Going Shoeless: A discussion about barefoot living

Hi, all!

I'm new here, and this is my first post.

I'm so glad to have found this particular thread. I injured my ankle two years back, and I am a serious, competitive runner.

I took nearly 10 months to recover, and when I eventually returned to running, I went down with a stress reaction. I mainly worked on my form to address this issue, in addition to changing my strength training routine, but I kept facing severe pain.

I took a friend's advice and began barefooting it at home, where I spend most of my time. It has really changed my life. I am a better runner now, and the ankle no longer troubles me. I also train barefoot on lawn/grass, which also helps a lot.

I have shared this with many of my running friends, but they don't think barefooting it was the gamechanger.

Now, being barefoot is more than just a means to be a better runner. It has become a political statement. I don't buy new clothes, either. The lase time I got a new shirt was 4 years back. The shirt is still in great shape. I work from home as an academic editor, and I have no need to please people with my dressing, which I think is a luxury.

Anyway, Happy New Year, all!

Mark: Sorry about the injury. I sure missed "runner's high" after I injured my calf muscle as part of my transition to barefoot living. I'm glad you are able to run again.

Chronic aches in my knees, hips, and back disappeared after I started living barefoot.

The advise that I frequently hear on barefoot running groups, for developing the most natural gait, is to run on pavement. The theory being that there is less margin for error, and the body quickly adapts to the most efficient form for avoiding landing shock. My transition to barefoot living took a good two years to lengthen the calf-muscles and Achilles tendon, and loosen up the foot/ankle joints.

@Joseph

Thanks!

Being unable to run as much as one would like is truly depressing, so I understand what it must be like to miss or crave the "runner's high." It is such a nice feeling--face red with good blood circulation and exhaustion and the feeling of contentment after a good cool down!

I am refraining from training barefoot on pavements--at least for another 3 months. But I must certainly--and I want to--do it. Ive been imagining what a barefoot trail run must be like. That's also something I'd like to try.

And 2 years to acclimatize to barefoot living? Wow! How much do we take for granted?! Take away footwear and it necessitates a lifestyle change. Uff! Congrats on the sustained barefooting!  

I'm in the middle... while I don't go barefoot I don't wear shoes either.
(neanderthal feet... ;  )



Instead I wear Tevas all year round. It's California so the tan is year round as well. Now I can't stand to wear regular shoes because my feet get so hot and feel really cramped. Once you give up shoes, you never go back! (lol)

After having walked minimal for a few months, trying to approximate shoeless, I think going shoeless is awesome, and I love it, so long as I am walking on soil and earth. Walking on concrete, tile, and stone with my barefeet hurts my back and neck, because the concrete and stone do not have the same flex and give that walking on soil does. I have noticed that soil gives when I walk on it, which I think is why it is easier on the body. I don't feel any pain or jostling of my back when I walk on good soil.

At the moment, I am thinking I will probably be wearing normal shoes when walking on concrete and stone, because the cushions of shoes seem to protect my back from some of the hurt I get from walking on stone and concrete. And for soil, I think I'll keep going barefoot or minimal, because that feels good to me.

Dave: My experience was that walking/running on concrete was my best strategy for learning the barefoot gait. Soft surfaces allowed a continuation of the heel-strike gait which was the way I learned to walk (in shoes). Walking or running on concrete requires landing on the forefoot to avoid transmitting shocks through my knees, hips, and back joints with every step.

It took me a good two years for my gait to fully change, and for my muscles, joints, tendons, and habits to readjust. I pay much more attention to my body these days, and if I'm feeling a jolt in the joints with each step, i take it as a sign that I have fallen back into my shod heel-strike gait. I've been wearing shoes this winter, and catch myself often doing the old heel-strick gait. My knees are so sore.

Thank you, Joseph, That helps me see I still have learning and progress to make with changing my gait and walking, so that going barefoot is more enjoyable, for me, than just when I am simply on soil. I'll get my minimal shoes out again today and try to focus on forefoot walking.

EDIT: I put my minimal shoes back on and focused on walking on the forefront of my feet, and my back felt a lot better. So, this part requires a bit of focus right now. Hopefully it will become second nature eventually after I practice focusing on it more when I walk.

I am not barefoot but have been minimalist for a year and I found this link  (and video) helpful.  Agree with Joseph. Walking on pavement is the best reminder for me to refocus on what I think of as rolling my hips. It makes it pain free.

https://xeroshoes.com/barefoot-running-tips/how-to-walk-barefoot/

Thank you, Sonja! I'll try to practice the walk described in the video from the article you linked to

.
Anyone here who lives in London, UK???

Healthy BAREFOOT lifestyle:

I am looking for local people who live the modern liberal healthy BAREFOOT lifestyle to create a barefoot local community. South-West London, UK, (about Wimbledon, Merton, etc.)

Furthermore, I am looking for a DOMESTIC (or any other (please, suggest)) part time job where I could work BAREFOOT. Please, suggest. For example: housekeeping, cleaning, shopping, etc. or SUGGEST if YOU have a concrete job offer, please.

I was going barefoot a lot in the 60's-70's and discovered positive and negative aspects of this.

Positive... stimulates reflexology points in the feet by walking on irregular surfaces, puts you in direct contact with the earth, feels really good on grass, sand and certain other surfaces.

Negative... you can be injured by stepping on the wrong things; it can cause your feet to spread, so that when you do wear shoes you'll need triple-E; if you're running your knees and everything else is taking more impact without running shoes which absorb impact forces.

In the West it is difficult due to puncture vines.

On a beach in Mexico once I stepped on a marine catfish, the spine went an inch deep behind my 2nd toe, I had to yell at a guy there to pull the fish out of me, he was squeamish until I screamed "goddam it pull it out right now you f----ing..." etc. My foot swelled up like a football, I couldn't walk for days, but I was lucky as those fish are toxic and the Mexican fishermen there were telling me people had lost hands after being cut by one of those fish.

Here in the Piedmont it's all grass and dirt with no puncture vines or marine catfish, so a lot safer.

Victor Skaggs wrote:Negative... you can be injured by stepping on the wrong things; it can cause your feet to spread, so that when you do wear shoes you'll need triple-E;

You're right Victor. My toes all reverted from their former "canned sardines" state to spread out and separate from each other. However, for me it's not a negative as I'm never going back to wearing shoes again. It's not a hinderance in my job as I work for myself and enjoy the luxury of wearing whatever the hell I want on my feet.

if you're running your knees and everything else is taking more impact without running shoes which absorb impact forces.

This is true, which is one reason why I wear Tevas, to protect my feet from both impact and rocks.

In the West it is difficult due to puncture vines.

I hear ya. (lol) For years we have been waging a constant war against them and have almost completely eliminated them from our land. After I hike, I check the sandal bottoms to make sure they don't carry any seeds back home.

Here in the Piedmont it's all grass and dirt with no puncture vines or marine catfish, so a lot safer.

That's sounds great. :  ) The trick is to find a place and a way to live there that works best for you. There are an infinite number of different places and individual approaches so everyone is free to go in any direction.

I ran my first race today. A barefoot mile to start off the 4th of July parade. Time 9:40.

I'm entering my 4th winter of living habitually barefoot.

Back in September, when we got our first cold day, I whined a lot about being barefoot for another winter. Then I adapted. I went barefoot until a few days ago (late November) when snow arrived and stuck.  I'm putting shoes on if I have to be out for a long time, but not for quick trips. It's still warm-ish slushy snow. When it gets cold enough that the ice gets like knife blades, then I'll wear shoes.

I have learned the temperatures where it feels like frost-bite is imminent. I put shoes (or socks) on before going out in those temperatures.

I'm still running barefoot. In cold weather I put on a pair of thick socks. And I run in mid-afternoon, only on sunny days.  And when the pavement is dry.

The first winter, I was a barefoot zealot. This winter I'm being cautious and conservative. I'm wearing footwear that is soft, zero-drop, and extra roomy.

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Enough about winter. Here's more general barefoot news.

My toes continue to spread, straighten, and un-twist. My feet are getting longer. One toe is still hammer-toed. It's not dragging the ground any more and wearing the skin off. Wishing that I had taken better photos early on.

In the fall, I went running on a trail with horse-chestnut burrs. I ran through them for 1/4 mile and missed them all. Felt glorious to be so coordinated.

Sometimes, I still find myself using my old gait of stomp, stomp, stomp -- where each stomp transmits jolts through ankles, knees, hips, and back, and neck. Ugh! When I become aware of it, I switch to my gliding forefoot-landing gait. My calves have finally adapted enough that I can walk that way as long as I want.

I retired from beekeeping. So disposed of my beekeeping boots. They have had a hole in the side of them for 5 years. A bee finally stung me through that hole on the last day that I wore them. In any case, they no longer fit. My feet have out-grown them.

Amazing how things change and can change so quickly...

I think prior to a couple of days ago, maybe once I had walked on snow barefoot, maybe. Three out of the past four days I have walked on the lovely corn snow I have around my house. Not fun to say the least. I think I like gravel better:)

Today I decided to really try something new and different since it was right around the freezing point. I decided to go for a nice 2 mile sidewalk walk barefoot. I have walked rocky/rutted hiking paths on a few occasions in the past but I hadn't ever really tried any decent length pavement/sidewalk walking before. I thought I might find sand on the sidewalk from the town salting/sanding the sidewalks after so I wasn't surprised by it. I was surprised how easy it seemed to go on the feet. Granted all my recent activity, not in the past couple of years had been on the hiking trail which was not fun thanks to gravel in spots on the hiking trail.

I already had the idea about changing/watching the way you walk so I was putting focus on trying to always land toes first instead of heel first. By the time I got home I was starting to notice something occurring if I put my mind to it. I found myself using the knee to force the heel down at the end of the step. I was surprised to see how much I was paying attention to the way I was walking and was able to notice small nuances in my gait.

The other thing I found after I got home kinda surprised me and kinda didn't. I have several blood blisters on the ball of each foot. I also found the calluses on the heels had rubbed off, this didn't bother me any and actually I'm glad to finally have the calluses gone.

My question, a very poor question under the circumstances, what would typically cause the blood blisters when you are walking barefooted? I had in two spots on both feet, one right behind the big toe and the other one right behind the second toe.

I haven't did much of any barefoot walking, most of my life so this new for me and I don't have much in the way of calluses built up. I just started experimenting with the idea a few days ago and figured why not start with walking on snow first, be real crazy from the get go.

Hank Fletcher wrote:what would typically cause the blood blisters when you are walking barefooted?

The blood blisters were caused by doing more than the feet were able to handle. I participate in a number of barefoot running sites. Newbies frequently ask how they should get started. Those with a lot of experience say, "Start gradually, and transition slowly". I usually add, "even slower than you can imagine".

As humans, we tend to avoid doing activities that have injured us in the past. So the best way for me to want to  continue a barefoot lifestyle, is to avoid injury that would make me want to avoid going barefoot.

Blisters are caused by a shearing motion against the skin, so mechanically, I'd guess that the gait included some type of twisting or scuffing.

For what it's worth, even though I live habitually barefoot, I don't have calluses on my feet. My feet are as soft and supple as my hands.

Snake
I stepped on a rattle snake while barefoot watering veggies a few years ago.  I felt animal-ness below me as i was transferring my weight.  I was stopping my forward weight transfer as i looked down.  Before I could think I jumped backwards, yelled and raised my hands.  It didn't try to strike, it just stayed there.

Being barefoot allowed me to know what I was stepping on, although it could have bitten my toesies easy without protection.

TBJ's Tracker School
I went barefoot or with thin, flat-soled shoes for a few years after I attended the tracker school a bunch.  They call modern footwear "Coffins for our feet" -TB III.  Modern footwear limits blood flow, movement, tactile perception, agility, speed, temp perception, aeration, stealth and build bacteria/fungus.  

The tracker school advocates a "fox walk" which is a relaxed, nature-connection-enhancing movement. Most of videos I saw under a "fox walk" search did a decent job at teaching it. However, none mentioned that the tracker school advocated the foxwalk as our baseline movement.  Baseline means 'relaxed / typical'.  For example wild dog's baseline movement is a trot, cat's is a nap "fox walk" ...so just watch them. ...Or walk barefoot on sharp gravel, you'd learn the fox walk real quick.

If you fox walk, barefoot while using wide-angle / splatter / owl vision you will experience the forest like a widescreen movie and not need to stare down at a 55degree angle like most do to avoid tripping.  ...Cause you feel stuff before you've transferred your weight and can be looking around more than down.  

The longest run I've gone on was about 12 miles barefoot, and I'm not a runner.  I used what they call the fox run.

There is a certain ground temp which you shoultn't go barefoot if its colder than... I think they teach 50F (?)

Since I'm plugging them so hard: note their school isn't perfect. TBJ is just a person. TB III is just a person.


Here is a video of a running tips from pros. I was happy to see his run [4:50 into video] is exactly what  would suggest aiming towards running.  Short steps, bent legs, front foot takes body weight when it is fully under you or even after, push forward with your butt+ quads.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:

Hank Fletcher wrote:what would typically cause the blood blisters when you are walking barefooted?

The blood blisters were caused by doing more than the feet were able to handle. I participate in a number of barefoot running sites. Newbies frequently ask how they should get started. Those with a lot of experience say, "Start gradually, and transition slowly". I usually add, "even slower than you can imagine".

Okay, I'll bite, I have been looking all late last night and all morning this morning at some of the BR sites. I had to get across a busy stretch of road at one point on the two mile walk yesterday and ran across it at by the time I got to the other side I knew I just had an uh-oh moment(extremely positivie, not negative uh-oh moment). It was definitely the weirdest run I have ever experienced in my life, felt so good yet I knew it shouldn't.

I'll bite, if I were to have even thoughts, I'm hoping I don't, of getting into barefoot running, is it better to start out barefoot running or barefoot walking. Do you let the feet toughen up first before you start running or just start running from the get go. I know on one of the sites I saw it mentioned to avoid running on grass(granted with nothing but snow around here right now grass is not much of an option for a while:)) and instead train yourself by running on asphalt, and run fast not slow. So if the idea is to start small and build up do you start walking or start running first. I know I was shocked at the difference in speed between some grass I did find and the paved sidewalk I spent most of the time walking on yesterday. I couldn't believe the pick up in speed on grass. I never would have thought I would see that much of an increase in speed.

A typical runner's meme is to increase distance by 10% per week.

My experience was that the skin of my feet adapted quickly. What took years to adapt were the calf-muscles. Because, walking over a one inch heel for most of my life, created calf-muscles that were one inch shorter than they would have been if I had lived habitually barefoot. So I had to grow an extra inch of length in the calf-muscles. That took about 18 months of living and running habitually barefoot. In the process, I stretched the calf muscles faster than they were growing, and tore one of them. That sucked!!! There were also lots of shifts that occurred in my toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, neck. Those take time and patience. No point rushing into an injury. It took a lifetime to get to my pre-barefoot shape. Might as well plan on a couple years for the remediation work.

I started running barefoot before I started walking barefoot. That was because I enjoyed the barefoot runs so much that I couldn't stand the thought of putting shoes on when I was done. My initial barefoot runs were around 300 feet long, which I did 3 times per week for weeks. Then when that was really comfortable, i did barefoot runs of about 750 feet for months. Then started increasing distances week by week.

My strategy for barefoot running is to run lightly, and joyfully. Like I'm playing a hide and seek game, and want to sneak lightly past the seeker. I don't give any thought to pacing, other than to choose a pace that can be maintained indefinitely. Easy, light, delicate. My biggest challenge in learning to run was slowing down the effort to match the available breath.

The advice on barefoot running groups is generally to start by ditching footwear, and running on concrete. The body quickly self-corrects the gait.

After having company showing up unexpectedly yesterday right about the time I was going to go outside for a short walk and maybe a small run as well I, instead, woke up this morning, quite early as normal, and finally looked at the scenario and said the heck with it. I knew I wanted to stay as much on pavement as much as possible and stay off the sidewalk. I knew the road should be fairly clean while the sidewalk would have the salt/sand on it which I think helped caused the blisters back on Friday. I knew that meant getting on the road before the traffic picked up so I head out around 5:30AM for a short .5 mile walk with a couple of short 100 feet or so stretches of unthinkable running. Definitely need a lot of work on the mental side of barefoot running, especially free willingly. . I can't except the idea of me running, yet alone barefoot running.

Before the first run stretch I was noticing one thing which really surprised me. I was able to feel the foot step at times and at other times I couldn't feel the foot step, aka forefoot vs heel. I even noticed the difference  on the short run stretches. I don't remember noticing anything like it on Friday afternoon. I think the lack of traffic, both lack of any vibration/noise from the traffic and the lack of distractions from the traffic, made the difference. I definitely realize it will take some big reprogramming of the mind to get the forefoot landing as the new norm.

The real problem I notice right now is the lack of walking availability in the house. I have several things I want to experiment with but in the house it is practically impossible as their isn't steps needed to get from one room to the other. Patience is the key. I think I will head out each morning for a short walk/run around the block as it is the most walking I see all day anymore.

I was surprised the feet felt good afterward. The only real trouble was the walk out to the road and back in from the road, especially around the sidewalk out by the road where the salt/sand lays on the sidewalk. I need to get use to that darn stuff:) The feet weren't even all that cold given the temperature was around 30 degrees. Sounds like the same, maybe a few degrees colder tomorrow morning.

Hank Fletcher wrote: I knew I wanted to stay as much on pavement as much as possible and stay off the sidewalk.

My suggestion is that you find a dirt path or grass to run on. Pavement is hard and will wreck your knees, and do so even faster if you're barefoot.

At first the irregularities, pebbles, etc., will bother you, but one's feet become accustomed to that. I can walk over gravel and other surfaces on which other people cannot walk at all.

The hard paved surfaces are eroding your knees, I'm quite sure.

Victor Skaggs wrote:

Hank Fletcher wrote: I knew I wanted to stay as much on pavement as much as possible and stay off the sidewalk.

My suggestion is that you find a dirt path or grass to run on. Pavement is hard and will wreck your knees, and do so even faster if you're barefoot.

At first the irregularities, pebbles, etc., will bother you, but one's feet become accustomed to that. I can walk over gravel and other surfaces on which other people cannot walk at all.

The hard paved surfaces are eroding your knees, I'm quite sure.

It kills your knees/hips/back because you are landing on the wrong part of the foot. Do some research on the right way to run/run barefoot and you could save yourself a ton of time/money/pain thanks to it.

When you land on the heel you send 4-5 times the body weight all the way up through the leg into the spine. First the force has to get through your ankle, then your knee, then your hip, before it hits the spine. Stop landing each foot on the heel and instead start landing each step on the ball of the foot. This lets your foot act as a shock absorber and removes the brunt force of the fall before it gets the chance to work its way up your body.  I notice a big difference between landing on the heel and the ball of foot. Right now I am trying to convert myself in band marching mode. Raise the knee at the outset of the step. This pretty much forces me to land with the ball of the foot and makes for a much softer landing which I do not notice unlike when I land on the heel and feel it come up through the body. The difference is incredible. I was doing it both walking and running this morning while I was out for my half mile barefoot walk/run on pavement.

Plus, as an added benefit right now most of the ground is covered in corn snow so I want nothing to do with trying to walk on that stuff.  I had three days last week walking on it and its not fun.  I would much rather walk on gravel than this darn corn snow. Can't wait until we get some fresh snow and then I'll go play in it but until we get a decent snowfall I will definitely stick to the pavement.

As a kid I was always made to whear shoes from morning till bed by my parents!

I wear shoes of personal necessity.  Every time I haven't,  I have ended up with a broken toe...or toes. I envy those with the grace to go without shoes and not self destruct.

What sort of winter shoes/boots do you barefoot people wear?

I have been barefoot or in loose sandals since the snow went away this spring and am very much not looking forward to winter boots. Havent worked im an office and barely went in public all summer, so am out of the habit of shoes.  I have blundstones, 1 or 2 sizes too large but i always struggle with readjusting to the loss of toe freedom. Even my barefoot style running shoes are too tight.

That first frosty day of fall I really suffer. Then I get used to it, and I'm OK until the snow falls!

If I have to be outside in the snow, or with ice shards, I put on moccasins, shoes, or snow boots. The longer I'm expecting to be out, and the deeper the snow/cold the thicker the protection. I went mostly barefoot my first winter. I don't have any inclination to do the macho thing again. The first time I got a hint of frostbite, I was done with macho.  

If I'm running on dry pavement, and the sun is shining, and it's mid-day, I might put on a pair of thick socks. I have some felted wool slippers that I like.

I run around bare footed a lot here at home but wear Keen sandals year round otherwise just with wool socks in the winter. I also have a pare of Rocky brand combat boots that I wear pretty much only while working with a chain saw. During the years when I wore actual shoes I had terrible foot odor and sometimes even sores between my toes. That happened especially in winter when my feet would get hot while inside or in the car. The year round open Keens cured that completely. I never thought about barefoot as lifestyle, just always did it a lot. I remember as a kid not putting on shoes from the time school ended till it started again the next year. I could put out my dads cigarette butts and not even feel it, step on bees, thistles it didn't matter. Probably still could by end of fall, just don't go around proving it anymore.

Our creeks here are full of sharp broken limestone lots of which, even very large ones are precariously perched so just a little disturbance sends them toppling to a new position. We had a game, where you would run as fast as you could up ad down the creek without touching any water. If you fell down or left wet tracks on an otherwise dry rock you lost. I nearly always won.

Yeah, socks and sandals until about -5C (23F) here, maybe -10C (14 F) then i chicken out. But usually by then there is snow on the ground, so sandals dont work anyway. Nothing worse than cold, wet feet.

So i need something warmer from mid Nov/early December until the snow melts in mid March. Growing up, i also spent most of the summer barefoot - remember a few times arriving at a store and discovering i hadnt put shoes on before leaving!  That happens less now that i drive, my feet register the pedal differently so i notice when i get in.

(As i eye beautiful traditional moccasins and mukluks online i imagine, 100 years ago, before the advent of rubber shoes, if someone had suggested we dump tonnes of salt on roads and paths to keep them in a perpetual state of salty slush that ruins leather or suede or fur. I imagine reviews to the idea would have been negative!)

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I'd like to discuss living barefoot. The ergonomics, economics, strategies, adaptations, health effects, etc...

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For the past few months, I have been learning to live barefoot. I don't like the idea of having intermediaries in my life. So if I stop wearing shoes, that's one less thing that I have to buy from The Corporation. It's a slow and gradual process. This morning, I went to town barefoot, and took care of some shopping and business transactions. Then I worked six hours barefoot planting my fields. Then my feet were done for the day. They just had enough energy left for a barefoot photo.

No discussion of barefoot living is complete without a mention of the parasite hookworm.

I used to run to a park and then take my shoes off for a daily "dew walk," which was recommended to me by my acupuncturist. I greatly enjoyed these dew walks, and I found them beneficial for tired, sore feet that had just received a pummeling during my run.

AND THEN I GOT HOOKWORM. This parasite is excreted by a host it's attacked. It can stay viable in the poop for sometime, until it enters another host.

TO BE CLEAR: I do not ever remember stepping in poop. But I must have stepped where poop had been, as the hookworm likely entered through the sole of my foot. Hookworm is so rare in the US that I had to piece together a prescription for the drug to eradicate it by visiting 3 different pharmacies.

Ever since then, I'm really careful about where I walk barefoot. Public spaces are OUT.

Wow one can find just about every topic on here! I never realized how many people prefer to be barefoot. My mom would yell at me when I was a kid not to go barefoot in the grass because I'd "get a tick." (As if a tick could survive all the chemicals they sprayed on the lawn. Sadly she passed from nonhodgkins lymphoma) But on to happy thoughts. I love being barefoot. Any chance where I can do it safely. I've got 5 acres in the desert covered in prickly pears so unfortunately that doesn't usually end well. When we were moving out here from east coast, soon as we crossed state line into NM we stopped so I could stick my feet on the ground 😁👣

Barefoot is my lifestyle, I have Lupus and EBA (both are autoimmune diseases) and have skin issues, anything rubbing my skin (in my entire body not just feet) will rip & rub my skin off. I have had to go 100% totally barefoot for over 5 years. The bottom of my feet now are so tough, I can pretty much walk on any type surface, from hot summer asphalt to rocks and even most thorns. I do everything & go everywhere barefoot. I go to my doctors, shopping, formal events, church, & sporting events. I even have a doctors statement that I am not to wear shoes. It is a disability for me. I have to wear soft flexible clothing, I can’t even wear jeans. Jeans will rub my skin off like sandpaper. I have to wear soft leggings under my pants. So barefoot it is for me.

Hi Tiras,

Welcome to Permies.

I go barefoot around home and our property and occasionally walking down our gravel road. When I go out, I wear minimal flats. I feel like I'm wasting money buying shoes for my kids because they prefer not to wear them, in cold weather, even snow, gravel, thistles, etc.

We do wear shoes in public places though...

I have to share a "head shaking"  incident. I took my kids to the library. One of them was barely a year old and not even walking independently. We had been sitting quietly reading books in the children's section for a half an hour when a librarian came and told me to put shoes on the baby or we would have to leave. I didn't have shoes for the baby so she made us leave. (The rest of us were wearing shoes.) I still feel upset about it even though it was five years ago. I choose to go barefoot when I can but I understand public places not wanting to get sued if you get injured because you were barefoot in their establishment. But it was a baby! And he was even wearing socks because it was chilly outside but no, it has to be shoes. What if I couldn't afford useless baby shoes? And babies definitely shouldn't even wear shoes!

Almost 2.5 years barefoot now. Walk quite frequently, all year long here in New Hampshire. I love walking on snow barefoot, its one of the softest surfaces you can find...at least the powder snow is. The strange thing I notice is the very strange blisters I seem to get. Just overcoming one which made me sit the past two days off. I had been walking 5-5.25 miles each day for the past 2.5 weeks. I was surprised how well the feet were taking it, compared to this time last year, WOW! WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Last year it wasn't until mid to late summer I could even do 3-4 miles on back to back days. The thought back then of doing 16, 17 , 18 days in a row of 5+ miles each day on pavement, unthinkable. I knew I had been feeling something for several days and I finally took a look last Friday and noticed what appeared to be a dried up blister. I thought I was fighting callous issues but I was wrong. The blister wasn't in the normal location, aka big toe(on the toe itself or right behind the big toe on the foot), instead the blister was on the foot right behind the ring toe/pinky toe(the area right between the two toes on the sole of the foot). I tried to pop the blister but it already dry and now a couple of days there is no recognition of ever being any trouble there.

That has been the one thing I have really noticed as a difference this year, the recovery is MUCH quicker this year, startling so.

I used to use the rule I would walk around 2 miles when temps were 32-40F. Below freezing I would stick to around 1.5 miles. Last winter I broke those rules by such a wide margin it makes my head spin. End of November did an 8 mile walk and temps never made it above freezing. In December I did a 4 mile walk and temps never made it out of the teens. Toward the end of the winter I did a 4-4.5 mile walk, mostly on snow, and temps never made it above freezing. I felt fine on each of the walks.

I will add this bit of education into the mix. Condition the body for how you want the body to behave. If you only want to walk in sunny, warm weather, then do it. If you want to be able to walk in cold weather, than when the temps start falling, keep walking barefoot. Let the feet condition themselves to getting used to being out, being exposed to the colder weather. They will become conditioned to what you give them the opportunity to get conditioned to. To help you overcome your fears of cold weather walking, look at any frostbite chart. You'll come to find as long as the temperature is above 10F your chances of getting frostbite are essentially non-existent. I believe, if I remember correct it takes 30 minutes of exposure with 60 mph winds at 10F to get frostbite. From what I observed with some of the crazy stuff I was doing last winter, I believe it.

I wore custom cowboy boots for over 30 years. The elevated heel gave me Morten’s Neuroma eventually.
I watched a Steven Sinatra video, and asked masseuse friends, who told me “You can’t mess up feet.” I spent months getting them corrected, rather than let a doctor cut me up, mess up my chi, and awareness, to take the feeling away. I spent months an hour or two a night massaging my feet and getting back in touch with them. My feet of course loved the attention. I experimented with barefoot during this time.

Most people’s feet. I hear, spread out some when they switch to barefoot. Mine did. The front of my feet went to something like quadruple E, but the heel stayed the same. With feet now shaped like a duck’s, regular shoes don’t fit. Chuck’s, which I had been using for hiking, are narrow. They squeezed me and I’d pop out the sides in no time.

Meanwhile, I live in a desert. Within a couple of years of cautious walking, I got a toxic cholla needle between my toes mainlined to the nerve. I was laid up for a couple of months. No more barefoot running up and down my desert driveway.

Being barefoot all over takes some getting used to. It takes some awareness.

Yea, I read “Born to Run.” I took off running on an asphalt roadway and shredded my feet like a second degree burn within a block. There is a trick to it, more than that toe heel gait. It’s complex.

So, I stand taller, most of my spine shape issues have been corrected. I have a greater mindful awareness from going barefoot for about ten, or more, years now.

I am barefoot whenever possible. I have moved back into town and have made my yard barefoot friendly.  I’ll put on a pair of cupped heel Tivas to leave home usually. The concrete, asphalt, even dry soil and rock will burn feet here in the summer. I had a 94 year old friend, who couldn’t feel with his feet, over do it barefoot and he was on home healthcare from the 1st degree burns.

I find that walking on flat urban surfaces is hard on feet and the entire walking, standing system. People naturally walk on uneven surfaces.
So, when it is freezing, I’ll wear my gillies. Some scrap leather and shoe string makes these brilliantly designed shoes that have been around for thousands of years now. I add socks. I gets me into formal affairs, teenagers “dig” them. I have a lifetime supply in my garage. The leather soles are great out on a dance floor.

I make my own Huaraches from leather, also.  They take too long to get on and off, so I’ll be naked, or in flipflops most of the time.

I wear the Vibram toe shoes, the old style before those idiotic shoe laces. These are my hiking backpacking shoes. I can’t afford injury out in the isolated wild. Now, living city life, my feet are just not used to those surfaces and I prefer the comfort. They are a minimalist sole.

I love to come home and throw everything off of my body. I move more fluid and naturally healthy, now. My body doesn’t breathe and I feel stifled. I’m barefoot in spite of the above difficulties I have had to deal with. So I’m jus’ sayin’, “ It ain’t always easy; I think that it’s worth it.

I'll ask one rather strange question here.

How do you correct a one sided problem?  Left side versus right side? Everything for me seems to happen on the left foot(hard callouses, blistering, a couple of years ago had three stress fractures while barefoot running(each one on the left foot), etc). It seems my right foot takes to the barefoot walking like nothing but the left one just wants to give me all the trouble. I have not been able to figure out why the heck the left foot wants to give me all of the trouble.