Exploring Naboso's Revolutionary Products | Trainers Talking Truth

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Get ready to dive deep into the fascinating world of foot wellness in this captivating episode of our podcast! Join us as we uncover the secrets behind Naboso, a groundbreaking brand that is transforming the way we approach foot health.

Podcast Introduction:

Welcome The Trainers Talking Truths. This is an ISSA podcast dedicated to exploring the fitness industry and uncovering the whys and hows of personal training. To do that, we'll talk directly to the industry experts and certified trainers. We'll dig into fitness programming, business tactics, nutrition, and more. You'll even hear from current training clients who offer insight from the other side. We've got the fitness industry covered, so turn up the volume and enjoy the drive.

Jenny Scott:

Hello, world. Welcome back for another ISSA podcast Trainers Talking Truth. It's your cohost Jenny Scott here with my favorite podcast co-host, Dan the Man Duran, how are you, Dan? I haven't seen you in forever.

Dan Duran:

I know, I know. It just seems like the world keeps spinning faster and faster every week, and you're absolutely right. It's been a while, and I'm welcoming this opportunity to help co-host this podcast today because I'm ready for a break and I'm ready to put my propeller hat on. Jenny, I'm feeling it today.

Jenny Scott:

Oh, what does that even mean?

Dan Duran:

What? The propeller hat is like I'm going to put on my geek hat. I'm ready to learn. I'm ready to learn. Yeah, I'm excited about today's guest.

Jenny Scott:

You said a little tweedle D and tweedle dumb.

Dan Duran:

Yes. Oh my gosh. You don't know the propeller hat?

Jenny Scott:

They're not smartphones, Dan.

Dan Duran:

You don't know the propeller hat. Okay. Well, anyways, I've got my thinking cap on and I am excited to learn from our guest today.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. We have a returning guest. I love when we have people come back, you guys, because so many of the guests that we interview have so much knowledge that it's impossible to get it all from them in an hour or in 30 minutes. So, I'm super excited to have back with us. Dr. Emily Splichal, welcome back, Emily.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Thank you so much. It is of course a pleasure.

How did you get into fitness?

Jenny Scott:

Yes. So excited to talk with you. So, for those people who maybe haven't heard your previous episode or maybe have forgotten, can you remind our listeners how you got into fitness?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Absolutely. So, I've been in fitness for 22 years. My journey started as a competitive gymnast, so anyone who does follow my work and we'll talk about barefoot science and sensory stimulation is I was in barefoot sports, so gymnastics and then became a trainer, taught fitness classes, then decided to go to podiatry school. So, I'm actually a functional podiatrist and a human movement specialist. I am still in the fitness industry though, and I create certifications for fitness professionals, speak at all of the awesome fitness conferences that are out there to help build an awareness about feet in fitness, and then I am also the CEO and founder of Naboso.

What is Naboso and what do you offer through Naboso?

Jenny Scott:

Awesome. Now we're going to talk a little bit about Naboso here in a second, but yes, you have so much that you have done and are still actively doing. We just still give you guys a little in on the situation. We're actually behind the scenes working with her and see if we can get her to help with some of our education. So, I love the idea of barefoot science and we'll definitely talk more about that. And a lot of people are like, well, barefoot, what? It doesn't necessarily mean barefoot, right? It means that we're training the sensory systems in our feet. And you'll talk a little bit more about that. But let's start us off here, Dan, with our first question. Can you tell us a little bit about Naboso, the company and what you guys offer through Naboso?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Absolutely. So Naboso is a sensory technology company, and we use texture as our sensory stimulus on all of our products. Now, all of our products, which are sensory or textured socks, insoles, training mats, flooring release tools, we have a new wobble board and foot wedges. Everything is intended to wake up and stimulate the nerves in the bottom of the feet to therefore build foot awareness, which leads to postural awareness, but strength, which we know leads to hip and glute strength and then foot recovery. So, everything is really using texture as sensory to optimize our overall foot function and foot health.

Jenny Scott:

Awesome. Yeah. So, I actually have a pair of socks from last time you were on. Dan, did you get a pair of socks too?

Dan Duran:

I did not. No, I didn't.

Jenny Scott:

What? You're missing out. They're so great and my mom has foot issues, bunions run in my family and my mom's having foot issues. So doctor, I'm going to call you Doc, I let my mom borrow my Naboso socks with a little texture on the inside. I will tell you, this was about five months ago, and I have not seen them back. And she sends me pictures of her sitting in her lazyboy walking around her house with them. So, that's rude. But I have not gotten them back. My husband has his pair and wears them almost every night after basketball. So, super cool products. Can you tell us a little bit more about the different products and what type of texture are we talking about here?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, so for those that may see it, I will show you the texture, but then I'm also going to explain it to you. So, imagine tiny little pyramids that are across every single product and these little pyramids. The height, shape, and distance of these pyramids is really what our patent is around. And it is stimulating a nerve in the bottom of the feet that is sensitive to two point discrimination. Now, before people kind of hang up or get lost on that, the best analogy of where you actually experience two point discrimination is braille. So, when someone is reading braille with their fingers, we stimulate that same nerve that the braille is used to read. So, next time you go to an ATM, look at the braille dots, push your finger on them and look at the indents. And that's really what Naboso is doing.

So, we stimulate a very specific nerve, little tiny pyramids on the inside of the sock, on the top of the insole all over the mat or the flooring. We have a Neuro Ball, which is one of our top-selling products, and it's a ball that splits into two pieces with these little triangles or pyramids across it. And what these little textures are doing are like the socks for your mom. What you were saying is that they are an awesome form of recovery because they feel like a little mini massage, but not only are they a mini massage, they're actually improving circulation. And circulation is one of the most underappreciated sides of recovery. So, we need to have good circulation.

Dan Duran:

Well, I love it. I love it. And so I can read with my feet, is that what you're saying?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

I'm going to help you read with your feet, but no-

Dan Duran:

All right. All right.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

No, I will help you read braille with your feet. That’s what it is.

What are the benefits of Naboso products?

Dan Duran:

So, Dr. Splichal, diving into this at two levels. So, the high level would be if you could describe to our listeners what are some of the benefits that come from using your products? And what I mean is what are they going to feel, what are they going to experience? How is life going to be different? How before and after utilizing your products, and then we'll dive into the actual science behind it. So high level, what are the benefits?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, high level, this is even without the Naboso products, one, I obviously want people to use Naboso products, but just in general, think of you individually or any of your clients. Our ability to move well is based off of our ability to feel the surface that we're walking on. That means you need to feel your feet. Do you have an awareness of your feet where they are? Where's your body weight? How's your foot posture? And then what is your relationship with the ground? So, we take average 5,000 steps a day every time your foot contacts the ground 5,000 times a day. Do you feel it? Do you feel those impact forces and how you are striking the ground? Most people are not in any of this because they are in shoes. They are in lots of cushion. Maybe they never did a barefoot sport. So, they just have this inherent disconnect to the sensory side of the feet, high level.

So, all of your clients, when they squat, when they move, when they run, all of this affects everything that we do as trainers and coaches. Now bring in the Naboso products with texture, we're using texture specifically will build foot awareness. So, the client or the trainer, if they're using it, will be able to feel their foot placement when they do a squat, when they swing the kettlebell, when they're doing a step-up or a step-down. So, you could feel the accuracy of your foot placement. That's one of the most important from a training perspective.

Then if you think about, okay, how is the client moving when they're not with you, the trainer? That's where usually most things fall apart is when they're not with you is this follows them so that they can continue to feel their feet with every step. They can easily recover their feet by just walking around their house, which is super easy. And the more that we make foot health a priority with our clients and with ourselves, it ultimately affects overall movement quality and movement longevity. So, that would be high level the way that I would emphasize the importance of not just about Naboso, but just in general. We have to be thinking moderate feet from a sensory perspective.

How does wearing poorly fitted shoes impact our sensory input?

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. No, I have a question for you though, as a podiatrist when we're talking about shoes, anybody who's listening to this podcast knows I have a ridiculous tennis shoe collection. Not all of them fit the way that they probably should. And some of them, for example, pinch your pinky toe or rub on the top of your second toe or your big toe dives into the front of the shoe. I call it stubbing your toe in your own shoe. It's weird, but it's a thing. So, when we’re not even talking about the texture of your insoles or your socks, when we wear shoes that are maybe not fitting that are ill-fitting or maybe too much cushion or too tight or whatever it is, too loose even, how does that also impact the sensory input that we're getting from our foot, regardless of the texture?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, so your feet, everyone's feet are designed to move splay, spread, twist, have all of this movement that just like the rest of our body is packed with fascia and nerves and connective tissue and muscles. So, simply spreading your toes or splaining them, opening them nice and wide, you stimulate sensory nerves within the feet, which is why part of one, we have toe spacers at Naboso, but using something like a toe spacer after you get out of shoes is an awesome way to reconnect to your feet and to really stimulate all of those nerves in the fascial system and then to also support the circulation to the feet. So yeah, absolutely, the constriction and the narrowing and compression of footwear definitely restricts and disconnects people from their foot function.

Should we take our shoes off as often as we can?

Jenny Scott:

Gotcha. So, I'm about to take my shoes off, by the way. So another side question, I guess this is not a podiatrist question, but should people be wearing their shoes inside? I mean, there's numbers of reasons why we shouldn't, but should we take our shoes off when we can?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

I'm barefoot right now. I literally never wear shoes in my office. When I see patients, I of course put shoes on. I don't want them to take my legs out, but I am always barefoot. So, yes, I mean, I would say if you were even at a desk for an office job and you're sitting at a desk, oh my gosh, just take those shoes off and let your feet breathe, but in your home. Yes. I think that that's a great way to do it. I love being barefoot.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. Well, I mean that helps. Go ahead, Dan.

Dan Duran:

I was going to say where I live, we have these sneaky little things called goat heads, and they're like mines. They're a sticker that has stickers on all sides and they will find their way into everywhere. So, you can't go anywhere barefoot. So next best thing indoors, definitely something with a big toe box that provides that protection but allows that splay. Would that be reasonable?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, no, that's actually a really good point because some people don't want to be fully barefoot in their home. Maybe they can't, maybe they have marble flooring and different things like that. I'm in Arizona where everyone has marble flooring and stuff that your house shoe could be a wider toe box that has still a lot of freedom of movement in it, kind of like what you wear when you work out. I think that that's great. So, good choice if you're going to wear shoes.

Jenny Scott:

I love it. Well, I take my shoes off sometimes. Not all the time, I'm terrible about it because we track stuff in all the time and it's gross, what we track into our carpet and our floors. So, especially here in Arizona, we already get plenty of dust. I don't need anybody else's germs as well. So, I love this.

Can you tell us about the science behind Naboso?

Jenny Scott:

Now you were mentioning the little pyramids that are on the products that you guys have. And you said that the patent was around the height and the spacing of those pyramids. Can you tell us the science behind how you guys came up with that spacing and height and stuff? What does that even matter?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, so again, this height, shape, distance of our triangle. This pyramid is very specific to Naboso, also the durometer or the hardness of the product. So, that's very important and that's where most of the innovation came in. And all of the trial and errors was trying to figure out what is the most appropriate durometer and then what is the material that we use? So, the material composition is can it hold the pyramid? So, now what we're trying to do, just for the listeners to better understand this, is you want something to be very finite. So, think a pinhead is, this is not painful. So, I should probably not use the analogy of a pinhead, but something like a toothpick point, you will feel that very different than if I take a Q-tip and I push that, right? And actually do this at home, this is a fun experiment.

Take a toothpick and then take a Q-tip and shut your eyes and just feel the difference. So, the finite stimulation of the toothpick pyramid is what we're doing at Naboso. So, you want it to be finite. Now, there are prior research studies that looked at more like a Q-tip shape, so it's like an oval texture, and they showed that there was higher stimulus with more of a finite, hence the pyramid. Okay. Now the distance, the spacing is based off of how many nerves you have in your feet and how sensitive that they are. So, what I often tell people is that this specific nerve, this braille nerve, just like the braille dots, if you look at the ATM, they can't be too close to each other, but they can't be too far away. If they're too close, your brain will read it as one blob.

If it's too far, I mean clearly it's two points if they're far away from each other too far. So, there's a very dialed in distance that you want to achieve. So, that's where the innovation came in. And when I was first developing Naboso, oh my gosh, call it fun or call it just the joys of being an inventor. But I remember our first product was a mat, like a fitness mat, a yoga mat. We play with all of these materials. And I remember this one day I got a shipment from our factory and it was like perfect. I go to bed, I wake up and it is like shrunk on itself. And I was like, what happened? And then another time, one came and then the next I was like, this is great. Next morning, some oil completely. I don't know. I was just like, what is happening with this?

Jenny Scott:

Oh, weird.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

So, I learned a lot about material science in this process of inventing Naboso and just really understanding how different materials stimulate the nervous system. And I think one fun takeaway for the listeners is harder surfaces always stimulate the nervous system more. So, if you are training your client and you had to choose between a wrestling mat and the hardwood floor of a studio, well obviously the studio's going to be more stimulating. But from a virtual perspective, we also want to remember that if you're training your client and your client is in their living room, 'cause that's kind of where I would think to train, because it's with my TV, you want to actually say, no, no, I need you in your dining room, on the hardwood floor in your kitchen. Pick a place in the house that has the hard flooring, and that's where you want them to work out so that they get more sensory information when they're doing their exercises so that it could even be applied that way. Once you understand sensory science.

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Why is it so important for us as individuals especially in fitness to take care of our feet?

Dan Duran:

Wow. Wow. Good stuff. All right, so take away workout in the kitchen, not the living room, at least in my house. So, we went high level and then science, and now let's take it to application and who and why. So, can you tell us why it's important for individuals and in particular with our audience, fitness professionals or personal trainers and coaches, why is it important for us to take care of our feet?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yes. So, your feet surprise are your foundation, so they set everything else up that could be mechanically. So, what is your foot strength? Foot strength controls foot posture. So, just like your core, your abs control really your center of gravity posture. So, is someone dropping into a anterior tilt and lordosis, right? We understand that there's an imbalance between anterior muscles and posterior muscles, core, glutes, things like that. So, muscles control posture. Foot muscles control foot posture, which affects total body posture. And I often say when I give lectures that if your foundation is not mechanically stable, like the foundation of a building, that building will not be stable. You'll see that the building and the walls kind of start to collapse in.

Same thing with our feet. Now, from a sensory perspective, kind of have explained that a lot, but we have to have that awareness of that body weight placement and that passive pressure. So, I call it passive pressure distribution. And if you don't notice that you're all the way on the outside of your feet, that affects the mechanical posture or all the way on the inside of the feet. Again, it affects the mechanical posture of your feet. So, sensory and mechanics from a foundation perspective makes sense. So, that would be one of the, at its core, most foundational reasons of why foot health is important for the fitness industry, for the trainers and the coaches, is it ultimately affects your glute, strengthen your core strength.

Dan Duran:

And mobility too, right? I mean, yeah, yeah. I can remember years ago when really you were one of the pioneers that brought this to the industry. And one of the things that we would do with say our clients to demonstrate the importance of proper foot placement would be just like you said, put all your weight on the inside of your feet, put your hands across your chest and try to rotate left to, and then do the same, putting all the weight on the outside of your feet and watch the difference in the mobility you have through your ankles and hips just by how you're placing your feet.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Such a great demonstration for the client to go, aha. They don't need to understand inversion aversion, pronation, don't use all the fancy words. Just show them something. And they'll be like, I get it. I can't explain it, but I get it, and I appreciate why you are having me do this, so I will comply.

Dan Duran:

Right.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, that makes sense. The way we teach the kinetic chain, it always starts from the ground up, which starts with your foot and ankle complex. And I always do say too, life sucks when your feet hurt and your teeth hurt. Life gets real hard when your feet hurt. So, yeah. So I love this. So, we know that this is important and we can use it with our clients, but how can a trainer utilize Naboso or any of the products that you guys offer with clients specifically?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Yeah, so I would say one of our top-selling products, and the easiest way to introduce this is with our Neuro Ball. So, the Neuro Ball is a ball. It's about a tennis ball size, and it actually splits into two pieces. So, it's two domes. And those domes are of course covered in our texture because everything has the texture on it. But this allows you to release your feet, let's say maybe before a workout, after a workout, at the end of the day, first thing in the morning. And it's really our entry-level product for people to understand what foot awareness starts to feel like, but then what texture feels like. And I have workshops that I go through and courses on YouTube and things like that where I take people through a five-minute foot release with our Neuro Ball and they'll go through it.

Then I give them space. I just allow them to walk around stand. I keep talking, doing other stuff, and I let them experience what it feels like to just have that level of stimulation of their feet. And most people will say, oh my God, my feet are still tingling. My feet I've never, the carpet feels different, the floor feels different now. So, I'm just trying to organically have them on their own find this power within the foot through a simple foot release. So, that's one of my favorite ways is the Neuro Ball. It's 30 bucks, easy to use, dishwasher safe. It's awesome. One of the other ones that I think is great is either the socks or the insoles.

So, you said that your mom uses the socks. Yeah, socks are easy. You would literally slide on our recovery socks at the end of the day and cook dinner, do whatever you already do, right? Kind of walk around and you are passively recovering your feet. It's like a mini massage, increased circulation. So, I love them. I wear them every night around the house. The insoles would go in the shoe when you're working out. So, if you're doing kettlebells, you're doing lifts, whatever it is, have the insoles in the shoe, and then you would be able to experience this. And I encourage anyone who is hopefully intrigued and maybe has a secret foot, not a foot fetish, but you know what I mean, approach velocity.

Dan Duran:

That's a different podcast. Jenny and I do those in the evenings.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Got it. Right. Invite me to that one next. No, I'm just kidding. Is that if you have this fascination, and I meet so many trainers and coaches who have been in the industry for a while, and they're just looking for this continued journey of exploration, of understanding the body in a new way. And oftentimes the foot is this new unknown fascinatingly complex, but influential area that would be the type of person that like, oh my gosh, put the insoles in your shoes and just play and see what it feels like. And yeah, people really get drawn and almost addicted to the texture.

Jenny Scott:

Nice. Yeah, I definitely see, because like you said, when people try it's one of those things where you can't talk about it. You have to try it, and then when you try it, you're going to be like, oh, I get it right. Because the amount of relief that you get from it is of course, subjective. And that's with any recovery method. Some people like cold therapy is better than hot therapies, et cetera, but I promise you, you will feel it. It definitely does feel different if you use these things regularly. But I love that we're bringing awareness to the feet. I personally, I think I told you this before, doc, I had bunion removal when I was in middle school, three times, three surgeries.

So, my nerves are not the way that most people are. Like there's certain parts of my feet that I can't feel, certain toes that I can't feel like where the incisions are and stuff. So, it's a little different for me. But I still have felt relief from these products and from really focusing on my foot and specifically the flexibility of my arches and just the movement and mobility through my ankles, it does make a big difference. And it's something that I've started focusing on in the last five years, not before that, but I definitely noticed a difference.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Awesome.

How can listeners connect with you to learn more?

Dan Duran:

Good stuff. So, our trainers, our listeners, our followers, they're going to want to know how they can utilize the products beyond what you just explained. So what's the best place, the best website, the best link, the best way to learn more and to connect with you?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Absolutely. So, for the Naboso products, so that would be going to naboso.com, N-A-B-O-S-O.com. Make sure that they use the ISSA discount code. Can I say that over?

Jenny Scott:

Yeah.

Dan Duran:

Yeah.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Okay. All right. Sorry. Didn't know if it was a secret. So, ISSA20 will give the ISSA team 20% off, so it's 20% off any of the products. This is globally. So, we do ship and we have distribution around the world, Naboso.com. And then if you go to our Naboso YouTube channel, we have a lot of exercises. I have webinars on there. I'm very much about education. I think that's because I started in fitness education and then kind of wove into these other aspects. But we have a lot of education for the professional, so they fully understand the product, the why, but also how do I use these products? And then of course on Instagram. So Instagram, it is Naboso_Technology. And then my personal Instagram is The Functional Foot Doc. And of course I educate on there as well.

Dan Duran:

And question for you, Dr. Splichal, when I first got into really growing our awareness around barefoot training and so forth, you were doing a lot of workshops and a lot of live training, packing houses all over the world. Are you still doing that? And if so, how would our trainers or listeners, where they can learn from you in person?

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Absolutely. So, I do have some, not as many as pre-Covid, because Covid definitely demonstrated the power of online education, and I know that you guys fully appreciate that. But my education company is EBFAglobal.com, so EBFAglobal.com. It does link out. I have online courses. I do a free webinar every month that is fully educational based, and then it links to the YouTube channel for EBFA, which has over 250 videos of lectures, exercises, workouts, everything that people want to know to dive down this rabbit hole. So, definitely doing that. I think the period that you're referencing, like the height of it, oh my gosh, I was spending literally 175 days a year. Not in this country.

Dan Duran:

Yeah, you're everywhere.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

My passport was this thick. Now I'm like, I'm old. That's a lot. I'm like, those are lots of flights.

Dan Duran:

And you have a young child now, I believe.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

I have a three-year-old, which makes it hard. The mommy guilt, when I like find international, I'm like, oh, I can't go for four weeks anymore.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, guys, this is not the end of what we'll hear from Dr. Emily Splichal. I'm pretty sure you guys will be hearing from her again soon. I'm super excited for this information, and thank you for sharing the technology and the products that you guys have. I love that you guys are still developing new products in my cart right now, I have this standing mat and the Neuro Ball just saying, so I'm super excited to expand and maybe I'll see if I can get my socks back. I might just have to invest in another pair.

Dan Duran:

Right, I think you need too. Yeah.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah.

Dan Duran:

I'm pretty sure Mother's Day.

Jenny Scott:

Yeah, right. She's never given these boys back. I love it. Well, thank you so much, doc, for being with us. It was great to have you on again, and I'm sure we'll be hearing from you soon.

Dr. Emily Splichal:

Of course. Thank you. I love the ISSA family.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. We love you too. We love you too. Dan, any last words for our listeners today?

Dan Duran:

Well, my last word is actually going to be a question, Jenny, because you interact with our listeners and our graduates and our students all the time. I would love if some of the folks that begin utilizing the Naboso technology could ping us, could message us and tell us how it's working for them and provide us some testimonials, so to speak, because we want to hear from you, especially when we are supporting a product and a brand and a person such as Dr. Splichal, which we do and we truly believe in. We want to hear from you. So Jenny, what's the best way for them to do that?

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. Great question, Dan. So guys, the best way you guys can email, you can contact student support, or we have a Facebook page. We have two actually. We have one for ISSA. And then we also, for those who are enrolled in our CPT and our nutrition or any of our courses, we have our educational bootcamp Facebook page. You do have to be enrolled to be in that one. Otherwise, our regular ISSA page is a fabulous place to come share your experiences, not only with these products, but with the courses, with what you're doing in your career.

Guys, we want to hear from you. And that's a great point, Dan. We do want to know what you guys are up to. We do want you guys to share your experiences with other people, with the products, with what you're doing in your careers, everything. So again, our ISSA online main page on Facebook. If you go to groups, you can search ISSA online, and you can also search educational bootcamps, ISSA, and the other one should pop up. You'll have to prove that you're enrolled, but that's a great one to be in as well.

Dan Duran:

Awesome. So piggybacking on that, just it starts with your feet, folks ground up, like Jenny said, it starts with your feet.

Jenny Scott:

Absolutely. And again, remember, life sucks when your feet hurt and your teeth hurt. You'll never forget that. But trust me, somebody tell me, tune in. Thank you guys so much for listening, and as always, we will be talking to you soon.