Barefoot Running

[GLC1968]

I'm curious as to the arches of the majority of the women posting here who wear the VFF.
Also, I feel discouraged when I go barefoot outside, because it really is painful. I feel like I'm encouraging my feet to be Pre-diabetic! (normal glucose)
I will keep reading the posts to see everyone's results. And, I will suck it up outside in the yard and force myself to walk on gravel, etc.

I don't have VFF's yet, but I'm thinking about ordering a pair. I am starting out truly barefoot and if I have to, I'll run on the treadmill for the first few short runs (right now, I'm only being barefoot and doing as many chores and gardening that way that I can). I have very, very flat feet.

[Biciclista]

I guess I have Morton's foot. Never been diagnosed but my second toe is the tallest on one foot but not the other. Never thought of it as a problem either!
I have a medium to high arch.

[OakLeaf]

Apparently the toe can be longer even though the second metatarsal is shorter than the first. When you scrunch your toes so that the heads of the foot bones stick out, is the second one still longer? Do you have trouble getting the pad of your foot, behind your big toe, on the ground without pronating your ankles?

Apparently it's a very common variation, but it causes all sorts of problems.

[Biciclista]

You're referring to lifting the toes into the air? yeah, the balls of my feet can sit on the ground with my toes sticking up in the air without pronating.
(I think I understand what you are saying?)

[OakLeaf]

no... I think it's easier if I explain what happens with my feet.

The "four corners of my feet" that naturally contact the ground are the two corners of my heel, the head of my fifth metatarsal, and the head of my SECOND metatarsal, not the first. Because the big toe is so important for balance, my ankle rolls inward to get the big toe onto the ground. If I place my ankles in neutral, then the pad of my first metatarsal is not bearing weight.

There's the problem. It's not just "overpronation" per se, it's all the imbalances in the calf and foot muscles that my body does to try to compensate.

I think what I might try (street shoes first) is ditching the orthotics and only padding the head of the first metatarsal, as the trigger point book suggests. That should help strengthen my feet because I'd be using my muscles, not arch supports, to support my arches; but I'd be using the muscles that ought to be supporting them, not trying to pull them sideways with the peroneus, etc.