Barefoot Running

[KnottedYet]

... continued

Training flats (VFF, Newtons, etc) are the stool, standard modern running shoes are the ergonomic chair.

If you develop bad posture habits, there are modern shoes that will compensate for your bad habits and you can continue running. But bad habits often creep back up on people.

If you can fix your habits voluntarily and monitor yourself, running in training flats is a good way to correct yourself. The training flats won't hide your bad habits from you, you have to face them and deal with them.

Perhaps folks who could have voluntarily corrected themselves were all put into highly structured modern shoes. The shoes hid the problem, but the bad habit got worse and the posture got sloppier. What they needed to do was face the bad habit and fix it. (sit on the stool instead of the ergonomic chair). These are the folks who feel fabulous in training flats (VFF, Newtons, etc.).

But some folks really need the modern shoes. They can't correct themselves, for what ever reason. I wouldn't take their modern shoes away, but I'd work hard to figure out what was going on.

Now, if someone who feels great in training flats puts on a pair of modern shoes, are they being naughty? Heck no! No more than someone who has great posture is naughty for sitting in an ergonomic chair. It's not laziness, either. It's just a tool, not a moral judgement.