Go barefoot. Provided you dodge any real nasties — glass, sharps, bear traps — your feet might just thank you for it.
Spurred by Christopher McDougall’s Born To Run (published 2009), the barefoot running movement has skipped ahead in leaps and bounds, so to speak, over the past 12-18 months. Barefoot advocates argue there are aeons of evolutionary engineering tucked away in the old “plates of meat”, which for thousands of years carried us around quite efficiently. The advent of the modern running shoe (McDougall dates this development to the emergence of waffle soles in the ’70s) and the advertising campaigns that went with it saw us trade out of barefeet and un-cushioned footwear into mattresses with laces. This, in turn, sent the natural workings of our feet into forced redundancy and our stride into distortion.
The theory goes that when we run in cushioned shoes, we deny the natural biomechanics of the foot to chance to do their thing — to feel, arch and spring in response to the ground beneath us. Our gait changes from one in which we kiss the earth with the forefront of the foot, to one in which the heel strikes first and the rest of our weight follows. Our lower legs go from being shock absorbers to pile drivers, sending impact jarring up our bodies. In short, in exchange for wrapping them in the latest gel-filled, aerowow wonder shoes, our feet repay us with knee and ankle injuries.
The science is apparently still out as to whether going barefoot really does confer health advantages over running in sneakers. I’m neither biomechanic nor podiatrist, but I do have a pair of feet. Having gone barefoot now for more than six months, I can report that the niggle in my left kneecap has disappeared, and running is lots more, well, fun, than it ever was in joggers. Granted, my pace is slower, but equally I can run further, without feeling like I’m going to reach the pearly gates before my front gate.
The barefoot experience seems to get foot speed and breathing into sync much more efficiently than when running shod, in turn allowing for a jog that is, while not effortless, less demanding than the old heel hammering I was used to. In fact, the only insults I fear now are those to my dignity, given social norms dictate bare feet should be restricted to children and mystics (“late for the Last Supper?” is still my favourite).
Mind, you will need to ease into it. Barefoot experts suggest first-timers take things gradually, which makes sense. Certainly the soft, pampered meringues I called feet took some toughening up before I could reliably get distance out of them au naturale. There’s also a range of shoes on the market nowadays for those who are looking for a close-to-barefoot experience without fear of a tetanus stick injury (or cruel barbs from neighbourhood toughs).
For tips and advice, try here and here. Or pick up one of the number of books on the topic. And for the fervently immobile, check out Born To Run anyway — it’s a fascinating look at the physiology of the foot, the marketing of joggers, and a lost tribe of Mexican super-athletes.
Dr Harvey M Tarvydas
Well, just to support you in your (what most would call – but not me) radical advice let me vote for it in telling you that living each week both in Perth’s King’s Park and Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay area I am barefoot to shops, walks, including beach walks and put shoes on when off to be or meet with another or work of one kind or another and I know my feet love me for it even though I am in my 6th decade. (I’ve become the only barefoot eccentric in both cities)
Thanks Jim. Good article. I’ve been introduced to the discussion about “barefoot” recently, and it’s good to read an article from someone who’s doing it, and getting real benefit from it.
I have been a runner for 31 years. I refused to compromise on the quality of running shoes so that I could prevent injuries both long and short term. In recent years the niggling pain in my knees and hips had become enough to make me look for other forms of exercise. Then I came across the ‘barefoot’ movement. I started running in specially made shoes that do not have cushioning and fit snuggly around my foot and toes.
After some initial adjustment I am now running absolutely pain free and when I see others in cushioned shoes run past I can see the impact on their joints. I agree with McDougall – we were born to run and run barefoot. My running is great, my legs feel the strongest they have in years – if not ever and I have no pain. It just feels right, like it is meant to be that way.
Redemption! After all these dec….years!
In my senior school days I was part of a running team,-leading the field (literally and metaphorically),-running for my County (County not Country).
I was selected for the National Finals. ….but I ran barefoot. I was ‘requested’ repeatedly to don running shoes. I refused. I was kicked out.
Kicked out of my County team,-not able to run officially again. ( Given my mothers nationality I suspect they thought that I was an uncivilized little savage!!!!!!).
Good enough for Country; good enough for Nationals nonetheless…as long as I put socks (in those days) and shoes on.
Stuff ’em!
Can anyone tell me where to buy those shoes that don’t have cushioning and are designed for the barefoot movement? Even a website, I have no idea of the brands that sell them. I’ve been curious to try ‘barefoot’/cushion-free running, but living inner-city I fear there is just too much glass and copper wire from construction sites etc. I’d rather not risk have to pull stuff out of my heel!