View Full Version : "Feet Hurt? Stop Wearing Shoes"
Rain Man
04-22-2008, 14:28
This guy advocates going barefoot. Says shoes are "a classic self-perpetuating system."
National Public Radio article (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89830802)
"It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the foot, and humans have been wrecking that perfection with every step since they first donned shoes, New York magazine's Adam Sternbergh says." ...
"The human foot works pretty well on its own, Sternbergh says, and it doesn't need a lifetime of help from shoes. He explains the basic illogic of footwear by comparing the concept to a perpetual cast. "Imagine if someone put a cast on your arm when you were 3 years old and you never took it off," he says. "Your arm would stop working. That's kind of what's happened with our feet."
"Sternbergh cites a 1940s study of barefoot rickshaw drivers in India. Scientists found that the drivers had unusually healthy feet. Sternbergh says subsequent evidence supports the conclusion that feet don't need shoes." ...
"He may still wear shoes, but Sternbergh has switched to a model from England called the Vivo Barefoot from the Clark shoe family. Galahad Clark, son of the inventor of the Wallabee — a particularly successful, if traditional, shoe — helped develop the Vivo Barefoot. Sternbergh says the shoe is basically a slipper with a Kevlar sole, to prevent puncturing." ...
""You'll find that your walk starts to change," Sternbergh says. "You land on your heel, but it's a much softer landing. ... A traditional shoe with a lot of cushioning is designed to allow you to walk with the bad habits that you have because you've been wearing shoes all your life." ...
More at the link above and at the link in the following post too.
Rain:sunMan
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Rain Man
04-22-2008, 14:40
The article that prompted the prior article in my prior post just now.
By Adam Sternbergh
Published Apr 21, 2008
New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/)
"Walking is easy. It’s so easy that no one ever has to teach you how to do it. It’s so easy, in fact, that we often pair it with other easy activities—talking, chewing gum—and suggest that if you can’t do both simultaneously, you’re some sort of insensate clod. So you probably think you’ve got this walking thing pretty much nailed. As you stroll around the city, worrying about the economy, or the environment, or your next month’s rent, you might assume that the one thing you don’t need to worry about is the way in which you’re strolling around the city.
"Well, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you: You walk wrong.
"Look, it’s not your fault. It’s your shoes. Shoes are bad. I don’t just mean stiletto heels, or cowboy boots, or tottering espadrilles, or any of the other fairly obvious foot-torture devices into which we wincingly jam our feet. I mean all shoes. Shoes hurt your feet. They change how you walk. In fact, your feet—your poor, tender, abused, ignored, maligned, misunderstood feet—are getting trounced in a war that’s been raging for roughly a thousand years: the battle of shoes versus feet.
"Last year, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled “Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?” in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European), comparing their feet to one another’s, as well as to the feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet. Among the modern subjects, the Zulu population, which often goes barefoot, had the healthiest feet while the Europeans—i.e., the habitual shoe-wearers—had the unhealthiest." ...
<huge snip>
"Barefoot walking is, in its mechanics, very similar to barefoot running. The idea is to eliminate the hard-heel strike and employ something closer to a mid-strike: landing softly on the heel but rolling immediately through the outside of your foot, then across the ball and pushing off with the toes, with a kind of figure-eight movement though the foot. There’s a more exaggerated version of this style of walking known as “fox-walking,” which is closer to tiptoeing and which has caught on with a small group of naturalists and barefoot hikers." ...
<another huge snip>
"My new Vivo Barefoots aren’t perfect—they’re more or less useless in rain or snow, and they make me look like I’m off to dance in The Nutcracker. But when I don’t wear them now, I kind of miss them. Not because they’re supposedly making my feet healthier, but because they truly make walking more fun. It’s like driving a stick shift after years at the wheel of an automatic—you suddenly feel in control of an intricate machine, rather than coasting on cruise control. Now I better understand what Walt Whitman meant when he wrote (and I hate to quote another Transcendentalist, but they were serious walking enthusiasts): “The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections.” ...
Much, much more at the article linked above.
Rain:sunMan
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Maybe that's why Earl Scheaffer knocked the heels off his boots.
dessertrat
04-22-2008, 15:26
Earl knocked the heels off because that's what the indians did, to approximate moccasins. I guess it worked for him.
Earl knocked the heels off because that's what the indians did, to approximate moccasins. I guess it worked for him.
Probably why the Indians did it too. :-?
I think if you start young enough and keep your body weight down, then maybe.
I do think it is a good idea to hike barefoot for a km or so now and then.
Pine needles and spruce gum and dirt can be a nice cure for blistered feet.
take-a-knee
04-22-2008, 16:26
This guy advocates going barefoot. Says shoes are "a classic self-perpetuating system."
National Public Radio article (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89830802)
"It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the foot, and humans have been wrecking that perfection with every step since they first donned shoes, New York magazine's Adam Sternbergh says." ...
"The human foot works pretty well on its own, Sternbergh says, and it doesn't need a lifetime of help from shoes. He explains the basic illogic of footwear by comparing the concept to a perpetual cast. "Imagine if someone put a cast on your arm when you were 3 years old and you never took it off," he says. "Your arm would stop working. That's kind of what's happened with our feet."
"Sternbergh cites a 1940s study of barefoot rickshaw drivers in India. Scientists found that the drivers had unusually healthy feet. Sternbergh says subsequent evidence supports the conclusion that feet don't need shoes." ...
"He may still wear shoes, but Sternbergh has switched to a model from England called the Vivo Barefoot from the Clark shoe family. Galahad Clark, son of the inventor of the Wallabee — a particularly successful, if traditional, shoe — helped develop the Vivo Barefoot. Sternbergh says the shoe is basically a slipper with a Kevlar sole, to prevent puncturing." ...
""You'll find that your walk starts to change," Sternbergh says. "You land on your heel, but it's a much softer landing. ... A traditional shoe with a lot of cushioning is designed to allow you to walk with the bad habits that you have because you've been wearing shoes all your life." ...
More at the link above and at the link in the following post too.
Rain:sunMan
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Yeah, right, enjoy the hookworms and various shistosomes that will colonize your body. This is along the same line as, "Dan'l Boone didn't treat his water, so why should I".
Check out those vivo barefoot shoes. I know like four people that wear them on a regular basis. Granted we're college students and can get away with it...
in any case I am recommending them as a proxy of several others and intend to buy a pair myself eventually.
Bootstrap
04-22-2008, 18:09
Yeah, right, enjoy the hookworms and various shistosomes that will colonize your politically-correct, brain-dead body. This is along the same line as, "Dan'l Boone didn't treat his water, so why should I".
You know, I grew up pretty much barefoot, spending large amounts of my youth in the woods. People warned me about hookworm, but it never hit.
I wonder how much of a risk this really is.
Jonathan
smokymtnsteve
04-22-2008, 19:04
my granny didn't even own a pair of shoes till she wuz a grown and married woman,,,we always had trouble getting her to wear shoes, she would even hike in the smoky mtns barefooted.
fiddlehead
04-22-2008, 22:07
I know i much prefer my daily jog to be done barefoot on the beach rather than putting my running shoes on and hitting the roads. Problem is there's not much hill training at the beach.
And the hash house harriers around here run through too many pineapple fields to even consider it.
but of course the AT has been done that way. Those girls were having a good time when i saw them.
On the PCT, i tried to walk at least part of everyday barefoot. It can be done in that sand a lot easier than those pa rocks.
Good article. Thanks Rainman.
Nightwalker
04-22-2008, 23:50
"Dan'l Boone didn't treat his water, so why should I".
My thoughts exactly. That, and I hate to mess up perfectly good water!
dessertrat
04-23-2008, 04:50
One should note that even primitive peoples often wore mocasins or sandals. They knew about hazards to the feet then, just as we know of them now.
Shiraz-mataz
04-23-2008, 06:34
Excellent posts from the OP - thanks for the links! It's always nice to see this subject come up since hiking barefoot is something I love to do. The analogy of wearing a cast all your life is very realistic because shoes will, by design, protect the foot from overt damage such as most bumps, scrapes and punctures. But when the wearing of shoes becomes a cultural norm and is expected 100% of ones waking hours, over time your feet will become weak and fail in ways that shoes can only exacerbate. People often mention hook worm as a reason for not hiking barefoot but the facts are hookworm is not as prevalent as one would think (can you recall anyone who has ever had it?). As for parasites and other biological nasties I'm more afraid of real threats like giardia which I had in 1986 and will NEVER forget!
I am required to wear shoes at work but toss them in the closet the second I'm home. And from early April through about Halloween, I rarely wear them outside either. It takes no time at all for the soles to toughen and ones gait to adjust. When hiking I do carry sandals because to me, they are tools in the same way one would view a knife or a lighter, and sometimes the trail requires a little extra protection.
It takes no time at all for the soles to toughen and ones gait to adjust.
I noticed the same thing when I started running barefoot on occasion. Even running on asphalt became fairly comfortable after a few minutes and felt even better the next time I went out. I plan to do a bit of barefoot hiking this summer, we'll see how that goes.
AlwaysHiking
04-23-2008, 09:16
I wore moccasins for a very long time. I loved them, but they were a bit slippery for hiking in. Wore them everywhere else though. Just a very, very thin piece of foam glued on the inside was all the cushion they offered. I could stand all day in them, walk for miles and miles, and never had any discomfort issues. My flat arches actually improved on their own wearing those. I didn't replace them after the last pair wore out b/c they did wear out so quickly, but I may try these Vivo Barefoot shoes though.
tlbj6142
04-23-2008, 09:29
One should note that even primitive peoples often wore mocasins or sandals. They knew about hazards to the feet then, just as we know of them now.Mind you moccasins and sandals are no where near as restrictive as normal "shoes". They just provide some layer of protection. Though, sandals definately affect your natural gait, wouldn't think moccasins would.
I once enjoyed being barefoot outside. I them discovered goat heads in the West.
Maybe I'll try it again.
Interesting, but certainly not new. I know of a few "barefooters" in the running community. Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympics marathon running without shoes. I love the feeling of beach sand on my toes and am usually barefoot in the house.
Still, there's a reason why the shoe industry is a booming million dollar+ cash cow. Hiking shoes/boots are great and serve their purpose, but nothing will ever take the place of my Steve Maddens. Keep your Fred Flintstone feet, I know Wilma and Betty would have gone shoe-shopping. :)
KirkMcquest
04-23-2008, 10:12
There are a couple of girls that have attempted the a.t barefoot. I think they call themselves the 'barefoot sisters'. From what I remember they did'nt finish due to injury, whether or not the barefeet were a factor I don't know.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
04-23-2008, 20:35
Didn't Tyvek hike barefoot last year?
fiddlehead
04-23-2008, 22:27
I believe the "barefoot sisters" not only finished (barefoot) but then they yo yo'd.
They wore shoes on the SOBO as it was turning to winter and getting too cold. Perhaps they didn't finish that leg but they did complete the AT barefoot from what i remember.
i go barefoot as often as possible around the house and in the yard. i believe that going w/o shoes strengthens all the little stabilizers and tendons in the ankle that are otherwise not working when shoes are one. this helps prevents ankle injuries on teh trail. that said, i wouldn't be caught barefoot in the woods for a second
88BlueGT
04-24-2008, 01:30
After reading this thread, for the first time in my life I think I walked around outside today (doing stuff in the backyard) barefoot. Honestly, it felt great until I kicked a soccer ball and stubbed my toe :D I put sadals on shortly after lol.
Dirtygaiters
04-27-2008, 20:33
Did anyone else notice that the article is effectively an advertizement for Vivo Barefoot shoes??? These shoes are not cheap, by the way.
fiddlehead
04-27-2008, 20:46
That's funny! an ad for barefoot shoes. what are they thinking?
I go barefoot at home in the house and in the yard, and many times when camping. But I have shoes on everyplace else.
This is not a big issue one way or the other.
Other then Woman should continue to wear high heals. Even more so if they are hot-looking woman….
sasquatch2014
04-27-2008, 22:20
I think that Tyvek had been pretty much barefoot for at least the past 20 years or so that is part of the way that his drawing attention to his cause got started.
I was actually thinking a little while ago about making a pair of Tire sandals. I had a pair that I got once in Kenya they worked great. I think they are a bit heavy for what i would want to bring as camp shoes but who knows.
I have also thought that I need to go barefoot more to try and tough the feet it may help with blisters when I do don my boots. What do i have to loose. My kids are almost barefoot as much as possible and definitely all summer. I recall them doing this in Wyoming and we had lots of cactus and other types of thorns out there but they never seemed to mind.
88BlueGT
04-28-2008, 21:33
I go barefoot at home in the house and in the yard, and many times when camping. But I have shoes on everyplace else.
This is not a big issue one way or the other.
Other then Woman should continue to wear high heals. Even more so if they are hot-looking woman….
Agreed.... I don't think anyone will argue there :D