom of the feet are to pick up vibration”

“If cushion in the shoes takes away vibration, it took away some of my athlete’s potential energy”

“(On properly using elastic energy) You don’t want to be using your muscles for work, to take each step, when you do that you fatigue the muscular system and cardiovascular system”

“Every surface vibrates differently”

“Surfaces need to be a symbiotic relationship between the foot and the ground”

“Dancing with the ground is the art and science of impact forces”

“You have to have a sense of your body in space, how hard you are striking the ground, the rhythm of your movement patterns, the grace”

“If you wear socks, wear as thin of a sock as possible… as much as I can I encourage people to go without a sock”

“Surface hardness is really important, the softer the surface starts to become the more you disconnect the stimulus between surface, foot and brain”

“Plantar fasciitis,  Achilles tendonitis, IT band syndrome, runners knee… all of those are vibration based i...