Humans have evolved as persistence hunting runners and cooperative animals. This is why we are now the most evolved species on Earth. And this is why the key to our happy and sustainable future on Earth depends on how we use persistence, cooperation, gentleness, and, of course, running.

Gentle Running and Living

by Dr Patrick Salmon, PharmD, PhD

Member of the Barefoot Runners Society

Founding Member of the Tarahumara Spirit   

Be gentle

to yourself

and others!

“Life is hard enough to add extra suffering to it”. We propose here a way to build a stronger, healthier and happier self through gentle running. Then, this “ascetic hedonism” can be translated into several aspects of life, to humbly contribute to a better world.

This is because over the last 2 millions years, humans have evolved as persistence hunters to have access to rich food to grow their big brains.

The Science of Running

Humans are the best endurance running animals on Earth

While most animals are faster than humans on short distance (a squirrel is faster than Usain Bolt), no animal can beat humans on long distance.

The result is Homo sapiens, a super adapted animal with unique features among primates such as:

• A big brain
• Bipedalism
• A body fully adapted to running (foot, leg, body)

This is why I split this page into 3 chapters:

• The evolution of Homo
• The anatomy of the human foot (and up)
• The biomechanics of running

La Clinique du Coureur

(Super site web en français)