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The Peluva Blog

Expert insights on fitness, foot functionality, natural movement, and longevity

Plantar Fasciitis: Calm The Pain Now, Build Stronger Feet For Life
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Plantar Fasciitis: Calm The Pain Now, Build Stronger Feet For Life

Brad Kearns · November 8, 2026

The frustrating thing about plantar fasciitis is that the typical advice can feel contradictory. One expert tells you to wear supportive shoes and cushion your heel. Another tells you to strengthen your feet and ditch the supportive shoes that weakened them in the first place. The truth is that both camps have a point, at different stages of the process. Here's how to calm the pain in the short term, and then build the strong, resilient feet that help keep it from coming back.

Is Mark Anti-Running?
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Is Mark Anti-Running?

Mark Sisson · November 1, 2026

When I detail the potential adverse effects of what I call “chronic cardio,” I’m simply offering a word of caution and sensibility to the frenzied marketing messaging of the running boom that is often leading to injury, burnout and failed weight loss efforts. For devoted runners, consider an experiment for the next 30 days to replace about half of your weekly mileage with walking, keep the runs you truly enjoy, and pay attention to how you feel. Notice your energy through the day, how well you sleep, and how your joints feel when you get out of bed in the morning. I suspect you’ll discover what I did, that the body we were born with thrives on frequent, comfortable movement, and that lifelong fitness is far more enjoyable than the running boom led us to believe. Then decide for yourself how often you really need to run.

How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat, Part 2: Exercise and Lifestyle Strategies
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How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat, Part 2: Exercise and Lifestyle Strategies

Brad Kearns · October 25, 2026

You can't easily burn off a spare tire with more exercise. You need to send the right hormonal signals through a smarter mix of movement, occasional intense effort, quality sleep, and genuine downtime. For many of us, that means doing less of what we've been grinding away at, and more of what we've been neglecting - things like walking at a comfortable pace, occasional sprinting, prioritizing sleep and down time, and managing life stress.

How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat, Part 1: Diet Modification
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How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat, Part 1: Diet Modification

Brad Kearns · October 18, 2026

The most troublesome form of belly fat, known as visceral fat, can linger because of deeply rooted hormone dysregulation and chronically stressful lifestyle patterns. Visceral fat is far more destructive to your health because it is metabolically active, secreting inflammatory cytokines into the bloodstream. This promotes the catch-all disease condition known as chronic inflammation, or systemic inflammation. Eliminating processed foods, limiting or avoiding alcohol, and consuming nutrient dense foods can help with visceral fat reduction.

Running Technique Flaws That Cause Injury (And Are Enabled By Shoes)
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Running Technique Flaws That Cause Injury (And Are Enabled By Shoes)

Mark Sisson · October 4, 2026

Running shoes are the main enablers of overuse injury because they allow you to execute poor form, namely the jarring/braking/overstriding/heel-striking pattern that experts estimate is exhibited by 80 to 95 percent of recreational runners. So, how do we come to execute this inefficient, injurious stride pattern instead of the correct midfoot landing over a balanced center of gravity? The shoes make it possible, but the root cause is a fundamental lack of baseline aerobic conditioning, foundational physical fitness, and overall musculoskeletal resilience.

How To Improve Running Technique And Smoothly Transition To More Minimalist Shoes
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How To Improve Running Technique And Smoothly Transition To More Minimalist Shoes

Brad Kearns · September 12, 2026

Most runners either avoid minimalist shoes out of fear, or switch too fast and get hurt. Neither approach works. Real progress starts with your running form: learning to land on your midfoot instead of heel striking, a technique flaw that cushioned shoes hide rather than fix. From there, rebuild foot strength and proprioception through daily barefoot time and walking in minimalist shoes like Peluva, before gradually working a minimalist running shoe into a small, controlled share of your mileage. Done patiently, with soreness, not enthusiasm, setting your pace, the transition to minimalist running shoes is entirely achievable, on your own timeline.

Are HIIT Workouts Wearing You Out? Rethinking The Popular But Often Exhausting Workout Strategy
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Are HIIT Workouts Wearing You Out? Rethinking The Popular But Often Exhausting Workout Strategy

Brad Kearns · August 23, 2026

There are many fantastic elements to the endurance craze (marathon, triathlon, CrossFit, Hyrox, obstacle course racing, and so on) and to group and home-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT) programming. However, there continues to be a problem with people suffering from trying to do the right thing, but with a flawed approach. It’s no secret that exhaustion, breakdown, burnout, illness, injury, and failed weight loss efforts are commonplace, even among the most hard-core fitness enthusiasts.

Does Walking Really Count As A Workout?
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Does Walking Really Count As A Workout?

Mark Sisson · August 1, 2026

Many fitness enthusiasts don’t consider walking worthwhile, having been brainwashed with the “struggle and suffer” ethos of fitness industry marketing. The truth is, walking extensively every day is a fundamental human genetic expectation for health. That’s right, all of our organs and systems, including and especially the brain, rely upon walking to function optimally. This is scientifically validated with the emerging “sitting is the new smoking” body of research.

The Case For Walking As Your Primary Recovery Tool
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The Case For Walking As Your Primary Recovery Tool

Mark Sisson · July 25, 2026

We used to think that the best way to recover from challenging workouts was to simply sit on the couch, but walking is actually a superior way to recover from high-stress training. Here's why: what your body needs after a hard workout isn't stillness — it's movement. Increased blood flow carries oxygen and nutrients to fatigued, depleted muscles. The lymphatic system, which has no pump of its own and depends entirely on movement to function, clears metabolic waste products from fatigued muscles while you walk.

Does Tapering Really Work For Peak Performance?
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Does Tapering Really Work For Peak Performance?

Brad Kearns · July 19, 2026

Tapering — the deliberate reduction of training load before competition — is now one of the most thoroughly validated concepts in sports, especially endurance sports where system-wide fatigue is the key performance variable. During tapering and recovering in general, a body freed from accumulated training stress supercompensates. Muscles repair, the nervous system recovers, and you are primed for a performance breakthrough on the big day.

bare feet with big toes showing
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Can You Pass The Big Toe Test?

Mark Sisson · July 5, 2026

Big toe dysfunction is extremely common, because it’s placed under tremendous load on every stride and we’ve inflicted years and decades of abuse to the big toe by trapping it inside a box with the other toes. A weak and dysfunctional big toe can turn into a big problem, because it’s the single most important joint in human locomotion. This article will explain why the big toe is so important to human movement and present a fun little challenge that you can perform to assess big toe functionality, and improve that functionality over time.

Rethinking Your Obsession and Compulsion For Extreme Endurance Training
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Rethinking Your Obsession and Compulsion For Extreme Endurance Training

Mark Sisson · June 27, 2026

Many of our fundamental beliefs about steady-state cardiovascular exercise are flawed. Endurance training doesn’t really help you lose excess body fat, and can actually send the hormonal signals for fat storage. General everyday movement and low-level cardiovascular exercise is supremely healthy, but most joggers and hard-core cardio freaks exceed the healthy heart rate zones and invite breakdown, burnout, illness, and recurring injury. This article describes how to adopt a healthy approach to endurance training, and pursue broad based functional fitness instead.

Foot Exercises To Improve Barefoot Competency
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Foot Exercises To Improve Barefoot Competency

Brad Kearns · May 31, 2026

This article will help you up your game to the next level of barefoot functionality by sharing some simple foot strengthening and stretching exercises you can do while relaxing at home or even at your work desk. While simply wearing Peluvas delivers a scientifically validated strengthening effect, spending some time building more foot strength can help accelerate your progress and make your transition to Peluvas smoother.

How Runners Can Safely Build Barefoot Compentency
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How Runners Can Safely Build Barefoot Compentency

Brad Kearns · May 23, 2026

For endurance runners, the best strategy is not to abruptly switch from your favorite pair of running shoes to a minimalist shoe, but rather to wear Peluvas (and go barefoot) as often as possible in daily life. Walking is especially beneficial because it improves aerobic conditioning at the optimal zone 1 and zone 2 heart rates, helping runners improve performance without the risk of overuse injury that comes from the higher impact forces associated with jogging.

How A Barefoot Golf Shoe Can Improve Your Game
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How A Barefoot Golf Shoe Can Improve Your Game

Brad Kearns · May 3, 2026

You don’t need a bulky, rigidly constructed, highly restrictive shoe to swing a golf club, or to walk and stand for hours on a course. The traditional golf shoe is largely a product of entrenched — and flawed — golf tradition, propped up by decades of aggressive marketing. An efficient and functional golf swing is reliant upon precise neuro-feedback and kinesthetic awareness. The Peluva Apollo gets you more connected — initially with the ground, and then with the rest of the 'body chain' — to upgrade swing mechanics.

How To Transition Safely To Peluvas
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How To Transition Safely To Peluvas

Mark Sisson · April 18, 2026

Our goal is for Peluva to become your go-to footwear for everyday life — walking, errands, gym workouts, golf, court sports, and all manner of fitness endeavors and outdoor adventures. But transitioning from years of wearing elevated, restrictive shoes requires patience. The following steps will help make your transition smooth and comfortable. For further guidance, download our free 88-page eBook at Peluva.com: The Definitive Guide To A Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Lifestyle

It’s Time To Stop Doing Steady State Cardio!
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It’s Time To Stop Doing Steady State Cardio!

Mark Sisson · February 28, 2026

Steady-state cardio is overrated, and can often be counterproductive to your fitness, weight loss, and longevity goals. This is simply no justification to spend large amounts of exercise energy on repetitive, steady-state activity such as jogging, cycling, swimming, rowing, stair machine, or the other cardio machines that encourage steady-state exercise. When you acknowledge that the cardiovascular system responds and adapts to all types of demand from muscles and organs, you realize that the only true requirement for steady-state cardio is to prepare for an endurance competition requiring a steady pace.

Suggested “Cardio 2.0” Workouts, Part 1
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Suggested “Cardio 2.0” Workouts, Part 1

Mark Sisson · February 15, 2026

My 2025 book, Born To Walk, presents a compelling argument to rethink the importance of steady state cardio and expand your perspective of what it means to be truly fit. The recent rise in popularity of so-called hybrid athletes offers great inspiration to broaden your perspective beyond racking up miles in a straight line. Furthermore, your endurance performance will likely improve when you build complementary fitness attributes like muscular strength, mobility, and sprint competency with some of these ideas for creative “Cardio 2.0” workouts.

5 Tips To Increase Daily Walking
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5 Tips To Increase Daily Walking

Brad Kearns · January 23, 2026

The popular health recommendation to walk 10,000 steps a day is made up - no scientific validation! It’s best to pursue fitness goals one step at a time, knowing that all efforts to walk, for both short breaks and longer outings, can promote physical and mental health, disease prevention, and longevity. This article contains numerous tips to increase your daily walking and generally lead a more active, walking-centric, barefoot-inspired lifestyle

Popular Shoe Design Features That Are Actually Bad For Your Feet
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Popular Shoe Design Features That Are Actually Bad For Your Feet

Brad Kearns · January 23, 2026

The marketing hype of the running and athletic shoe industry has brainwashed fitness enthusiasts to believe that shoe “technology” can protect your feet from injury and improve performance. Shockingly, there has never been a single research study ever published to suggest that running shoes lessen injury risk. Attributes like elevated heels, excess cushioning, a restrictive toe box, toe spring design, and excessive arch support inhibit foot functionality and cause atrophy and chronic pain.

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