#146 | A Strong Foundation for Athleticism | Tyler Benner of Strong Feet Athletics

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If you are like me you have been investing time and effort into getting stronger and building a foundation of health with a variety of activities including resistance training, endurance exercise, high intensity intervals, and playing games requiring hand-eye coordination. I thought that was enough but what I haven't been doing is working directly on my foundation as an athlete....my feet. In my daily routine I do not have a single drill or protocol for making my toes and feet stronger to better control my body. And when I look at my feet I can see the impact of a life of wearing shoes that are pointy and tight. I have shoe shaped feet, and it turns out that shoe shaped feet are not very good for what I need my feet to do...control my balance, agility and dexterity. Oh, and it turns out that shoe shaped feet are also not good for producing power. Dang.

Today is going to be a treat. On episode 146 I am joined by Tyler Benner, who is an athlete just like us who discovered that his athletic performance, which was world class in archery, was sub-optimized by his poor foot strength. Tyler joins us today to explain his long journey to figure out how to improve himself and his feet to improve his athleticism.

1. "Athletes deserve to know"....what do strong feet look like and what can strong feet do? how do you know if you have strong feet?
2. "Performance isn't always what we think it is"... In other words, how much performance improvement are we missing by only focusing on just strength or power output? Power is important, but what else is important in athletic performance? Where does agility and balance and dexterity come into play in your sport?

Here's two great videos for strengthening your feet:

Foot Mobility Fix (3 Fast, Effective Exercises!)

Build Big Toe Strength

Strong feet must have space to spread your toes for optimal force production, agility, power, and balance.

Bio: Tyler Benner

• Strong Feet Athletics was founded by Tyler Benner, internationally competitive Olympic archer and author. With a deep study of the human body, Tyler believes good posture and daily movement help people do life better.
• Tyler takes a holistic approach to posture and foot health. Inspired by Katy Bowman’s concept of Nutritious Movement, or how movement variety can be thought of like food groups, Tyler believes a well-rounded movement diet is required for optimal foot strength and balance.
• https://youtu.be/d262lidaOPo?feature=shared (foot transformation)
• https://www.strongfeetathletics.com
• Follow: 1) @venndesign 2) @astraarchery 3) @strongfeetathletics

Bullet points:

• Foot Mobility Fix (3 Fast, Effective Exercises!) by Z-Health
• Build Big Toe Strength
• The number of hours spent training is minimal compared to our other waking hours.
• Improving posture alignment matters most during our non-training hours because this is where our unconscious habits are formed.
• 1-2 hours of “good posture” during training does not offset the 8-12 hours spent slouching in everyday life.
• Slouching is easy to do and not realize it is happening because we are unable to imagine life outside of gravity similar to how fish cannot imagine a reality outside of water.

Related info and episodes:

• Episode 89 -- Better Athleticism via Foot-Core Connection w/Dr Emily Splichal
• Episode 74 -- Un-f*k Your Feet w/Dr Ray McClanahan
• Episode 54 -- Better Posture, More Power, Less Pain w/Annette Verpillot

More Tyler Benner info:

• https://thetoespacer.com/products/rock-mat
• https://fasciitisfighter.com/products/fasciitis-fighter-round-2
• https://pranamat.com/
• https://footlog.com/collections/all-product
• https://www.tuneupfitness.com/shop/massage-ball-kits/roll-model-starter-kit
• https://a.co/d/7KdU0Ph

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