Not Just a Man's World

I am a huge fan of being barefoot.  I love it.  As soon as I get in through the front door I kick off my shoes.  In an ideal world that would be it, but our ancient carpets (or my bad housework) combined with the cold temperature in our house in the winter and my poor circulation means that for much of the year I end up in socks or some nice wide slippers that don’t restrict my feet.

I even do my workouts barefoot in the summer (and in about three pairs of thick socks in winter – cement is cold to stand on when the temperature in the gym is below freezing) and I can often be found padding about the office without my shoes on.

Walking barefoot on sand is supposed to be an excellent exfoliant

But my barefoot evangelism is not just to do with my love of being able to wiggle my toes and feel the ground under my feet.  I’m convinced that, just as the strength of concrete foundations ensure a building remains standing, my feet, as my only contact with the ground, are the foundation of my posture.  Consequently, I also believe that the health of my feet impacts on other aspects of my health and that having bare feet enables them to be as natural and healthy as possible.

I’ve collected below various posts that others have written, mostly during the last 6 months, about being barefoot.  As might be expected, the nature of the blogs I read means that several of these are specifically about running shoes v running barefoot, but together they should help you reach your own view on whether you want to try the barefoot lifestyle.

• Mark Sisson has a very helpful article about flat feet and how to strengthen the muscles of the foot.  While it isn’t about being barefoot, very few of us have lives that enable us to be barefoot all the time and we therefore need to be on the lookout for weaknesses in the muscles of the feet that result from keeping them shut up in shoes all the time.  The article also has plenty of explanatory diagrams to get you thinking about whether you really want to be wearing shoes.
• Conditioning Research has recently had a few posts about the barefoot v running shoes debate.  A particularly recent one, Running Shoes are still bad, also has links to some earlier posts about the health benefits of going barefoot.  This article seems to have sparked off two other posts, also about the barefoot v running shoes debate.
• Joe Friel, the well-respected co-author of “The Paleo Diet for Athletes” also did a post yesterday about being barefoot.  Specifically he’s discussing running shoes and his observation that the key is to get the right amount of shoe for your personal style, posture and foot structure.  It’s all about fitting the amount of shoe to the individual.
• If you want a more scientific approach to the running shoes debate then I recommend a browse on the Science of Sport blog.  They’ve written several articles covering the subject of running technique and how this may change if running barefoot.  They’ve also done a three-part series on running shoes, with a specific article about barefoot running.  In particular I was very taken by the caution that runners who have adjusted their biomechanics to run with shoes may risk injury if they switch to only barefoot running in one go (rather than starting with short bursts of barefoot work while their body adjusts the technique).
• Whether you wear restrictive shoes or already live the barefoot lifestyle, looking after the muscles in the soles of the feet is crucial.  I keep a tennis ball in my desk drawer at work to enable me to self-massage my feet while I’m working, but Laree Draper has written a helpful article about the different techniques for massaging the soles of the feet and combining it with ankle mobility work.
• For those who are sold on the barefoot lifestyle, I’m told that Vibram Five fingers are the way ahead, to get the barefoot benefits without the injuries that would probably result from trying to go about our modern world without shoes.  They’re on my wish list (so if any readers out there fancy buying me some then let me know!) and no doubt I’ll post about them once I’ve tried them.  In the meantime, the blogging world is teeming with reviews.  Here is one that I particularly liked (and a second one specifically for runners).
• Finally, Conditioning Research also posted up a slow-motion video of someone running barefoot.  Have a look at it and see if you can see how the running style differs to that of someone wearing shoes.

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: barefoot running update
2. Blog-watch: foot health
3. Barefoot shoes
4. Blog-watch: exercise for mental health and brain development