The Xero Blog

As a busy dad, you’ve a lot going on.  Keeping up with work... spending time with your kids... helping around the house... working in the yard... Finding time to for health and fitness can feel tough, but it doesn’t have to be.   Instagram influencer and Xero Shoes partner LivFitKarl has plenty of tips for doing effective workouts based on natural movement that don’t take up a lot of time. Even if you have just a few minutes at the beginning or end of the day, you can do an effective workout with minimal weight to increase your mobility, improve your stamina, gain more flexibility, and grow stronger—all things that will help you show up as your best for those important little people (or fully grown people) in your life.  It all starts with making a commitment to being the fittest, healthiest version of yourself. And keeping what is most important front and center. Your fitness journey doesn’t have to be about how fast you can run or how much you can lift. It can be about keeping up with your kids and having the energy and stamina to pursue the things you enjoy. You also don’t need a lot of equipment or a dedicated space. Even on vacation, if you can find a few minutes, you can keep up your progress toward your fitness goals. And remember, even little choices like wearing barefoot shoes to walk around town, can help you reach your health and fitness goals faster. Training in barefoot shoes gives you access to natural movement, which may help you make the gains you’re after. Karl’s Favorite Xero Shoes https://xeroshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Video-5.mov For Summer Barbeques and Casual Nights Out Dillon BUY HERE Dillon Canvas Slip-On BUY HERE Kelso BUY HERE Go-To Every Day Shoes Prio Neo BUY HERE Nexus Knit BUY HERE For Workouts Speed Force II BUY HERE Forza Trainer BUY HERE

The reality TV show victor shares how he built balance and resilience to outlast 15 competitors in Fiji and come away with the crown! Mike Gabler has always been picky about his shoes. An avid hunter, hiker, and slackline enthusiast who also spends some long days on his feet in operating rooms, Gabler knows what he wears directly impacts how he performs under pressure, but also how he feels at the end of the day. So when he was chosen to compete on the 43rd season of the reality TV show Survivor, Gabler took the decision seriously. He says his Xero Shoes Xcursion Fusion boots were a secret weapon on the show—and since he defeated all comers and won the show at age 50, we can be sure this is a guy who knows about covert strategies! We caught up with Gabler in his hometown of Meridian, Idaho, to discuss how he trained and performed for his victory in Survivor 43. How did you learn about Xero Shoes initially?  So by day, I work in the operating room, and I stand for hours. And I usually wear cowboy boots with a heel on them. But after long days, I found that I just couldn't get comfortable, even at night sleeping. And I was looking around online, and a Xero Shoes ad found me. I bought a couple of pairs: Z-Trail, Xcursion Fusion, and some Alpines. And they took a little getting used to in the beginning, because it's a different way to walk. But once I got comfortable in them, it felt amazing, especially when I was on the trail. When I was hiking in Idaho or Alaska during the spring or summer, I loved them, because it made me feel like I was attached to the ground. So then when I went on this TV show, I knew I wanted to be lean and mean and be able to balance and work well. I have a bunch of different types of shoes at my house, and I was in my closet looking down at all the choices. And I felt like I had to select my Xero Shoes. They were my go-to for everything that wasn't aquatic. Even then, I wish I had brought a second pair of Xero Shoes, because instead I brought these surfing shoes where your toes go into little pockets. They just never dried out, and I developed a jungle rot problem. But I love my Aqua X Sports now, and they would have dried way better. Did you strategize your footwear choices during training? I did! Balance and core strength were a big component, and I did a lot of slacklinin. Whenever I did that, I wanted the closest thing to barefoot. Balance is crucial on this show, because there's a lot of challenges where you run across a beam holding something, or stuff like that. I definitely knew I didn't want any shoes with a big foam platform on the bottom. That wasn’t going to help me out with balance or posture. And you know what? I left the game with five records and won the thing, so I guess my shoe selection helped. What model were you wearing on the show? I used the Xcursion Fusion. Sometimes on the island I wore wool socks with them, and sometimes I would go barefoot in them, depending on how dry my socks were. I was wearing them when I broke a Survivor record on the grip challenge in episode 7. There was a huge obstacle course we had to go over that had balancing and carrying, and the record for it was 25 minutes. And I ended up breaking it with about 38 minutes. That's when my opponent, Cowboy Cody finally let go. Did you see anyone on the show regret their footwear decisions? There were a couple people that had those big shoes with foam on the bottom, and they rolled their ankles. And those are injuries that linger when you're out there in the jungle, but unfortunately the game doesn't stop for you to heal. You just have to keep going. So for me, not only did the Xero Shoes help me on the island, but I think it was going back before that, because I wore them for about a year beforehand. It made me think of all those little muscles in my feet and ankles that you don't use when you have one of these big foam balls that you're walking on. Those muscles were stronger. And here’s another thing: I was 50 during the show, and my body held up really well. In 43 seasons, there's only been two winners over 50. I'm the second one. And I'm somebody who has had knee issues and pain in my life, and I was really concerned about that! But during the game I had no issues. So I think they may have helped me a little bit in preparation, but they certainly helped me simply to stay in the game. Did you make any footwear converts on the show? For the most part, people were pretty happy with their shoe choices, because everybody puts a lot of thought into it. But as the show progressed, people would ask me, “What are those?” Because the Xcursion Fusion are really an interesting design. They look a little like a moccasin, but they give you some ankle support on the exterior. A few people even tried them and told me, “I'm getting a pair.” You definitely had some complicated relationships to maintain. As the show went on, it felt like a big part of your strategy was to “hide in plain sight.” How did that help you? I used what I call the “Alligabler” strategy to manage my threat level. I’d strike, then go back underwater for a little while. You know, if you're not careful, people will notice you, and they'll start taking shots at you. So I quickly kind of had to change my game and adapt to get under the radar. I was in on all these alliances, but everybody thought I was just in theirs. And it kind of helped me out, because I had a lot of information coming through me. And then I was able to make decisions that helped advance my game. Then, in the back half of the game I was more of a farmer, just planting a lot of seeds. Survivor is like downhill skiing through trees. Whatever you think is going on, if you can't pivot quickly, you're gonna get slammed. But you know, the whole game, I had zero votes against me until the very last night. And that’s when I got seven out of eight, which is a near perfect game. That's about as good a game as I could play. So now that you’ve experienced the show, but also watched it, what felt most real and unreal about your reality TV experience?  Watching it back was simply amazing. When I got back on June 1, I was 38 pounds lighter than I am now. And obviously I knew what's going to happen as far as the scoreboard. But it was like watching a football game where it's 33 to 27 in triple overtime, and I didn’t know what the plays were going to be. The editing is really what the plays are, and I got to watch that live with you guys. Of course there's a couple of things I would have liked them to show a little bit more of, but the producers of Survivor are genius storytellers. They had everybody guessing all the way through. I thought season 43 was a very entertaining season, but it’s also one that’s going to age really well for people who binge things later. There were some parts of it that were a little bit slower. But I liken it to a roller coaster: it climbs and goes tick, tick, tick. And then after a little bit, it goes right into some serious drops. We definitely left a lot of jaws dropped along the way, and it was a lot of fun. Now that you’re back, what’s your favorite thing to do in a pair of Xero Shoes?  When it's cold outside, like right now it’s 10 degrees here in Boise, I put on a pair of wool socks, put on my Alpines, and then I go out and get on the slackline. I even get a sweat going when I'm out there. It’s just really chill. I’ll put my ear pods in with some cool music, and then just do that for an hour. It’s just a perfect way to leave my day and whatever else is going on behind.

There's nothing worse than leaving your beloved home in pure fright. Through the Dignity Restoring Hope foundation, we were able to connect with Iryna and her young family of Ukrainian refugees.Introduce yourself, what is your name and how old are you? “My name is Iryna and I’m 30 years old.”Where are you from? “I'm from Kyiv.”What were you doing in Ukraine? “At that moment I was on maternity leave, we have 4 kids, and the youngest was 2 years old, right now he is 3 already.”Is all your family here in the Czech Republic? “Right now we come back to Kyiv. But later we are planning to go back to Prague. Right at this moment, my son has an operation on his leg. There are things we need to take care of and then we are arranging our return back to the Czech Republic.”Why have you decided to go to the Czech Republic, was it a deliberate choice? “It wasn’t a choice. That was all unexpected. We didn’t know where are we going and what to do, complete misunderstanding. But at that moment I was studying online and my classmate, who lives in Prague, called me on the 24th of February and invited us to come to her and offered to help. We were driving through different cities and finally decided to go to Prague. We wanted to stay for one week and see how the situation is going to change, to realize what is going on. We stayed for one month without registration, every day hoping that will end today, but there was no end in sight. Finally, after a month registered and got a visa for temporary residence”Were you leaving Kyiv the day it started? “Yes, we awoke by the sounds of the explosions. Packed some things in a suitcase, woke the children, jumped in the car, and went nowhere”What is the current situation in Kyiv? “The last days were quite tough. The air–raid alarms went off very often. Thank God, there were no explosions. A few days, after we came to the Czech Republic, we were watching the explosions from our window. This is scary, painful, and displeasing. But the days following all of Ukraine suffered from bombs. It is an intense situation, this is war.”How does your children react to a civil defense siren? “We were talking about that a lot, I was showing him a cartoon about the air–raid alarm. It is our friend, it notifies us about the threat of an attack and helps us. So now they are absolutely fine about it, say “Hi, alarm and thank you” because in the cartoon it is said to greet it and make your way to the shelter. They don’t have a fear. It is scary that they play games that you have to hide somewhere in the bunker, the flying shells. Luckily they didn’t see much of it but they know and understand everything from the information filed“Have you been to Europe before, to the Czech Republic? “ Yes, we were traveling before. More with the first kid. Then my daughter was born. And then we had another two kids, one year apart. With the oldest, we've been in the Czech Republic and Portugal. We've been traveling to Spain and Paris, but with one kid it was easier..”When you were traveling, have you ever thought about leaving Ukraine, to emigrate? “We had these thoughts when we were young, we were playing for a Green Card, but that was before we delivered our first baby. No action was taken for that. We had an idea to live somewhere for one winter, or 3 months, temporarily, this is interesting and changes your daily routine for a while. But apparently, once the war started, you realize that the only place you want to be is home.”Security is way more important, especially with the kids. “It is also about the choice. When you are choosing to leave. It is a conscious decision, your personal choice that is comfortable at this stage. But this is a totally different thing when you are running. First days we had a fear that we did something wrong, our actions can be against the law of this country. In Budapest, our money was stolen from our pockets. We were scared and lost anywhere.”Have you received help with documents here in the Czech Republic, people were willing to help? “We were waiting for a long time without registration and believed that it would end quickly. So after one month from the beginning, when we finally came there, everything was easy and fast. I've heard the stories before about how people were waiting all day, coming early in the morning to stand in line. But for us it was a very positive experience, people were nice, with open hearts, and did everything for us.”Was there a kind of negative situation, for example at kids' play yards, is there a difference in people's behavior, compared to the first weeks? “We had a negative experience on our way to the bank, the guy on the street was really aggressive and he was screaming that you are fascists. He was with a huge dog. I went to the bank and my husband stay in the car, and the stranger continued yelling. But my husband didn’t react to that, so he left. It is a catchy negative experience on the street that happened to us. We were spending almost all of the time in the play yards, and closer to summer more people from Ukraine came. Little conflicts I usually had with Ukrainian people, rather than with Czech. We went to the shopping mall, and there was a carousel with 3 horses. I was on the phone and didn’t get the whole situation. The lady put her daughter on it and turned it on, two of my kids saw it moving and also jumped on. The lady starts screaming this is only for her kid. Obviously, I took my kids off it. But the Czech moms act differently, they always say, common join, there are free spots, your kids can have a ride with mine. On the other hand, it is the difference in their attitude to their own things. When I come to the play yard, I simply pour out all the toys in the middle of the band, I don’t care who will take them, my kids share everything with the others. But when they tried to take a balance bike, the lady strictly notified me, that this is forbidden. We had a lot of different bikes and cars in Ukraine, and we were sharing them with everyone around, but we didn’t buy one in Prague, every day thinking that tomorrow we will go back home. But my kids are used to sharing and surprised that they can't take it. At the same time, i think this different attitude and vision might be right.”In general, do you like staying in the Czech Republic, and how long you are planning to be here? “By the end of the war, we really want to go home. This is not that the Czech Republic or Europe is bad, but we want to go home. We have a house here, I hope it will survive. We are here now, and you can’t imagine how much we were missing our city. We used to solve medical questions immediately, with stomatologists for example. My husband had a stomach ache and they offered an appointment three months later, or the nearest in another city in one month. We could manage this situation and we know that in Ukraine you can get the appointment on the same day. We love Kyiv. I believe our win is close. And we will all come back home”When are you planning to return back to Prague? Right now we have an operation for one kid, one of our kids is adopted, and we need to do a medical check for him, he has a condition of late growth, he is one year behind, and during the last year, we were working on this question a lot. He was in a hospital for a while, now he has a blood test. By the end of the week, we will have answers from doctors and in the middle of August, we are planning to come back to Prague. But it is not easy to find a place in Prague, we don’t want to go nowhere, firstly we will find a place to live, and then go.”Do you have relatives in Ukraine? All our relatives stayed in Ukraine. My husband's parents are from Mykolaiv. My h and my husband, we used to live there for a while. And every day you are reading from the news: bombed hotel - my cosmetologist was working here, an explosion in the city mall - I used to work here, destroyed university - my husband got an education there. That's terrible. The current situation in this city is a nightmare. Bombs every day, and for almost two months they don’t have drinking water. Two months ago they went to my mother in the Odesa region, and later, when we came to Kyiv, they came to us. This is horror. We are all together now, and i§m so happy, you never know, when is the last time we can see each other, and how long we won§t meet. For me, the importance of life and visions has changed a lot.”In general how much your life has changed? Do you feel safe, the ground disappeared below you, or points are a fulcrum? “On the first day, everything collapsed, utterly unknown. Early in the morning, it was still dark, we heard the sounds, I started throwing clothes into the suitcase, I caught myself thinking “for how long I packed, for a few days, or ф few weeks, or months, will I ever come back here, will my home survive will my home not be destroyed, will I have a place to come back.” The first month was the hardest. But after I went back to study. My academy is in Moscow, but I took a decision to quit it, even I was studying for 1,5 years, and left only one module and diploma, I couldn’t continue it. So I found another school, and after one month went back to study, it is really helpful and distracting. Housekeeping, studying, and taking care of kids there is no time for depression. I’m more flexible now and adjusting to changes is way easier. Sometimes you are at your emotional bottom. The last few week's news is full of stories from Mykolaiv and Vinnytsia. You are reading and feel like you are dying with these people. I allow myself this emotion, this is grief, this is pain from loss, but we are moving on. I have a motivation for myself to become better. They are trying to destroy us, but they can’t, instead of hatting them, I put my anger in the right direction I will grow, I will use this energy for self-development, we will be better, and we and our state become more beautiful. I will be a better person, opposite to them.”If you would like to donate directly to Dignity Restoring Hope, we encourage you to do so below. Donate To Dignity Restoring Hope Looking for more ways to help? We have put together a list of great foundations that are accepting donations for those in need.1. International Humanitarian Fund2. Children of Heroes 3. Fond Masha4. Voice of Children5. People in Need6. Unicef7. Doctors Without Borders