Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian who trained for and won the 1960 Olympic marathon while barefoot.
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Shaun Daws from Beginning Barefoot.
For millions of years, our ancestors spread around the globe, treading the earth barefoot over all manner of terrain. As we walked and ran, our feet developed an intricate web of nerves, matched only by those in our hands, which allow us to sense the smallest deviations in the ground. They became capable of withstanding fierce heat and blistering cold by altering the flow of blood and fluids found in our soles.
Over the past two thousand years, as we have moved from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one, the importance of using the full advantages of our feet has been forgotten, in exchange for the comfort and ease of wearing padded shoes.
With the resurgence of walking and running as leisure activities, the importance of healthy feet is once again becoming a serious issue. On average, runners today can expect a 30-80% chance of injury, and this rate hasn’t changed since people started wearing running shoes. In contrast, most of the running injuries seen in the West are nearly non-existent in cultures where shoes are not habitually worn, such as Kenya and Ethiopia.
Recently, people around the globe have been rediscovering the benefits of running barefoot. Even Nike, whose shoes kicked off the jogging revolution nearly half a century ago, has started to release shoes that are designed to mimic barefoot running. For the most part, these have taken the form of “barefoot” shoes that promise to allow your feet to work as they were intended, without extra padding and motion control features to add weight and change how your feet contact the ground.
Despite the increase in popularity of barefoot running, it can be quite daunting to try to weed out what the pros, cons, dangers, and benefits are. The more you search online, the more contradicting opinions, facts, and anecdotes you will come across. So, to set the record straight and give you the most important stuff in one place, I’ve created this Barefoot Running FAQ.
1. Why barefoot running?
The barefoot running movement seems to have sprung up almost overnight a couple years ago. It was around this time that a book called Born to Run was published by author Christopher McDougall, who chronicled his search for an injury-free way to run. The book takes the reader on a journey through the Copper Canyon in Mexico, where a tribe of runners called the Tarahumara live and run incredible distances completely barefoot (or in simple sandals).
The publication of the book coincided with a Harvard study by Prof. Dan Lieberman, which showed that people who grow up running without shoes run differently than those of us who run shod. Though the study did not speculate as to whether barefoot running was better or worse than running in shoes, it did demonstrate that making the switch resulted in softer landings and reduced impact force.
The conclusion that many barefoot runners take from all this is that running unshod reduces the chance of injury from impact and repetitive stress. At the moment there have been precious few studies on the effects of running with and without shoes, but the hope is that the anecdotal evidence of the barefoot community will be borne out as more people become available to be included in studies.
2. Doesn’t it hurt?
If you do it wrong, then yes, it will hurt. If you do it right, however, it will probably still hurt a bit, but it will ease off as you get better at it. The reason for this is that when transitioning to barefoot running, even if you’re running in “barefoot” shoes, you’re changing how you run. This means that you’re using muscles that have likely been underused for years. It takes time for your body to get used to the change, and if you rush through this bit, it can take even longer to adjust.
Interestingly, the most common site for pain in new barefooters is not the soles of the feet as would be expected, but in the calves and Achilles tendons.
If you run in shoes, then you likely land heel-first every time you take a step. Heels aren’t meant to absorb the impact of your stride—only the padding of modern shoes allows the heel-first landing—and the shock goes up the leg to the knees and hips. When you transition to barefoot running, you will learn to land on your forefoot, which allows you to use your body’s natural shock absorbers: the arches, Achilles tendons, and lower legs. This transition takes time and as you get used to the new style of running it can be very easy to overdo it and find yourself needing to take a few days off to let your limbs recover.
One of the great things about barefoot running is that it’s unforgiving. The pain that you feel is your body’s way of letting you know that you’re doing something wrong. By listening to the pain, you can adjust your form, and before long, you’ll be running with excellent form, and pain-free. This is why a lot of barefoot running gurus say to start out on rough gravel instead of grass. The more pain you feel at first, the quicker you will learn to adjust, and the less likely you will be to develop bad habits.
3. How do you transition from running with shoes to running barefoot?
When you start using any muscles that have been dormant for a long time, it takes a while for them to get built up. It’s the same as if you’ve been a couch potato for years, then decide to go out for an afternoon of football with the boys. If you overdo it, you’re going to feel it.
You can lessen the amount of discomfort you feel during the transition period by taking several steps to get your body ready for running barefoot:
The 100-Up
An excellent preparatory exercise is called the 100-up, which is an exercise that has been used by track and field coaches for decades.
The exercise itself is simple: Take your shoes off and stand in place. Now lift one leg up to knee height, then place it back down, being sure to gently place it down, forefoot first. Now repeat with the second leg. Start slowly and work your way up to 100 reps (50 each leg). When you can do 100 of these back-to-back, try doing the same exercise, but faster. The point is not to do as many as you can, as fast as you can, but rather to take your time and focus on doing each repetition perfectly. Here’s a video showing how it’s done:
Stretching Your Achilles
If you’re a heel-striker, you will probably find that your Achilles tendons have grown tight from years of underuse, so when you finally get out there and start giving them a workout, you will likely induce micro-tears and even tendonitis. To avoid all this pain and aggravation, it’s important to stretch out your Achilles tendons and calves for a few days or even weeks before you do your first barefoot run. Simply stand with your heels hanging off of a step, and dip your heels down, then back up onto your tip-toes a few times. After a week of this, you should be much more prepared to make the transition to running unshod.
Ease Into It
Start your journey into barefoot running by doing a couple of short walks in bare feet or tacking a couple hundred meters of barefoot running to your usual run. Then slowly increase your mileage. Taking the first few weeks slowly will save you a lot of discomfort and make the transition process much more bearable.
4. Will my feet become calloused?
Your soles will also take a little time to adjust to being in contact with the ground. You may experience blisters at first, but this is not because your feet aren’t “tough” enough, rather, your form is not perfect yet and you are creating friction between your feet and the ground. As you learn to run with better form, the amount of friction on the feet is greatly reduced, to the point where your feet don’t need to protect themselves from the ground by developing blisters and callouses. If you ever get the chance to meet a seasoned barefoot runner, ask them if you can look at their soles. What you will see may surprise you: on the whole, the feet of barefoot runners are callous-free and tend to have a slightly puffy sole, with lovely, healthy skin that is kept fresh and new from the constant contact with the ground.
5. What about dirt, glass, syringes, infections, etc?
If there’s one thing that stops prospective barefoot runners from taking their first unshod steps, it’s the fear of treading on sharp objects, such as glass and needles. There is a perception that the roads are littered with all manner of foreign objects just waiting to puncture your feet. The truth is that the amount of glass out there is not nearly as high as you’d expect, and what glass there is is often safety glass from car windows, which is unlikely to cut you. By keeping your eyes open and planning your routes to avoid any likely danger spots (such as bars and convenience store parking lots), you will miss the vast majority of what’s out there.
The great thing about running barefoot is that even if you do happen to step on something sharp, your step is so light, and your foot so pliable, that though it may hurt a little, it’s unlikely to break the skin. The thing to remember is that the human foot evolved out there in nature, where there are all manner of sharp rocks, thorns, and sticks, so the debris found on city streets should not pose a significant problem.
6. Isn’t pavement too hard for bare feet?
Running in nature isn’t the lovely, springy experience that most people think it is. Trails can be incredibly hard, with all sorts of debris strewn about. In contrast, city streets are lovely highways that allow you to run farther and faster than you ever could in the woods.
Your feet are built to handle pretty much anything, and even in a city, the sensations underfoot are many and varied. As you start running barefoot, you will notice how many different types of terrain even a city block can include: pavement, grass, gravel, rough asphalt, sand…you name it. Running barefoot will greatly increase your awareness of terrain and you’ll never look at the road outside your house the same way again.
By learning to use your body’s built-in shock absorbers, you’ll find that even the hardest or roughest surfaces can be managed with ease. When you leave your shoes at home, you are leaving behind an inch or so of padding, but you’re regaining the use of your body’s natural springs which more than makes up for it.
7. Should I get a pair of those feet-gloves?
Minimalist, or “barefoot” shoes are getting more and more popular every day it seems. Like regular shoes, they now come in a huge range of colors, shapes, and styles, and choosing the right pair can be daunting.
The best way to select a pair is to first try running without shoes at all. Give it a go, and see how you like it. You may decide not to buy a pair, in which case, you can spend the $100+ on something else. If you still want shoes at that point, then at least you have a basic understanding of how your feet should move and feel.
The best minimal shoes are those that most closely mimic the function of the foot. They may or may not have toes, but they should have very thin soles, be very lightweight (ideally less than 5oz), and not require socks. It’s highly recommended that you try them out in-store and not just take a chance online, as many of these shoes will fit differently from regular running shoes, especially as most minimals don’t require socks. This will also give you a chance to talk to a (hopefully) experienced salesperson who can ensure you have the correct fit.
8. How far can you run in bare feet?
How far and fast you can run barefoot is largely dependent on how much running you do. For a first-time barefooter, you may only be able to manage a couple hundred meters, but there are plenty of experienced barefoot runners, such as Ken Saxton, who have run full marathons at fast paces without any trouble at all.
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Shaun Daws has been an AoM reader since the beginning and has been closely involved in the annual Movember effort. He runs BeginningBarefoot.com, a site dedicated to helping people to transition into barefoot running safely and enjoyably. Follow him on Twitter or visit the BeginningBarefoot Facebook page.
