The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Unlocking Foot Health: Barefoot Training, Shoe Selection, and Recovery with Dr. Emily Splichal - Episode #238
Unlock the secrets of barefoot training and sensory-based movement with Dr. Emily Splichal, a functional podiatrist and human movement specialist who brings over 23 years of expertise. Sharing her fascinating journey from competitive gymnastics to her innovative work with Naboso Technologies, where she has developed products like insoles and the NeuroBall. These tools are designed to enhance foot activation, strength, and recovery, promising a universal boost to your overall movement and performance, no matter your age or athletic level.
Our deep dive into footwear selection reveals the evolution and impact of barefoot training and minimal footwear. Dr. Splichal dispels common misconceptions about barefoot running and provides practical advice for choosing the right shoes based on your unique foot type and injury history. She emphasizes a balanced approach, advocating for minimal shoes during gym workouts and shorter runs, while recommending more supportive options for high-impact activities like marathons.
We explore the crucial role of foot recovery, especially in the age of "super shoes" with advanced foam technology. Dr. Splichal discusses how modern footwear can affect proprioception and increase injury risks, but offers solutions like awareness-enhancing insoles and foot recovery tools such as the NeuroBall and toe spacers. Additionally, she highlights the importance of using clean, organic products on the skin and shares practical foot recovery techniques that can dramatically enhance athletic performance. Tune in to discover how prioritizing foot health can prevent injuries and elevate your fitness journey.
Powered by Perfect Sports Supplements use "AP20" to save 20%!
--
Get your Vivobarefoot Shoes 20% off by using the code: ATHLETEPOD20
--
Save 20% on Naboso Products by using the code: AP20
--
Want to see more of the AP? Subscribe to the AP YouTube channel.
--
Check out Dr. Splichal's stuff:
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
--
Check out Dave's stuff:
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
--
Try Can-I-Wellness Sleep Product
--
Get 20% off Caldera Lab Men's Skincare Products
--
Other episodes you might enjoy:
Check out our Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tiktok | Spotify | Apple | Google | Youtube l Save 20% on Perfect Sports Supplements
this is the 238th episode of the athletes podcast and we are sponsored by perfect sports supplements. They produce the best protein powder on the market. Also some of the best protein bars on the market my favorite frosted cinnabun flavor. It's also my mom's favorite. We've been crushing them basically almost every single day. So good 17 grams of protein for only two grams of sugar. Those macros way better than a cinnamon bun. In reality. That's all I'm saying. Perfect Sports powers the Athletes Podcast and if you haven't yet, use the code AP20 at checkout to save 20%. Now let's get to the 238th episode, featuring Dr Emily Spickle.
Speaker 1:Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the Athlet podcast, where high performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go. No, that's uh. That's like I said.
Speaker 1:This will be the first time ever recording with someone who I actually can't see on the other side, but you are going to record it this way, so I love it. Hey, we get to learn a ton about the art of barefoot training, noboso technologies and a little bit more of you know what. This is your expertise and I wanted to do this new thing too, because we get to chop all this stuff up and I don't really care. Our editor, ryan, does an amazing job. Now, how would you introduce yourself? We're going to kick it off this way If you had 30 seconds, because I have one that I pre-record, that I do afterwards, but I want you to start it off and then, that way, I can build off of it afterwards.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So Dr Emlyn Slickle, a functional podiatrist, human movement specialist, I've been in the fitness industry for over 23 years, Former competitive gymnast, which that barefoot sport ties into what I do, which is my passion for barefoot body weight based movement. And then I'm also the CEO and founder of Noboso, which is a sensory based product line that I use to really help people access their feet. My passion, besides feet, is movement, longevity and really doing that through a sensory experience and connecting to our feet, body and movement through that sensory.
Speaker 1:Dr Splickle, thank you for coming on the show. I appreciate your time sincerely and I'm going to be diving into a ton of this. I first off have to say thank you for sending over some products, both the ball as well as the insoles. I've been using them basically every single day, as I'm wearing this shirt here now. I was just up, like I was mentioning to you, at Kelowna Hockey Fest and before all of the testing that I went through, before all of the movements, every day I was rolling out on that ball, breaking it in half, using both pieces on my feet, and I'd love for you to dive into the technology around it, because everyone's used some form of sensory kind of input foam rollers and what you've built is unique, it's patented and ultimately it's stimulating the brain as well as the muscles that it's activating. I'm doing a mediocre job of explaining it in layman's terms. Let's get the expert to do it.
Speaker 2:That's okay. So you were showing Neboso. So our insoles and our neural ball, which are two of our many products, and all of the products, have these tiny little pyramids on them and those little pyramids create a texture. That, yes, is patented. But the nerves in the bottom of the feet and the palm of the hand are special nerves. They're called mechanoceptors and they are sensitive to different stimuli. Texture, or really it's two-point discrimination, is one of that stimuli and that's what the Nobosa products are based off of. We are based off of research. We've done our own research and then really, our products, whether it's the insole, socks, Neuroball, whatever the product that people are using. There's three things that I have people focus on Foot activation or awareness. Do you even feel your feet when you're on the ice or on the court or whatever it is that you're doing? What is your foot strength? Sensory stimulation strengthens foot muscles. And then foot recovery. We have to recover our feet just like we recover any other part of our body.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I was listening to you on the Ben Greenfield podcast and you were talking about posterior pelvic floor, live at our AI and all that fun stuff, and you know I I'm sure we can dive deep into this, but I want to keep this maybe simple to start, and then we can do go through some progressions. I also want to take into consideration the fact that you come from a gymnast background. We just watched the Olympics. We all know how incredible those athletes are. I think every athlete can learn something from everyone else within the athletics field, and I want to highlight the fact that over the next 30, 40 minutes here, we're going to probably gather a ton of information that can be applied to any athlete. Am I right?
Speaker 2:100%. What I teach is applicable in every aspect of human movement. Here we're talking about athletic movement, so that is going to be any sport, because really I talk about gravity and foot to ground relationships and then how that controls your center of mass.
Speaker 1:Okay, and this could be the eight-year-old athlete that is just trying to get onto the house league hockey team, or the 80-year-old grandmother who's trying to get onto the house league hockey team, or the 80 year old grandmother who's trying to make sure that she can stay up with her grandkids and play all day right 100% what I speak about.
Speaker 2:if you have feet, a body or movement, it applies.
Speaker 1:Love it, okay. So what should we be prioritizing? Because we know first off we should be rocking the Vivo barefoot. That's the first off. We should be rocking the vivo barefoots. That's the first progression we can make. Get that footwear. Uh, someone like mark up here in canada who I was fortunate to connect with through, also barefoot canada stewart wakefield we were able to get some vivo barefoots. I've been doing it kind of just sporadically over the past few years, mainly because it feels better when you train barefoot at times. But obviously now there's a ton of science behind it. The Canucks have adopted their entire team wearing Vivo barefoots. Tyler Myers and I were chatting this past week up in Kelowna. He's been wearing them for half a decade. Where else can people be adopting this throughout their daily life so that they can make sure they're receiving the benefits of barefoot training, walking activation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I like to start by saying that our feet are the only contact point between the body and the ground, so that's an important relationship. There's thousands of nerves in the skin in the bottom of the feet and then there's 26 small muscles in the bottom of the feet. All of that fascinating anatomy connects into your deep core, which then stabilizes your hips and your pelvis glutes, which is a powerhouse. So part of it is about thinking about the footwear. That's where you were speaking about Vivo Barefoot and being in more minimal shoes with less cushion, so you can feel the ground and feel the impact forces. You can use it as energy. It's thinking about shoes that are also freely movable so your foot can articulate in the way that it is designed to move, that you can get the range of motion. Other ways that I play into that would be can you put a little bit more intent behind the contraction of the foot Meaning?
Speaker 2:What I often say is that the strength of the human foot lies within the toes. So if you want strong feet, which is our body's foundation, you have to have strong toes. So every athlete I don't care what sport it is, I don't care if you're barefoot or shod, you have to have strong toes. So every athlete I don't care what sport it is, I don't care if you're barefoot or shod you have to have strong toes because that is where your foot strength lies. And the way that you activate your toes is when they anchor or push down into the ground.
Speaker 2:And there are lots of research studies that are correlating toe flexor strength, which is essentially what I'm talking about, with vertical jump acceleration, balance force production. So this correlation of your anchor during this athletic movement. So that's really important. And you mentioned the levator a9, the posterior pelvic floor. Your toes fascially connect into your posterior pelvic floor, which is how you stabilize your pelvis to activate your glutes. So there's a cascade of events that happen from our foot. The footwear is part of it, the strength is part of it, and then, obviously, there's the recovery more into fashion, things like that but I really like the foot strength and, in my opinion, when I work with athletes, it's the one thing that's being overlooked, one of the most common things that's being overlooked.
Speaker 1:Okay, you mentioned, it's being overlooked. I look from a completely unbiased, unobjective point of view and I'm like, hey, my kid's wearing skates when he plays hockey. So, why the heck do they need to have a strong foot if they're in a skate the whole time? Doctor.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, I give you that. So I consider this barefoot before shod, and I've been advocating this for a decade that, yes, we have sports that are shod, like basketball, let's say. But basketball is different than hockey right, or even skiing, because those are fixed boots, essentially, where there is no flexibility to the footwear that they are in, but you still have to be able to access the digits and the muscles that are in this fixed object, and I think that oftentimes that's overlooked, that your foot is still in there, your toes are still moving to some degree. Sure, they're compressed, but can we pre-activate these sequences of stability, a stability sequence that exists between your feet and your core before you get into the skates, so that you're primed, you're ready to go? Those glutes are on fire because we have activated the deep core stabilizers through the feet or with the feet. Now put on your skates and let's go. That's how I like to view it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know the benefits of doing this. I only have to ask from a devil's advocate point of view, and I'm curious because I'm helping coach a high school basketball team here locally and one of the things that I'm preaching is barefoot training and even going and doing some sprints out locally here on some grass and, as crazy as that might sound to some, the benefits have been profound to me and others. I'd love for you to share what you've seen over the years the transition from maybe a couple of decades ago, the knowledge that we've been able to obtain even over the past few years. What or I guess the better question would be what was that paradigm shifting moment for you when you realized the benefits?
Speaker 2:So I was aware of the benefits more than a decade ago, but it was brought to the forefront 2008, 9, 10, like those years when the barefoot running boom hit, the born to run book, hit the market, and that's really where it kind of hit mass consumerism, you could say, around minimal shoes and this idea of barefoot movement and I am putting that in quotes even though you might not see it, but I put it in quotes and then what that did, mind you, you had all these barefoot sports that existed. So that's why I love that I was a gymnast, because it's authentically barefoot. It's not like let's be barefoot because it's trendy, it's just authentically barefoot because that's how you are connecting to the movement. It's just the historical aspect of it. I treat many, many dancers which are oftentimes barefoot, so that brought this different appreciation to the foot.
Speaker 2:Then came the barefoot running boom, the Born to Run book, and then there was this awareness around minimal shoes and feet. Now, at that time it was a pivotal point in my career because I actually left my whole podiatry track and went back to school to get my master's in human movement, where I spent two years studying nothing but barefoot science and I was like I'm really going to delve into this niche because I want to understand it and then bring my fitness background with my podiatric medicine background and bridge it with this human movement focused on barefoot science. So why I mentioned all of that is because back then, a decade ago, everyone thought that to do barefoot movement in quotes again you had to be a runner. That that's where barefoot fits and that is not at all what I was ever advocating and that's not what the whole impact of this idea could be.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people, when there was bad press around the five finger shoes and there were injuries and the New York Times put these articles out and people would be like Dr Emily, are you concerned that that's going to damage your job security and what you're advocating? And it just debunks all the science you talk about. And I was like absolutely not, cause I'm talking about barefoot training, barefoot running. If you barefoot, that does not mean you have to be a runner. I don't run, I train barefoot right. So now to get to really what you want to hear. Now there's more and more research around barefoot training foot strengthening, short foot for these athletes, minimal shoes and the positive benefit on foot muscle strength, injury prevention, athletic force production acceleration. There's a lot of evidence behind it now.
Speaker 1:Excuse me. I've just seen the evidence completely anecdotally over the past six months and I can safely say it's been extraordinary From your perspective. I just ran a Spartan half marathon this past weekend up at Big White in Kelowna, british Columbia. That was absolutely atrocious weather. It started at four degrees hail, snow, rain the entire five hours. It was disgusting.
Speaker 1:But I cannot even imagine running that barefoot. And there are people out there doing this and there are people that put their body through insane feats just to be able to say that they could and that they did. Kind of like the Spartan race all things considered. But I'm curious what would be your suggestion? Because as I train here for the Toronto Marathon, I understand the benefits of barefoot training. I understand the benefits of barefoot training. I also am not going to run any extended length in my Vivo barefoots because that's going to do some damage to my body. So how do you maybe mitigate that? Is it a basically combination of using the two in conjunction? How do you suggest people program that in so that they can, I guess, get the benefits of both?
Speaker 2:suggest people program that in so that they can, I guess, get the benefits of both. Yes, absolutely. So I answer this a little bit like a politician, in the sense that I'm like it depends. But when I guide people into barefoot training, barefoot running, footwear decisions based off of activity, maybe they want to be totally minimal all the time, even standing on their feet as a nurse 12 hours a day on concrete or something like that. That doesn't correlate with the footwear of what we're thinking is.
Speaker 2:I always look at it objectively and say what is your foot type? That's important. That's part of how we make this decision of. Is Vivo barefoot? For me it might not be, because it's not for everyone. It has to depend on your foot type. What is your injury history?
Speaker 2:Let's say, just as an example, you, as an athlete, you're constantly combating with plantar fasciitis. Well, that's a little bit different conversation than as far as well, how do I want you to navigate this minimal footwear, barefoot training prescription right? Or, let's say, running a marathon? And then the third would be what is the stressor that you're going to put the foot under? Okay, meaning, you know, individual A wants to use minimal shoes or be totally barefoot when they're at the gym and they're doing their lifts, olympic lifting, kettlebells, whatever it is Love it. I love that environment for being totally barefoot or minimal.
Speaker 2:Maybe doing shorter runs. Okay, the demands are a little bit higher on the foot because you have these vibrational impact forces coming in. You're running on a single leg? Okay, there's just higher force and acceleration. Okay, let me think about those three things I just mentioned. Okay, maybe shorter runs. And then if you start to get some foot pain, we say, okay, that's going to be your ceiling. If you're going to run further than a 5K or a 10K, because that's when your foot starts to hit a fatigue point, I'm going to put you say, let's go transitional versus totally minimal for you because of your foot type, your injury history and your foot strength.
Speaker 2:As an example, a marathon totally barefoot is a very small percent of people who can actually do that and that should not be the beacon of achievement of ultimate foot strength. Some of it's the luck of the draw, their genetics, maybe they've never played a sport before and they picked up marathon running now, so they don't have all the injuries of a teenage athlete now in their 40s or 50s. So you have to look at this individualized but just for the listeners kind of bigger picture. I like to use minimal footwear as a way to strengthen the foot in a lower impact meaning training in the gym or a shorter run, and then I will recommend more of a transitional. If they're doing something like a marathon that's for the majority of people I will say shorter runs, do this Okay. When you're pushing that marathon, we're going to be in something like this marathon. That's for the majority of people I will say shorter runs, do this Okay. When you're pushing that marathon, we're going to be in something like this.
Speaker 1:Cool. I, uh I can sit in that bucket there and I'm happy with that. You've got to laugh. I am kind of flabbergasted now at the height of some of these shoes that are coming out, and the amount of foam underneath is kind of crazy. Like there's gotta be an increase in ankle injuries. There's gotta be issues that you see as a someone who studies this for a living.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So, super shoes, super shoes such as well Hoka kind of started this thing, and then the new balance foam, if people remember that, and then of course, the Nike Nike one. That is an actual, like quote unquote super shoe. I get it, there's a lot of technology in the foam of what they're using, but really that carbon fiber interface is what is optimizing that foam that they're using or the cushion technology that they use. But for a majority of us, for a majority of us, the higher the stack, so the more the cushion, the higher you are off of the ground. It changes your awareness and your perception of where your foot and ankle are in space. So the only thing that I would say on that a lot of people that will use it and sometimes I recommend it for forefoot issues like helix rigidus bunions.
Speaker 2:Second MPJ issues neuromas, metatarsalgia. They're really good for things like that. I then tell them to put something like the Neboso insole into it so that they're bringing an awareness to an otherwise sensorily disconnected environment. So let's somehow take our understanding of barefoot science and apply it to all environments, including something like a hoka. I mean, why not? Right, yeah, 100%, yeah, Yep, Okay, yeah, you shared about the insoles, which is great. The NeuroBall so that is what we teach at Nebosa, and what I just advocate as a functional podiatrist is releasing your feet every day. This is just in general. This has nothing to do with athletics right now, but in the morning and the evening with the neuro ball, it's nice because you can release both feet at the same time in like two minutes. And I tell people to do it when they brush their teeth.
Speaker 2:Let's say you did this after or before a training session or before you play a game or whatever it is, and then immediately after so before you get into your skates, and then you get out of your skates For sure, after the skates it's going to feel so good because you're restricted, your muscles are contracting. Even though you don't realize it, the foot muscles are working really hard in the skates and in boots and things like that. That it's really beneficial for that. So that's one thing. You also mentioned the toe spacers, which I love, and I've been obsessed with toe spacers before. We started selling them at Naboso and now they're very, very trendy.
Speaker 2:And I think it was back in March the Wall Street Journal did a article and a feature on the economics of toe spacers and they're like what is this silly thing that is making so much money in this foot recovery space? And they're like this is ridiculous, this toe spacer seriously. And then they featured all the professional athletes and celebrities that are so into toe spacers and they're like, huh, who would have thought? But I absolutely love toe spacers. They're one of the easiest ways to recover your feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now they got a bunch of OnlyFans kids on there too. I had people looking at me funny during university when I was rocking the toe spacers. The roommates questioned a lot of the things that I did, but nonetheless it's something that I had to get, uh, aware of. You know, as a hockey goalie, my toes were squished together for years and you know I care about the longevity and want to make sure that I'm living a healthy, active lifestyle and that also just from an aesthetic standpoint like it makes your feet look better as well, your balance improves and it kind of feels nice, almost like a stretch massage for your feet look better as well, your balance improves and it kind of feels nice, almost like a stretch massage for your feet.
Speaker 1:I imagine something similar for your hands would feel really good. There's probably hand. There are hand massages out there. Um, do you worry about like creams, stuff being applied to that? Does that impact how your body absorbs any of this stuff? I'm also just so aware now of what we're putting onto our skin, how it's absorbed. Do you have any concern about that around the hands palms?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so I actually work with several other brands, one of them specifically, it's called Vosch, but they are all about clean, organic ingredients and they have like 500 ingredients that they don't use in their products because people don't realize that your hands and your feet, or really any of your skin, is a very large organ and it absorbs literally everything that you're putting on it. We will think about sometimes what we ingest, like, okay, I only do organic versus non-organic fruits or whatever it is, but then we overlook, oh, the lotion I put on or the shampoo I use. I mean, there's toxins everywhere, which is a whole other side tangent. But yes, on your feet, your feet absorb a lot, a lot, a lot, and if you're thinking about foot recovery in general, that's every aspect of it. What I was going to mention because you had asked about what are some things that we could do, or like you were being a skeptic or calling like plain bullshit on some of the barefoot for hockey or something like that is for the listeners that they're like I don't know about this foot thing yet I'm not sold.
Speaker 2:I'm in my boots, I'm in my skates, they're rigid. It's just focus on the foot recovery. You don't even have to strengthen the foot right now. The door into how powerful the foot can be is by just thinking about what you do when you take your shoes off, when you get off the court, or your skates off, when you're off the ice, whatever sport it is, and just recover your feet, do the, do the neural ball release and do the toe spacers or something like that, and literally just incorporate those two simple things. You will start to awaken this newfound appreciation for your foundation and that I almost guarantee like I guarantee my medical degree on this that then you will start to say, huh, what if I actually thought of my feet when I was doing that deadlift or if I'm doing that squat? Right, what is it going to do to my strength and to the overall connection to the movement? And then, po poof, then you're down the whole rabbit hole of how powerful the feet are.
Speaker 1:What are some of the craziest stories, impacts that you've been able to see, both firsthand or from afar, I think about. You know, I've started doing some testing with the athletes that I work with and seeing the results over the next few months that we've already seen this summer frankly has been exciting to say the least, and I'm just scratching the surface. Having, you know, talked with a bunch of professionals like yourself, I'm sure you've experienced some world-class results with world-class athletes. Any that you want to highlight, share, bring to light.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So some of it of where I could say this is as of late with the Neboso products which. So Neboso is tapping into the sensory side of the foot. It gets people to think about foot recovery and just the overall circulation role that the foot has as well in sports. So Grant Holloway, who he won the gold medal on the 110-meter hurdles, he uses Neboso. He reached out to us because his Pilates instructor uses Neboso with him when she does her sessions in the studio. He reached out and this is like in no way a paid partnership but he was like these products are helping me and like his feet are gold right, like literally they're gold.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of not just US base but pole vaulters, high jumpers, other sprinters, a lot within the track and fields, every professional sport, and then I personally treated a lot of Olympic and pro athletes where the only reason I mentioned that is that they are starting to seek a little bit more of an outside of the box of why does one injury start to almost like unravel the sweater, and now I have this other injury and then I have this other injury, and then they spend the rest of their career casing injuries and that's where I try to get them to get back to the foundation, to how we stabilize and that our nervous system and our fascial system was designed to stabilize, and that is from our feet to our pelvic floor, and like if you can reestablish that and use that as your anchor in a sense.
Speaker 2:Before you train, before you lift, I teach ways to essentially reactivate that neurological pathway between foot stabilizers and pelvic stabilizers, because then everything starts to kind of just quiet down a little bit.
Speaker 2:If you can quiet or kind of damp the fire a little bit, then that can be very, very powerful, because one injury that's not fully healed or you have a little partial tear in some connective tissue, it just starts to. I call them little monkey like. It's like a little monkey wrench that tries to keep unraveling your sweater. And as a former athlete, I have my own, so I can personally feel this and understand how I, just like I don't stabilize exactly the same on my right side as my left because of chronic injury. And you know I as much as I try to do through my work is to get these athletes to understand their body so that they can also take ownership of the stabilization pathways and how they need to prep for their sport versus the other 30 people on the team. Like you might need something a little extra before you get on the ice that all your other teammates don't need, and that's really powerful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what Stuart said. He's like if you talk about anything, make sure you mention the fact that you are on the forefront of injury prevention here. With what you're doing and I imagine this could also be from a recovery standpoint as well stimulating those neurons. Like examples of how you would incorporate that in, is that an immediate thing post-surgery, or is that something that you could be doing anywhere lower body or upper body? Frankly, to regain that, I'm assuming as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. One example could be. So let's say someone had a scope on their knee just making this up but that means that the joint capsule of the knee was perturbed and irritated. Now you're recovering from it. Well, your joint capsule is packed with nerve endings. Let's use either like a vibration tool and really lightly, almost like tickle, the joint capsule. That keeps stimulating those nerves. Use the neuro stick and kind of rub it around the joint capsule, still being mindful, you just had surgery but you're trying to continuously wake up and feed into the nervous system. That's just one example.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think of like Phoenix Copley, a buddy of mine who we had on the show, had ACL reconstruction. It would be like a perfect example of someone who he also rocks vivo barefoots and it's like you need that as a recovery modality that you can stack in. And there's a reason why these individuals are coming back from injuries in two months instead of four months, and it's thanks to Neboso technology, amongst others. And it's thanks to Neboso technology, amongst others. I can't thank you enough, dr Slickall, for coming on the show and sharing your knowledge, wisdom, expertise. I told you before we started recording I need like an in-person demo of how this all works, how I can maximize all of your technologies, because I'm a believer in it. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, but the other thing that I think would be beneficial for those listening, if they've gotten this far, is what other suggestions you would have.
Speaker 1:We normally wrap up by asking our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes. You've dropped 30 minutes of gold. You've got Grant Holloway asking for your products, using your stuff on a daily basis Grant Holloway asking for your products, using your stuff on a daily basis and I can only imagine that this number of individuals using it is going to increase, especially now that we've got the little AP bump here. But from your standpoint, you include all of your Neboso technology. You're training a bit of barefoot. You maybe get a couple low runs in there. You know, for my basketball athletes who are 15, 16, 17 years old, should they be training, doing their runs on grass barefoot, doing some sprint training barefoot? Should they be going out, maybe walking in the ocean barefoot? What other things can they be doing to maximize their foot health? Because it seems like everyone should be focusing on their feet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely Everyone should be focusing on their feet, focusing on their foot strength. I mean, get your shoes off when you're doing your lifts, get into your toes. That's what I'm going to like underline. Exclamation point is that this is in like a commercial gym where it's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you did that. I am like walk over to them.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, because I am barefoot in the commercial gym and it completely will change the way that you connect to movement. I would also say, play with the Pilates, play with how you can connect to your movement. I actually love to do movement with my eyes shut and can you really feel the movement? Like? How connected are you to your movement? The mind-body interoception side of movement really is the future of where athletic performance is going to go, and the sooner that you can get teenagers to appreciate that that is, that is powerful and I'm not asking them to meditate like we won't go there, but they have to have a connection to the subconscious aspect of their movement. And that does start with your feet, because your feet are like your eyes to the, to the ground right.
Speaker 1:It is so fitting that you just said that I went through a similar hour-long drill with james wenland and a couple nhl goalies this past week up in colonna where he was doing some foot work, some closed eye work incorporating everything that you just talked about, so I we're gonna have to connect you guys.
Speaker 1:This is wild how things work. Um, and he literally said that that is the future of athletic training as well. Um, you're two peas in a pod, uh, thank you. Thank you so much again. Uh, where can people find you on social media so that they can seek out more of your information, wisdom, knowledge, when it's not on the athletes podcast?
Speaker 2:absolutely so. My instagram is the functional foot doc and that is also my website for my practice. So just in case anyone's curious on how I practice. And then Naboso is n-a-b-o-s-ocom, and then on Instagram, naboso underscore technology.
Speaker 1:Amazing, and we'll have to figure out a way to get a little discount code for our AP listeners so that they can get their Neboso technology and shout you guys out on social media everywhere.
Speaker 2:Absolutely A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much, doctor, we appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Want to make sure you folks know you can get 20% off using the code AP 20 at checkout on all perfect sports supplements, whether that's protein, creatine, glutamine, pre workout, post workout everything you need, you can find it at perfect sports. Use the code ab20. Let me know what you think. Thanks so much, and hey, that was the 238th episode of the athletes podcast. Thank you, folks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed the show, hit the thumbs up. If you didn't like it, let me know why. Because I want to make sure we do this better every single week and make sure that you folks are enjoying this and that you come back so that we can keep doing this for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Because it'd be pretty cool to talk with the world's best athletes, leading practitioners and ultimately up-leveling everyone that watches the show. That'd be pretty cool, right? Hey, maybe I'm ambitious. I hope you have a great rest of your day, week, month, whenever you're consuming this. We'll see you next time on the Athletes Podcast. Bye.
