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The Ready State Podcast

Dr. Emily Splichal: Foot Health is the Gateway to Improved Performance and Cognitive Function

The Ready State Podcast

Kelly Starrett & Juliet Starrett

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.9623 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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Want to know the real deal about fixing feet and unlocking performance? Join renowned functional podiatrist Dr. Emily Splichal as we dive into barefoot living, foot health myths, and how your feet can impact everything from athletic performance to daily movement. 

In this episode of The Ready State podcast, Kelly and Juliet Starrett explore why foot strength and sensory stimulation are game-changers for balance, posture, and long-term health. Discover simple exercises, the truth about orthotics, and how to optimize your foot function for better performance at any age. Whether you're an athlete, a parent, or just curious about barefooting, this conversation will change how you think about your feet. Don't miss it!

✅ What You'll Learn in This Episode
  • Why your feet are the gateway to brain-body performance
  • How modern shoes are de-training your nervous system
  • The difference between flat feet and weak feet
  • What barefoot stimulation does for balance, posture, and gait
  • Why slippers and house shoes are secretly ruining your feet
  • The five-minute foot protocol Dr. Emily recommends to everyone
  • How sensory stacking supercharges rehab and performance
  • Why your glutes, diaphragm, pelvic floor, and feet are one system
  • The truth about barefoot hygiene (hint: your feet are cleaner than your hands)

Key Highlights: 

00:00 - Intro

00:50 - Laird Superfood

03:14 - Foot Obsession: Why It Matters

07:36 - Becoming a Functional Podiatrist

11:27 - Naboso Technology

17:45 - Understanding Neuroplasticity

20:25 - Sensory Stacking Explained

21:54 - Issues with Maximalist Shoes

25:25 - Use Cases for Maximalist Shoes

28:45 - Foot Care Essentials

32:43 - LMNT Overview

35:20 - Daily Foot Program Benefits

38:31 - Flat Feet and Orthotics Discussion

46:10 - Dr. Emily's New Book: Sensory Sapiens Insights

48:20 - Benefits of Being Barefoot

49:55 - Disease Risks of Barefoot Walking

55:15 - Dosing Barefoot Training

57:30 - Naboso Footbed Features

60:47 - Kids' Foot Health

66:21 - Offense vs Defense in Foot Health

68:00 - Understanding ACL Tears

71:45 - Resources for ACL Recovery

74:00 - Finding Dr. Emily

Sponsors

This episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by Laird Superfood, Momentous, and LMNT.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Are you doomed if you have flat feet? Are they fixable? Is it genetic? What's the real deal on our products?

0:04.8

So yes, I'm going to debunk the myth thing.

0:08.7

Dr. Emily Splickle, world-renowned podiatrist, a functional podiatrist.

0:13.3

Join us now with why barefootin might not be a bad idea.

0:18.0

Your feet are probably way cleaner than your hands and people touch their eyeballs and their lips and their mouth and they're like, when I lived in New York City, I was like, yes, I'm holding this subway pole with my bare hand because you want to be resilient. You don't want to live in a sterile bubble. Everyone I know becomes foot obsessed at some point in their movement career. Why is that? One, I see that as well.

0:37.9

And the irony with that is that I find physios and chiros who get into feet

0:42.7

are way more obsessed and fascinated with feet than podiatrist.

0:47.5

This episode of the Ready State podcast is brought to you by Laird Superfood.

0:51.6

And today we want to talk about the amazing protein creamer that you and I have been enjoying literally. Vibing on. We're viving on it very hard. Couple things. People are pretty particular about their coffee. I think if you can get some more micronutrients in your coffee and some healthy fats, especially if you're not a breakfast

1:11.2

person, that's a total win. You can almost be like, okay, I'm fed, I'm doing something. I personally

1:16.6

like the layered superfood creamer as a part of my pre-workout because I've gotten some fats,

1:23.4

some, it's tasty. Coffee is the best pre-workout ever. But guess what? They've added protein.

1:28.9

Which I don't know about you. In fact, I do know about you because we're married.

1:33.4

You have to do a lot of work to actually eat enough protein. I mean, we're always shooting for like 0.8 to 1 gram per pound of body weight.

1:40.5

And we're not small. We have to eat more food. We're not small people. So it actually amounts to quite a bit of protein. So we'll take any extra protein that we can get, but not at the expense of flavor, which is really important because I don't think I would ruin a good cup of coffee with, like, protein powder. But one of the things that's so nice about this is it actually mixes in so well you don't really

2:01.3

even know there's protein powder. Correct. I'll also say that sometimes I'm a little underfed

2:06.7

behind and I need to train. So if I'm trying to get my coffee in 30 minutes before, it's like my

2:11.0

pre-workout, this means that I have some calories and some amino acids on board. So I'm running in pretty fed.

2:19.4

And honestly, I mean, you could eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then have some

2:24.0

caffeine tablets or you could have this hot coffee that is so delicious.

2:28.7

Also, the slurpy version of it, you can't eat it.

2:31.6

It's amazing.

...

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