more barefoot

[sarahspins]

Agreed, that is like the best quote ever

[tribogota]

Loved the book, love the blog, have been running 2 days a week barefoot!

[OakLeaf]

And more from the LAT.

The more time I spend with my first metatarsals padded, the more excited I am about it, and the better my whole body feels... and the angrier I get with every professional who's put me in arch supports, starting with the orthopod my parents took me to when I was 7 years old (I don't even remember why, but I sure remember the ugly and shaming orthopedic shoes). And I'm not much more impressed with running and Yoga instructors who've blithely recommended I go barefoot without checking my feet for this apparently very common pathology. It seems all I've needed all my life was two freakin' pieces of neoprene.

I'm still experimenting with shape, thickness and placement, but I can't wait to get it sorted and get 'em inside a pair of VFFs!

[Biciclista]

wow, Oakleaf! here's a quote from that LATimes article:

"Injuries decimate runners. Studies indicate that about half of all runners are injured every year. The London-based Sports Injury Bulletin puts it at 60% to 65%. The cause? "The heel strike," says Santa Monica physical therapist Robert Forster, who provides videotaped running-form analysis at his training facility, Phase IV. "During running, you land with an impact of five times your body weight. When you land on your heel, the shock goes right into your joints. To lessen the shock, you have to land 'softer' -- and that means on your forefoot or midfoot with a bent leg, not on your heel with a straighter leg."

[zia]

Thanks for sharing. This fascinates me. I sooo want to run barefoot, but every time I try, no matter how brief the distance and how perfect my stride, something goes wrong. I step on a camouflaged rock and bruise my foot (just days before a race). I land funny and **something** begins to ache in the ball of my foot...for weeks. For now, I'm devotedly practicing POSE technique, which has helped tremendously. Maybe someday I'll ditch my orthotics, then buy a pair of VFFs. For now, I keep hunting for tidbits that will eliminate my last traces of skepticism.

[Biciclista]

I wear Nike free shoes, which really don't give much support. Whenever I plan on a long walk (4 miles) invariably I find something hurting in one of my feet when I start. "Oh no, I'm going lame!" I just keep walking and every single time it's happened, it's also gone away. When I get home, I am tired, but the muscles in my feet are not unhappy.

I would LOVE to go barefoot but the citizens of my corner of the universe are just too happy to throw glass out onto the streets and sidewalks. It's so bad that I routinely have to clean up glass just so I can ride my bike home.

[OakLeaf]

After NbNW linked to the latest NYT piece over in the Morton's Foot thread, I went to bed thinking about all this, and I realized that if it were any body part other than feet, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Ankle braces, knee braces, neck braces, arm slings, wrist splints - all of these severely limit range of motion, cause abnormal motion patterns and cause muscles to atrophy, and tendons and fascia to tighten.

All of them can be extremely valuable in recovering from an acute injury.

A small minority of people may need to wear these assistive devices long-term, either because of a congenital defect or an injury that doesn't heal completely.

But if they started outfitting every child with AFOs and ACL/PCL braces as soon as they were old enough to walk, everyone would agree that's crazy.

Why should it be any different with feet?