You are going to wreck your feet that way…..
May 06, 2012
This was said to me by someone at the gym after I had finished a run on the treadmill and kicked off my shoes and spent a few laps walking around the track to cool down.
This got my brain working around the issue of barefoot and shod debate. A few thoughts keep coming out to to forefront for me. Before I continue, I would like to re-affirm these are thoughts, and I do not think they are facts, and is based on the current research on the barefoot minimalist movement, my own personal experience and what I have observed in the clinic. At the end of the day, if you are a run with an orthotic and a big cushioned shoe and you are injury free I say continue, it works for you.
1. When did walking and running barefoot become so feared?
2. Many of us wear orthotics or some type of support shoe to help correct our foot deficiencies. Were our feet and legs built so improperly that most of us need these devices to walk or run?
3. The human foot was designed to handle the impact of walking and more so running. The changes observed in a runners gait barefoot vs shod is very different. Why aren’t we trying to enhance the foots natural movement and ability to absorb shock with footwear?
4. There is a place for orthotics, through the injury process, and serious biomechanical foot dysfunction. I do question however that it is a solution to the injury. when we sprain or fracture a ligament we splint it or cast it, much like an orthotic would for the foot. after it is healed does your fractured arm still need the cast for the rest of you life?
5. Why does it feel so good to take your shoes off and stride across a field?
I am not a true barefoot runner, nor do I think I will ever be, but I am running in as minimal a shoe as I can. I have done this now for close to three years now, and am happy to say I have been injury free this time. I will STRESS that this transition took a long time and did not occur overnight, and many of the barefoot or minimalist running injuries have occurred because the transition is way to quick from a traditional running shoe (big heel and structured) to a minimal or barefoot type footwear.
So to answer the person at the the gym no I am not.
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