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- [Mike] This video is sponsored by Nike.
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You ever hear the commercial, "Be like Mike?"
They weren't talking about Dr. Mike,
they're talking about this guy.
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Oh my god guys I can't believe
I'm actually saying this,
I'm officially teamed up with Nike.
What am I gonna be doing with Nike?
Running the LA Half Marathon,
13.1 miles come April 5th.
I've never ran a half marathon before,
it's my very first.
I'm really nervous
'cause I'm not really an endurance runner,
I'm more like a high-intensity interval type guy.
This is gonna be tough.
I'm really excited for it because A,
it's a challenge,
B, it's stepping outside my comfort zone.
And one of the main reasons
I'm excited about it is because Nike
also wants me to test their new shoe
called to React Infinity.
This is the woman shoe,
this is the men's shoe.
Actually refer this one probably a little bit better,
I'm a man that likes wearing pink,
I guess not a big deal.
But first I wanna talk to you
about my trip to the Nike World Headquarters.
(upbeat music)
Yo I got these Nike React Infinity shoes,
they're fire, they're gonna help you build dams.
You have no idea
the kind of dams you could build
if you get these shoes.
I got you.
The coolest thing right off the bat
in visiting Nike World Headquarters
is the feeling that you're surrounded by greatness.
They have buildings dedicated
to the greatest athletes in the world.
I think my favorite building
that I visited there was the Michael Jordan building.
Growing up, Michael Jordan was one of my biggest heroes,
and seeing their collection on display
of every single Jordan shoe
that has been released to date, was insane.
My favorite Jordan shoe was the 17.
I know it's kind of a peculiar one,
most people would say is 17,
but that was the first shoe I was able to afford
when I came to the US.
Now I never read the book "Shoe Dog"
by Phil Knight,
but that essentially tells the story
of how Nike started,
and during this tour they showed us
the intimate story of how Nike began
as Blue Ribbon Sports.
How that first Nike logo was developed
and sold for something like $25.
They showed us the first shoes
that were created by Nike.
Moving on, we were able to check out
the different sport facilities
they had there.
In fact they let me get a few jump shots
in on the basketball courts.
I was draining threes,
well maybe, like at a 30% completion rate
on the same court
where LBJ and MJ practice,
at some point.
Obviously also got to check out their track,
there was actually some Olympic athletes training on it.
I'm not gonna disclose anything,
but that was uber cool.
And then I was able to take
to the track.
It was a little wet,
it was a little slippery,
but I was in the zone,
I was hitting my stride,
then I realized I'm not in that great shape,
and I became out of breath
and I realized I'm gonna have to train really hard
for this half marathon.
Let's talk about the React Infinity Run Shoe.
Nike wanted to create a shoe
that would reduce running injuries.
Over the last thirty years
we have not seen a reduction in running injuries,
despite the fact that we're putting
all these new technologies into our shoes.
I'm gonna be giving you my honest feedback
as to how it feels on my foot,
but let's talk about the research
and how they got to consider the shoe
to be a running related injury reduction shoe.
Over this last 30 years,
most of the blame for running related injuries
came from individuals who overpronate.
Meaning that when they run,
their foot inverts a little bit,
just like this.
You'll often times see in the edge of the sneaker
on the medial side,
or the middle side,
start to wear faster than the outer side,
that could be a sign of overpronating.
And because of that a bunch of shoes hit the market
that were Labeled Stability shoes,
or Motion Control Shoes.
Those shoes had maybe extra dense foam here,
or medial posting here,
which is like a thickened material,
in order to help stabilize your foot
for each time your foot strikes the ground.
The creators of this shoe
told us that they wanted to flip
this whole theory on its head.
- And we put lots of prototypes
on lots of different athletes,
and when we have them run,
we listen to what they say.
We measure all sorts of stuff
while we have them, we're evaluating them,
but we're also always talking to them
and listening to what they say.
And when you do that with this prototype,
that prototype, a different prototype,
the thing that they always keep coming back
to the tells us feels good, is cushioning.
- Cushioning, a rocker style bottom
so the shoe translates its motion well,
and keeping that Flyknit upper,
so it's really thin and breathable and light,
but also a really lock down heel,
so you have decent stability in the back end here.
And they tested it, it was a randomized controlled study
of about 200 participants,
male and female.
They broke them up randomly into two groups,
half the groups ran in this shoe,
the other half ran in the Nike Structure 22 shoe,
which is a motion control shoe.
What did they find?
Those who ran in the React Infinity shoe here,
had a 52% less likelihood
of developing an injury.
How do they classify these running related injuries?
Well if the runners experienced pain
due to running,
and it caused them to miss three or more runs,
that considered a running related injury.
You know me,
when it comes to people doing medical research
I'm a skeptic first.
Especially if it's some kind of revolutionary new study.
It's very rare that one study comes along
and changes the way we've been doing things.
Because the way you normally do it is you have
a hypothesis generating study,
then a pilot study,
and then you start adopting and figuring out
how to change what you're doing.
In this case, they had a hypothesis,
let's do away with motion control
and focus more on cushioning here.
They did this first study,
and it was a small study,
they admit that.
They admit that they there's a lot
that they don't know.
In fact when Jay Worobets was giving us his speech
at the Nike World Headquarters,
I was really impressed.
Because of how many similarities there were
between the research he was doing in the Nike lab,
to how I treat my patients.
First of all,
he was not afraid to say, I don't know.
- The challenge is that that they're just,
there really isn't a lot of information
that's really, really, well-known.
Like for example, exactly how many runners
are getting injured each year?
We don't know.
What are the the mechanisms of these injuries,
we really don't know.
This is a scenario where the answers aren't there.
We have to figure this out,
we want you guys to come on a journey with us
so we can solve this.
- I appreciate that level of humility.
Second, instead of just looking at objective measures,
they also ask athletes what worked for them.
- When there aren't these well-known
scientific this knowledge,
where we always start is with the voice of our athletes.
We work with our athletes,
we you know put lots of different shoes on them,
lots of different prototypes,
and we're constantly talking to them.
Sure we're in the lab with our metrics
and we're analyzing everything,
their kinematics, their kinetics, yeah,
but we're also listening to their voice
and saying you know, "What feels good,
"what feels good, what feels good,
"what feels good,"
and went over and over and over again,
the answer's the same, cushioning.
When you give me cushioning
and you do it right,
that's what feels good,
so my body feels good,
well, that's where we're starting from.
- When I see my patients
yes, I look at their vital signs,
yes I look at their lab values,
but I also talk to the human sitting in front of me.
There's a lot of value in that.
And I'm glad that Nike's seeing
that talking to their athletes,
gives them value.
When I say athletes, I don't just mean
their top tier athletes like LeBron James,
I'm talking about Weekend Warriors,
I'm talking about you at home
who wears Nike sneakers to go for a run once a month.
You're an athlete too and they're listening to you.
If you're with me for the ride,
I'm dropping a link down below
for you to sign up for the Nike Half Marathon,
13.1 miles, come on baby it's doable,
we can do it together.
I'm gonna be training in the Nike React Infinity shoe,
giving you my honest feedback about it.
My goal is to make one video during my training
to let you know how it's going,
and in the second video it's gonna be race day,
showing you whether or not
I made it to the finish line.
And if I did, how is my time?
If you have any predictions about how fast
you think I'm gonna complete
this half marathon in, drop them down below,
just please don't be so mean,
'cause I am a rookie when it comes to this running stuff
and I really wanna get better at it.
And by the way, if you wanna add me
on the Nike Run Club app,
my name I username's obviously
Dr. Mike on that, check me out.
You could check out see how fast I'm progressing as well.
I'd love to see what you guys are doing,
if you're using the app as well.
Part of setting good goals for yourself
is to set measurable goals, attainable goals,
but also to share the goals with your friends.
You're my friends,
I'm sharing it right here.
God I hope I don't regret this,
that I wanna run a two hour half marathon.
This is my first ever half marathon
so this is gonna be incredibly hard,
but I really wanna do it.
And if you're with me, sign up,
let's do this LA half marathon together.
Go for a run,
qhave a great time.
In fact, what I may just do,
if you text my number, 917-336-4906,
just sign up,
ignore all those automated messages,
make sure you're registered.
I will be texting you
where I'm going to be doing some of my training runs
for this half marathon,
perhaps you can join me.
And remember, I can text numbers
based on where you are in proximity to me.
So if I'm gonna be doing a run in York City,
I'll text only those who are in York City.
If I'm gonna be doing it in LA,
I'm gonna message only those in LA,
so no one's getting any extra unnecessary messages.
And I think I'm about to go for a run
right about now,
are you excited?
Thanks Nike for sponsoring this video.
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