The Tarahumara - A Hidden Tribe of Superathletes Born to Run

the marathon over 26 miles it is one of the most grueling events in sports pushing the human body to extremes this is the ultimate insurance test where highly-trained runners earn their reputation as some of the most elite athletes on the planet but are they in the remote mountains of northern Mexico a little-known tribe is redefining the limits of human endurance they can run 435 miles 16 times further than a marathon in just over two days how could this be possible experts are attempting to uncover the secrets to their superhuman ability is it unique or do we all have it finding the answer could change the future of medical science in the remote Sierra Madre Mountains of Northwest Mexico lies Copper Canyon a rugged region home to a tribe called the Terra home era the running people the terrible mera have inhabited this terrain for 500 years their name comes from their ability to run superhuman distances without running shoes how do they do it Chris McDougall is a former marathon runner he is astonished by the tera Henares extraordinary endurance this is an entire tribe of people that can run distances well beyond a hundred miles they routinely run 200 250 miles at a time and not just some people but all the men and women old and young life remarkably the tribe record for a single run is a staggering 435 miles in just over 48 hours it's equivalent to running from New York to Cleveland Ohio to run this distance over 16 times further than a marathon in one session defies belief but even more remarkable is how they do it either barefoot or these thin homemade sandals made out of either deer skin or whenever people like chuck old tires mm canyons all actually scamper out salvage the tires that cut them into sandals with little or no protection the Tarahumara endurance surpasses even the best Olympic athletes how sports nutritionist Joan Rinaldi thinks their remote environment plays an important role in their extraordinary ability these individuals run as an integral part of their culture they run for survival they run for inter village communication and they run for sport the Tarahumara lived to run they regularly compete in races of two or three hundred miles through rugged mountainous terrain delivering mail they can run up to 500 miles in a week so you can imagine if you lived in a culture where running was the only means of athletic expression and you had to run for survival as well you actually get pretty good at Ronnie so how do the Tara himera run these superhuman distances could diet be the answer during a 26 mile race an average marathon runner will burn around 2,600 calories to ensure this distance their bodies need to consume large amounts of carbohydrates like those found in sports drinks carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the muscles and are gradually converted to energy but on a 435 mile run it is estimated that the Tara home era can burn up to a staggering 43,000 calories where do they get this energy John McDougall studied the Tara Maharis diet he was astonished at what he found they drink like crazy particularly at harvest time during harvests and before races the Tara Humaira consume large amounts of corn beer called TSK we know could this be the key to their extraordinary endurance they actually may be increasing their hydration status and their glycogen status with this corn beer it's very high in carbohydrate and the alcohol content is low it's actually been estimated that it would take about four liters to get intoxicated using their corn beer or their corn beverage so if you think about it the amount of carbohydrates that would come with that and the amount of just simple fluid load would be very high but does Diet alone explain why the Terre himera have superhuman endurance Dan Lieberman thinks there might be another answer the Terre borrows abilities to run really long distances really comes from our evolutionary history as hunters we live in a world that's so different from the world for which we evolved that we have lost a lot of those abilities hundreds of thousands of years ago early human hunters had to pursue their prey over long distances they would literally chase animals until they died of heat exhaustion it's called persistence hunting and is still practiced by the terrible marrow today what you do is you you run at a speed that makes an animal gallop most quadrupeds the way they cool down is by penting when an animal gallops it can't pin so it slowly heats up and heats up and heats up evolution has provided humans with many ways to endure long distances were we born to run we have features all throughout our bodies literally from our heads to our toes that help us run long distances both in terms of storing up and releasing mechanical energy in terms of cooling in terms of recruiting energy and storing energy and what the Terra Mara have done is they've kind of kept those mechanisms and they keep developing them as they grow up most of us have those abilities it's just that we don't use them with little or no need for exercise dan believes our modern lifestyle is to blame why would you want to persist in science nowadays I mean we can go to our supermarket we can buy our meat from you know fully packaged and I in a container dan believes there's another reason why we don't run like the Tara home era when we started studying barefoot running and minimalist shoe running we learned that there's some interesting aspect to the way that Tara Mara run that may be actually have some use to us the Tara home era don't use conventional running shoes they run in thin homemade sandals called huaraches or they run barefoot could this be the answer to their superhuman abilities sports scientist dr. irene davis suspects that because the tara himera run without shoes they run differently than most modern marathon runners and that this may be the key to their amazing endurance today she's going to test her theory in the lab we're gonna start shopping we're gonna have you walk us to kind of get you warmed up and then we'll break it into a run and I want you to just land your natural type of a landing we're gonna collect some data with you running naturally wearing running shoes the test subject lands on his heel first then the rest of the foot connects in runners terms this is called a heel strike and has long been considered the ideal running style but the experiments results offer a different perspective this is a skeleton depiction of you running and that red arrow is actually the ground reaction force as it goes through your heel and through your foot and actually up through your center of mass over here on this graph what you're seeing is this is the ground reaction force as you land what's interesting about this is that you've got a very distinct impact peak this impact is the area that we think might be related to injury the test suggests that when we run in shoes there is more impact on both our legs and feet producing a greater chance of a running related injury and that the extra support running shoes provides could work against us the shoes are over supportive then the muscles aren't working so hard and if the muscles become weak then you're going to have a greater tends to get injured as well but is there a difference when the subject runs in bare feet you're landing or you just and the way they want to naturally land I'm on my feet that naturally land away they want to land definitely landing more mid foot for foot yeah I mean there's definitely less impact now what we're looking at you running barefoot you can see that you're not landing so much on your heel do you see that you have a less distinct impact peak I think it's you know it's it's crazy that how much they're before if the impact how much less impact there was could we all be superhuman if we ran without shoes probably not but finding the answers to the mysteries of the Tara who marries remarkable endurance may take us a step closer to understanding the secrets of the human body I think there's an enormous amount that we can learn from people like the Tara Mara because they teach us about how our bodies were designed to function

Channel: MemeScythe

Views: 1,884,759

Rating: 4.7850437 out of 5

Keywords: Tarahumara, barefoot running, chi running, Born to Run, Christopher McDougall, racing, running, Superathletes, hidden tribe

Id: FnwIKZhrdt4

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/KristenWave]

It's worth noting that 435miles is the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) record and the more conservative distance that they run often is closer to 200miles within 48hrs which is on par with the fastest runners of the Western States 100 Ultra Marathon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rar%C3%A1muri_people#Athletic_prowess

[u/jeanwearinfool]

I read about these people in National Geographic when I was a teenager. They're phenomenal. They hunt deer by tracking it and chasing it till it just lays down and admits defeat. They were hired by industrialists when we were building the network of railroads to run up mountains, cut down timbers, saw them into railroad ties, and then run them back down to where they were to be placed. They were paid a nickel per tie. Somebody got the idea to enter them into a U.S. marathon and they didn't come in first. When asked why, the racers replied "You told us this was a long race, so we paced ourselves", clearly implying they probably could have sprinted the whole fucking thing. Really interesting article if you've got the Google-fu to look it up.

[u/mikeysaid]

Unfortunately their way of life is in jeopardy and tons of them are here in Torreón and other northern Mexican cities simply begging these days. It used to be seasonal, but anymore they are here year round

[u/mattplaysguitar]

If you like running, Born to Run is a fun read about the Tarahumara. It talks about everything in this video, and also a bit about Tarahumara competing in races.

[u/Zaratthustra]

Here a nice article about how the women use to gave birth. (in Spanish)

[u/[deleted]]

That's all the way from San Francisco to LA! I think I'd prefer to drive. Edit, wait a minute, why go to LA at all....

[u/theungod]

If they can run that far why are they still in Mexico?